… in its own clean room. The one used for building spacecraft.
A new genus and species of bactreia “capable of living in a harsh, nutrient-poor environment”:
These rooms are kept extremely dry, are cleaned with chemicals including bleach and have negative air pressure to keep out any contaminants.
Ultraviolet light and heat treatments are also used to kill off any life on objects that go in and workers are required to wear special suits.
However, Nasa has revealed that it has discovered a hardy new species of microbe that has is able to survive in this highly inhospitable environment.
The reason NASA adopts such rigorous procedures, of course, is to prevent mistaking a life form that hitched a ride for an extraterrestrial one.
The reason Tersicoccus was never noticed elsewhere is all the other types of bacteria in a normal environment. THe environment had to be something only Tersicoccus would survive.