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ISS: Astronauts find tomato that was lost in space for 8 months
Image source, Getty Images
Have you ever been accused of something by your friends and just not been able to prove it wasn't true?
Well one Nasa astronaut was stuck in that situation for eight months, but has now finally had his name cleared!
Frank Rubio was jokingly accused by his crew of eating a special tomato that was grown on the International Space Station (ISS), after it went missing.
However, one of his fellow astronauts, Jasmin Moghbeli, has now revealed the lost tomato has been found!
What happened to the missing tomato on the ISS?
Image source, Koichi Wakata/Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
Astronauts have been growing tomatoes on-board the ISS as part of studies into growing crops in space.
The 2.5cm wide Red Robin dwarf tomato was a part of the final harvest for the Veg-05 experiment that Rubio himself had helped grow.
The astronauts were not allowed to eat their harvest, due to concerns about it possibly being contaminated with fungus.
Each ISS astronaut received samples of the tomatoes after the harvest on 29 March, but Rubio's share floated away.
In September, Frank said: "I spent so many hours looking for that thing. I'm sure the desiccated tomato will show up at some point and vindicate me, years in the future."
The whereabouts of the missing tiny tomato remained a mystery for months, and the minor incident turned into a running joke for Rubio and the crew.
Image source, NASA
To be fair to Frank, the ISS is larger than a six-bedroom house, and, in microgravity - which is the condition in space when people or objects appear to be weightless - things can easily float away to unexpected corners, so there are plenty of places for a tomato to hide.
And, Frank certainly knows his way around the ISS, he holds the record for the longest time spent in space by a US astronaut.
He returned to Earth in September after spending a whopping 371 days in space.
Upon his safe return, Frank was asked about the lost tomato, revealing he couldn't track it down despite spending "18 to 20 hours of my own time looking for that".
However, during a livestream event this week, to celebrate the ISS' 25th anniversary, Nasa astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli revealed: "Our good friend Frank Rubio, who headed home [already], has been blamed for quite a while for eating the tomato. But we can exonerate him. We found the tomato."
Now, the mystery of the missing space tomato can finally be put to rest!