--- title: "Netizens Terrified of What NASA Grew on the Space Station: A Potato" description: "An innocent but gnarly looking potato grown by a NASA astronaut on the ISS became an unexpected source of terror for netizens." date: "2026-03-28" modified: "2026-03-28" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/future-society/terrified-nasa-potato" categories: - "Future Society" --- # Netizens Terrified of What NASA Grew on the Space Station: A Potato ![A close-up of a sprouting purple potato with small purple shoots emerging from its surface. The background is blurred, highlighting the potato.]() *Dan Pettit via X / NASA* Extraterrestrial horrors are growing on the International Space Station — or so aghast netizens seemed to believe. Over the weekend, NASA astronaut Don Pettit shared an image of an egg-shaped object floating in the orbital outpost. Bursting through its surface were purple, tentacular protrusions, like a sign of life that some man-eating alien was incubating inside. A patch of perfectly white cilia grew elsewhere on its surface. This mystifying object? A spud like any you'd find in your pantry. "Spudnik-1, an orbiting potato on @Space\_Station!" Pettit cheerily captioned the shot. https://twitter.com/astro_Pettit/status/2035090957570281813 Pettit's impressive space gardening achievement was met with awe and praise — but also grossed-out reactions to the vegetable's unsettling appearance, perhaps recalling the ovomorph eggs from the "Alien" films, or reflecting a populace unfamiliar with the produce section. "Kill it with fire!!!" one user [replied]() on X. "I've seen this movie before," a Redditor [wrote](). "That's an alien egg." "I genuinely thought this was some kind of egg hatching," another X user [said](). The "tentacles," of course, are simply the potato sprouting — which, to be fair, can sometimes look [a little freaky](), as anyone who has left some sitting in their pantry for too long [can attest](). (Pettit [shared]() that absent gravity, the roots "will grow in all directions," sending additional shudders among the potato paranoid.) But what about the white cilia? That was a velcro hook Pettit stuck on to keep them from floating away in his terrarium. A clever solution. The potato's current fate is unknown, but the photo was from Pettit's last mission on the ISS, Expedition 72, which took place between September 2024 and April 2025. He explained that he worked on the space garden in his spare time, extolling the potato's suitability for growing in off-world environments. Some [research]() has suggested that potatoes could even be grown in lunar soil. "Potatoes are one of the most efficient plants based on edible nutrition to total plant mass (including roots)," he wrote. "Recognized by Andy Weir in his book/movie 'The Martian,' potatoes will have a place in future exploration of space. So I thought it good to get started now!" **More on space:** [*Why Is Everyone Losing Their Minds Over This Little Old Mars Pyramid?*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()