Seeds sent into space last year have returned to Earth in a new milestone for joint efforts by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) to develop resilient crops that can help provide sufficient food as the planet heats up.

The arabidopsis and sorghum seeds – chosen because there is already a large bank of scientific data available for comparison – were launched from a Nasa facility in the US state of Virginia on 7 November 2022 and spent around five months at the International Space Station (ISS).

The seeds were released from the ISS in a cargo craft and made a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of Florida last week.