Scientists have identified a new microbe in two geographically distant spacecraft assembly clean rooms. The bacteria is dubbed Tersicoccus phoenicis, since it was first found in the assembly clean room of the Mars Phoenix Lander.

Spacecraft are assembled in clean rooms to prevent microorganisms from accidentally hitching a ride to space on missions. However, microbes are so prevalent on Earth that it is impossible to get a clean room 100% microbe-free.

The microbes that do survive attempts to sterilize a clean room tend to be very hardy. They can live with very low nutrients and are able to tolerate heavy cleaning processes that expose them to stresses such as powerful chemicals and strong ultraviolet radiation. This is why microbiologists survey clean rooms in order to identify the organisms that are present.

There are many reasons that scientists try to prevent microbes from attaching to spacecraft that are heading out into the Solar System. Microbes from Earth that travel to space could contaminate other planets like Mars. Earth microbes could also interfere with experiments that are designed to detect signs of past or present life on other planets.

Tersicoccus phoenicis is not only a new species, but it’s also an entirely new genus (the next level up in the scientific system for classifying life on Earth). It was found in a clean room at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The microbe was then spotted in a second location -2500 miles away – at the European Space Agency’s facilities in Kourou, French Guiana. So far, these are the only two locations on Earth where Tersicoccus phoenicis is known to thrive.