Scientists grow plants in lunar dirt. Next stop, the moon!

A researcher places a thale cress plant grown during a lunar soil experiment in a vial for genetic analysis, at a lab in Gainesville, Florida, the United States. Photo: AP

For the first time, scientists have grown plants in soil from the moon collected by Nasa’s Apollo astronauts.

Researchers had no idea if anything would sprout in the harsh moon dirt and wanted to see if it could be used to grow food by the next generation of lunar explorers. The results stunned them.