Can Israeli Tardigrades Survive On The Moon?

Video: Can Israeli Tardigrades Survive On The Moon?

Video: Can Israeli Tardigrades Survive On The Moon?
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Can Israeli Tardigrades Survive On The Moon?
Can Israeli Tardigrades Survive On The Moon?
Anonim
Can Israeli tardigrades survive on the Moon? - tardigrades, tardigrades, Moon, Microorganisms
Can Israeli tardigrades survive on the Moon? - tardigrades, tardigrades, Moon, Microorganisms

On April 11, 2019, the Israeli Bereshit spacecraft attempted to land on the moon, but crashed while landing.

On board the apparatus was the so-called "Lunar Library" - a selection of various scientific instruments for conducting experiments on the lunar surface. And in it is a whole container with thousands tardigrade - microscopic invertebrates. It crashed, like the apparatus itself.

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The length of the tardigrade, which in the West is often called "water bears", is at most one and a half millimeters. They have an oval body with four pairs of large, thick limbs and they move very slowly indeed.

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For scientists, tardigrades are a striking example of endurance, they can "sleep" in suspended animation for a year, and then "resurrect" and behave as usual. In suspended animation, they dry up (almost all the water leaves the body) and can endure the most incredible overloads.

In addition, tardigrades can live peacefully for 30 years at a temperature of minus 20 degrees Celsius, live normally for 20 months in liquid oxygen, withstand immersion in liquid helium cooled to −271 ° С, and can also withstand heat up to + 60-65 ° for 10 hours C and an hour at +100 ° C.

In general, tardigrades are incredible creatures and that is why Israel made them passengers of its apparatus. But the device crashed and some often tardigrade certainly survived and is now on the moon.

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And scientists are now asking questions, can tardigrades survive under the conditions of the moon in such an unexpected experiment, and how long will they live there? Experts have not yet given any unequivocal answers to these questions.

Some Internet users are already accusing Israel of "littering" the moon with biological organisms that are extremely tenacious and even supposedly can affect the atmosphere of the moon. And that tardigrades from the Moon can travel to deep space, and if they get somewhere on a distant planet, then … what the hell is not kidding, what if they become the cause of life on it?

True, the conditions of the Moon (and space) for tardigrades are still too extreme to really believe that they will be able to adapt there and even more so begin to reproduce. But nevertheless, the vitality and adaptability of these microorganisms by humans is still not fully understood.

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