Water bears' are first animal to survive vacuum of space

space.newscientist.com...
Water bears' are first animal to survive vacuum of space

[Tardigrades, or water bears, are microscopic animals that live in soil and other environments]


Tiny invertebrates called 'water bears' can survive in the vacuum of space, a European Space Agency experiment has shown. They are the first animals known to be able to survive the harsh combination of low pressure and intense radiation found in space.

Water bears, also known as tardigrades, are known for their virtual indestructibility on Earth. The creatures can survive intense pressures, huge doses of radiation, and years of being dried out.

To further test their hardiness, Ingemar Jönsson of Sweden's Kristianstad University and colleagues launched two species of dried-up tardigrades from Kazakhstan in September 2007 aboard ESA's FOTON-M3 mission, which carried a variety of experimental payloads.

After 10 days of exposure to space, the satellite returned to Earth. The tardigrades were retrieved and rehydrated to test how they reacted to the airless conditions in space, as well as ultraviolet radiation from the Sun and charged particles from space called cosmic rays.

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[edit on 8-9-2008 by Jbird]

cool. this means the theory of life "pollenating" the galaxy might have some truth to it. they should send some of those things to mars on a mission and try to rehydrate them when they get there (confined of course so as not to inject life onto mars accidently)

so we can start life on a another planet and become supergods as they evoled

reply to post by snapperski


this is actually the most likely scenario if we were to colonize the galaxy. We would seed ripe planets in their early stages with life from earth it avoids the moral questions of messing with advanced life (plants/animals) on other planets and also avoids problems which may arise such as incompatibilty between earth life and the alien biology.


[edit on 10-9-2008 by yeti101]