A biology experiment on board China’s recent Moon lander has sprouted tiny cotton plants, marking the first time that humans have grown plants on the lunar surface, Xinhua reports. Though people have grown flowers and other plants in Earth orbit before, such experiments had never been attempted on other planetary bodies besides Earth.
The news comes nearly two weeks after China’s Chang’e-4 mission became the first human-made vehicle to land softly on the far side of the Moon. Chang’e-4, which consists of a lunar lander and rover, is carrying multiple experiments and technologies to study the Moon’s terrain. The lander also has a 6.6-pound (3-kilogram) canister that contains six different biological species that are intended to germinate...