Purple Lifeform Photographed Sprouting 'Tentacles' on The ISS

A grotesque purple lifeform was photographed sprouting 'tentacles' on the International Space Station (ISS), causing a stir online.

Last week, NASA astronaut Don Pettit shared a photo of the alien-like entity floating in the confines of the craft.

"Looks like a mimic hatching out of an egg 😳" wrote one user on X, referring to the extraterrestrial monsters in the Alien movie sequels.

"Kill it with fire!!!" another user chimed in.

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A post shared by Don Pettit (@astro_pettit)

The otherworldly appearance of this organism is, however, deceiving.

In reality, it is just a purple potato.

The 'tentacles' are actually sprouts, or 'eyes', seeking out nearby soil to plant themselves in. And that little patch of white? Only a bit of Velcro to keep the potato from floating out of its terrarium.

The space spud, nicknamed Spudnik-1, represents the fruits of Pettit's labor, working on his hobby space garden in his off-duty time on board the ISS.

Pettit is NASA's oldest active astronaut, and while on his last, long-duration mission in 2024 and 2025, he decided to grow potatoes.

In recent posts on Instagram, X, and Reddit, Pettit shared photos of his produce.

"Holy *%!" reads the top comment on Reddit. "You're an actual astronaut posting in r/gardening!!"

"Some hobbies have good overlap with space exploration!" replied Pettit.

"Bro is an astronaut casually posting his space potatoes as if everyone else isn't gardening on an actual planet," another user joked.

In comments, Pettit explains further that he grew the potatoes hydroponically, meaning they were cultivated not in soil but in nutrient-rich water.

On prior ISS missions, Pettit says he has also grown peanuts, zucchini, broccoli, sunflowers, and more. He even grew basil and tomato seedlings once – using earplugs.

Years ago, Pettit ran a NASA blog called Diary of a Space Zucchini, about his time as a space gardener on the ISS.

"There's nothing like the smell of living green in this forest of engineered machinery," he apparently wrote on the now-removed blog.

Pettit joins a long line of astronauts interested in growing plants in space, especially potatoes.

Just as the book-turned-movie The Martian recognized, potatoes may be useful for space travel, as they provide great nutritional value relative to their mass.

The first potatoes were grown in space way back in 1995, and the produce was surprisingly similar to Earthly forms, even after so much time in orbit.

Potatoes grown in space and on the ground. (Raymond Wheeler, Advances in Potato Chemistry and Technology, 2009)

Unlike on Earth, however, potatoes and other plants take longer to mature in microgravity.

Related: For The First Time, Scientists Have Grown Plants in Moon Dirt. It Didn't Go Great

"The slow growth could be from [the] atmosphere, hydroponics, microgravity, etc. I have not figured it out yet, but it is probably stress-induced," Pettit explains on r/gardening.

"I noticed no effect on the potatoes from radiation."

Now if only someone had invented a deep fryer for the ISS…