The mystery of a tomato lost in space has finally been solved.
Astronauts on the International Space Station recently found a red dwarf tomato that went missing eight months ago.
Perhaps no one is more relieved by the discovery than NASA astronaut and Expedition 68 Flight Engineer Frank Rubio, who was initially blamed for the tomato's disappearance.
The tomatoes were grown inside the space station's Vegetable Production System, known as Veggie, as part of a space botany study. They were grown without soil using hydroponic and aeroponic nourishing techniques to demonstrate space agricultural methods to sustain crews on long term space flights farther away from Earth where resupply missions become impossible, according to NASA. The goal of the VEG-05 experiment was to study crop growth, nutrient composition, microbial food safety, flavor, and psychological benefits for the crew onboard the space station while examining how light quality affects these key factors.
When the tomatoes were harvested in March, each astronaut on the ISS was given a sample -- but Rubio's share, which was stored in a plastic sandwich bag, "floated away" and vanished, Space.com reported. The other astronauts accused him of eating it.
Rubio joked about the missing tomato during a September livestream from the ISS, celebrating his reluctant achievement of becoming the first American to spend more than a year in space on a single mission (issues with his return spacecraft extended his six-month mission to over a year).
"I did not eat the tomato, and I wish I had at this point because I think everybody thinks I did," Rubio joked. "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."
But it didn't take years -- only eight months. During a livestream Wednesday celebrating the space station's 25th anniversary, NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli cleared Rubio's name when she admitted the tomato was finally located.
"We might have found something that someone had been looking for for quite awhile," Moghbeli said with a smile. "Our good friend Frank Rubio, who headed home, has been blamed for quite awhile for eating the tomato. But we can exonerate him. We found the tomato."