When living in a closed, isolated environment, bacteria and viruses can wreak havoc in a really short time - so it's no wonder that their presence on the ISS immediately made scientists anxious.

The International Space Station certainly qualifies as an isolated environment, so when a few bacteria were found in the water dispenser in its area, countermeasures were immediately taken, because the scientists immediately knew what the risk could be. Bacteria found in the water system were similar to those causing infections, but only in rare cases. Fears quickly arose that they could mutate and be more difficult to combat, seriously threatening the crew.

Fortunately, a new study published in PLOS ONE explains that this time nothing will happen. Scientists discovered the bacteria a few years ago and prepared samples from them to learn more about them. Knowing how bacteria in space differ from those on Earth is crucial to learning more about their potential harmfulness, especially to ISS residents who are cut off from the world and who will be difficult to treat in the event of illness.

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After careful analysis, it turned out that there is good news - cosmic bacteria from ISS are no more dangerous than their terrestrial counterparts. Of course, the staff of the International Space Station would prefer to live in a place completely free of bacteria, but better than mutated superbugs. What's more, we have recently learned that there are many more bacteria of different types at the station than everyone thought, and researchers are debating whether it is a good or a bad thing, but one thing is certain - it could not be otherwise, because on our bodies naturally, there are so many bacteria that they have to spread to the ISS.

Day after day we learn one more thing about the space and we will all see together how the life will be there in the near future. 

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