Tardigrades: Water bears in space

Originally posted by earthdude
If organisms are that hardy, one could have seeded our planet from a comet or meteor.

No way... I believe a water bear can only survive like 300 degrees F..

a meteor is like.... 40 times hotter?

They were in suspended animation, and had to be rehydrated to bring them back to life and the life they lived after rehydration was not their normal span but since it was observed they were able to reproduce it is deemed a successful survival of exposure to space. Not sure if it was stated in the OP link but water bears can survive years without water and reanimate when exposed again to water much like plant seeds in the Namib Desert that can wait years for a rain and flower and grow as long as the water lasts.

So no, shooting water bears to Mars would be a place void of any hope of reanimation, they also have to breath oxygen to be 'alive'.

The vacuum itself seemed to have little effect on the creatures. But ultraviolet radiation, which can damage cellular material and DNA, did take its toll.

Dried out

In one of the two species tested, 68% of specimens that were shielded from higher-energy radiation from the Sun were revived within 30 minutes of being rehydrated. Many of these tardigrades went on to lay eggs that successfully hatched.

But only a handful of animals survived full exposure to the Sun's UV light, which is more than 1000 times stronger in space than on the Earth's surface.

makes one wonder if there could be bioluminescent life floating around in space much like under our oceans.
under which circumstances they could develop, completely out of our realm of thought as this time.

There are rhinoviruses that can live in disinfectant solution. We are still finding organizms that defy our understanding of where life can exist. Like the bacteria that lives in water above 300F.

reply to post by Alpal


Just recently learned about how incredible Tardigrades are and gained a new respect for these little critters I never even knew existed. Apparently the ATS online spelling "dictionary" doesn't know they exist either since I am getting a spelling error when I type the word Tardigrade. Extremeophiles - Interesting creature and thread topic. Tardigrades rule.