This bacterium, never before seen on Earth, was detected on China's Tiangong space station. It has been named Niallia tiangongensis, and it inhabited the cockpit controls on the station, living in microgravity conditions. According to China Central Television, the country's national broadcaster, taikonauts (Chinese astronauts) collected swab samples from the space station in May 2023, which were then frozen and sent back to Earth for study. Niallia tiangongensis exhibits structural and functional variations that mean it is well-adapted to existing in a space station. It is unclear whether the newly discovered microbe evolved on the space station or whether it is part of the vast sea of as yet unidentified microorganisms on Earth.