The scientific journal Current Biology publishes the first analyses of an experiment on a tardigrade colony. They were transported into the vacuum of circumterrestrial space and exposed to direct ionizing solar radiation. The Russian Foton M3 probe, in collaboration with the ESA, was used. The vacuum has almost no effect on them, while ionizing radiation causes casualties, but a good percentage survive the 10-day experiment. Tardigrades are microscopic animals with segmented bodies and eight legs. They are extremophiles: they can survive extreme environmental conditions, such as temperatures just above absolute zero (0K) or much higher than the boiling point of water, pressures from zero to several times the pressure at the bottom of the ocean, and doses of ionizing radiation several times higher than those that would kill a human. They can survive the vacuum of space. They can go without food for more than 10 years and become dehydrated down to 3% of their water content. They are 0.5 mm long when adult. And they’re a species that dates back 530 million years. They’re found everywhere, from the Himalayas to the ocean trenches, and there are 25,000 of them per liter of water. Earth is the planet of tardigrades…
