The first plant grown on the Moon has already withered and died, according to scientists who ran the experiment on board China's lunar probe.
The cotton seedling reportedly died on Sunday when the Chang'e 4 lander, located on the far side of the Moon, rotated into darkness and the temperature dropped as low as -170 degrees Celsius.
Unlike Earth, the Moon does not boast an atmosphere to buffer its surface from extreme temperatures.
Professor Xie Gengxin of Chongqing University, who led the design of the space experiment, told Chinese newspaper Inkstone his team had anticipated the plant's short lifespan.
He explained: "Life in the canister would not survive the lunar night".
While astronauts have grown plants on the International Space Station in the past, China's experiment was the first time any have been grown on the Moon.
This posed a challenge for scientists, who were left with some guesswork as to how best to set up their "biosphere" canister, to help the plants cope with the lunar conditions.
Mr Xie said: "We had no such experience before. And we could not simulate the lunar environment, such as microgravity and cosmic radiation, on Earth".
Potato seeds, rapeseeds and fruit fly eggs were also inside the probe's sealed canister.
Scientists had hoped the seeds would grow and form a micro-ecosystem in which the plants would provide oxygen to the fruit flies, which would then produce the carbon dioxide needed for photosynthesis to take place.
Images released on Tuesday by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) showed the cotton seeds sprouting, in what the ruling Communist Party's official mouthpiece, The People's Daily, labelled a "first in human history".
"A cotton seed brought to the moon by China's Chang'e 4 probe has sprouted … marking the completion of humankind's first biological experiment on the moon," it tweeted.
The Chang'e 4 probe, led by the CNSA, successfully performed the first soft landing on the Moon's far side on January 3.
ABC
