You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
Back in April, a privately funded Israeli spacecraft called Beresheet crashed into the Moon’s surface after attempting a soft landing. On the craft was an unspecified number of Tardigrades, an animal that can survive the vacuum of space and temperatures as high as 150C and as low as almost absolute zero.According to the co-founder of the Arch Mission Foundation, the Tardigrades likely survived the crash and could still be alive.The “water bears” were dehydrated for the voyage before being sent to the moon. Unlike most creatures, Tardigrades don’t die from this process. Instead, the almost millimeter long animal enters into a state called cryptobiosis where they tuck in their head and legs, secrete trehalose which encapsulates the body like a cocoon, and slows their metabolism by 99.9 percent. It’s believed that if the Tardigrades were reintroduced to water, they would come out of their mummified state. [BBC News]