Space-exposed seeds offer rich opportunities

Growing hope: A rice seed that travelled aboard the Chang’e 5 lunar probe sprouting after returning to Earth. — China Daily/ANN

BEIJING: China’s historic 23-day Chang’e 5 mission has not only obtained precious rocks and soil samples from the moon, but also brought back a collection of seeds that travelled the furthest in the nation’s agricultural and forestry histories.Over 30 kinds of seeds, including rice, oats, alfalfa and orchid, were placed inside the multi-module Chang’e 5 spacecraft and orbited around the moon for about 15 days.

Scientists wished to observe what would happen to the seeds after being exposed to a unique environment in lunar orbit and also hoped that they could develop beneficial mutations.