First tomato ever grown in space, lost 8 months ago, found by NASA astronauts

A mystery surrounding a lost space-grown tomato was finally solved. It all started eight months ago when astronaut Frank Rubio lost one of the tomatoes after harvesting a bunch for the first time in space. Other astronauts also jokingly said that maybe Rubio had eaten the tomato. However, during a recent live broadcast by NASA, the truth behind the whole mystery was unveiled.

Turns out, no one had eaten the tomato but it was lost and has now been found. However, the astronauts didn't reveal where the produce was found or its condition.

A video of the live broadcast shows how the astronauts aboard the ISS start giggling when asked if there is something they have lost and are still searching for. One of the astronauts replies by saying, "Well, we might have found something that someone had been looking for quite a while. Our good friend Frank Rubio who headed home has been blamed for quite a while for eating the tomato but we can exonerate him. We found the tomato."

A red robin tomato growing on a vine in the ISS. NASA

_{How did Rubio react to this news?}
Rubio was on the space station for 371 days and set a record for the longest a US astronaut has ever spent in microgravity, reports CNN. While talking about the lost tomato he shared, "Unfortunately — because that's just human nature — a lot of people are like, 'He probably ate the tomato'. And I wanted to find it mostly so I could prove like I did not eat the tomato."

"It probably desiccated to the point where you couldn't tell what it was," he added while explaining about the tomato's condition.