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conditions. Scientists have even sent them into space, where they were shown to survive extreme dehydration and cosmic radiation. One key component of tardigrades’ defense systems is a unique damage suppressor protein called Dsup, which binds to DNA and helps protect it from radiation-induced
Tardigrades have been known to survive: • Low temperatures of 0.05 kelvins (-272.95 degrees Celsius or functional absolute zero) •High temperatures of 150 degrees Celsius •Pressures of 40,000 kilopascals •The burning ultraviolet radiation of space • Being shot from a high-speed gun (traveling at nearly 3,000 feet per second and the impact of 1.14 gigapascals of pressure) •Being stored in a freezer for 30 years Putting their hardiness to one of the biggest tests, tardigrades have been shown to survive after exposure to outer space. In 2007, dehydrated tardigrades were taken into low Earth orbit as part of the FOTON-M3 mission. They were exposed to either the hard vacuum of outer space (and protected from UV radiation) or vacuum and solar UV radiation for 10 days straight. After their return to Earth, the water bears that were protected from UV were reanimated within 30 minutes of rehydration. Subsequent mortality was high, but many were able to produce viable embryos before they died. In 2017, researchers from Oxford and Harvard Universities decided to test how resilient different forms of life were to potential astrophysical events - things like asteroids, supernova blasts and gamma ray bursts. Of course, humans stood no chance. But who stuck around? Tardigrades. They found that these little organisms could survive in most cases, pointing to the potential for them to survive on Earth long after humans have been wiped out. In more recent experiments, researchers have tested whether the hardy little animals can survive violent impacts similar to those that might explain how life originated on Earth - or even how it could be sent to other planets. In April 2019, an Israeli spacecraft carrying thousands of tardigrade passengers crashed into the surface of the moon. At the time, there was a lot of speculation about whether the critters could have survived and if we'd accidentally repopulated this barren landscape. Why does this matter? Not only does it give us a clue as to how one of the prevailing theories behind the origin of life on Earth could hold true - panspermia - but it could also give us an insight into how life might be sent to other planets.
December 16, 2025 at 7:10 PM