Researchers in Poland have revealed that some lichen species can endure a Mars ... radiation including X-rays and gamma rays) on the Red Planet is a definitive obstacle to life.

During the winter, Svalbard reindeer paw through the snow to get at lichen and plants ... Norwegian University of Life Sciences, sprays a red “X” on each of her flanks so the team won ...

Researchers bombarded lichens with a year's worth of Martian radiation in just 5 hours — and they survived, hinting that the extremophiles could potentially live on the Red Planet.

There was his nose, to begin with. In the first version of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” it glowed “like the eyes of a cat,” and Rudolph’s friends nicknamed him Ruddy because of it.

It also got to a spindly green fungus called lichen, a reindeer's favorite snack. Lichen has no roots system and absorbs nutrients from the air, making it well suited to sponge up all that cesium-137.