Space is a fascinating place to be—with its eerie silence (at least to us, since we can't hear anything), the vast expanse of nothingness, and our Earth visible like a football! However, as we all know, most of us will never have the opportunity to visit space in this lifetime, but that doesn't stop us from admiring its beauty from afar and reading up on all its exciting discoveries. Speaking of life aboard the International Space Station (ISS), here's how Zinnia the flower bloomed in space, a first of its kind.
In 2016, a bright orange Zinnia flower became the first to bloom in space aboard the ISS. The experiment was part of NASA's "Veggie" plant growth experiment, which aimed to study plant growth in microgravity and explore food production in space.
The zinnia flowers were grown in the Veggie facility, a low-cost growth chamber that provides lighting and nutrient supply for plants on the ISS. Astronaut Scott Kelly shared a photograph of the blooming zinnia, marking the first time a flower had ever bloomed in space.
Growing a flower in microgravity did not come without challenges, as managing moisture and mold growth was an issue, but the astronauts were successful in caring for the flowers and making them bloom. The experiment paved the way for future endeavors to explore a self-contained life in space someday.
Read more at Times of India