Post by Andrei Tchentchik on Jan 21, 2020 15:52:24 GMT 2
(.#360).- New inhabitants on the moon, the tardigrades?
New inhabitants on the moon, the tardigrades?
Monday, August 12, 2019.
They look like extraterrestrials but come from Earth: tardigrades could have become the first inhabitants of the Moon.
Indeed, the Israeli probe Berenuts who crashed there on April 11 carried with it, stored in glue, a thousand of these tiny almost indestructible animals. Their fate remains uncertain, but their chances of survival are high. Because these tiny animals, also known as "water bears", are able to withstand extreme radiation, stifling heat, the coldest temperatures in the universe and survive decades without food.
Present but inactive
To grow and reproduce, the tardigrade needs water, air and food (algae, small nematode worms or small aquatic animals called rotifers). The moon has nothing to offer except water in the form of ice at the bottom of some craters.
Milnesium tardigradum
Invertebrate type, this animal existed for 500 million years on Earth and would be composed of a thousand different species.
Means of transport
Moves very slowly, clinging to the ground and objects with his clawed eight.
Not the first form of earthly life
The tardigrades were preceded on the Moon by the DNA and microbes contained in the hundred bags of excrement and urine left by American astronauts during the Apollo rocket landings from 1969 to 1972.
Other infos
Measurement : Measure from 0.5 to 1.5 mm.
Main habitat : Wetlands, mosses.
Life expectancy : About one year (under normal conditions).
Features : Has 17.5% DNA of other species due to lateral transfer of DNA genes from plants, bacteria or viruses.
They resist everything
Dehydration
When deprived of water, the tardigrade can go into cryptobiosis and can survive in this world for 100 years.
• Need only 1% of its natural hydration level in cryptobiosis.
• Dislocates its DNA.
• Metabolism reduced to 0.01% of normal activity.
Extreme temperatures
Two tardigrades were frozen for 30 years in Antarctica. They were woken up successfully and one of them was able to lay more than a dozen eggs. They survive.
• At temperatures from -273 degrees to 150 degrees Celsius.
• With boiling water and alcohol.
• At temperatures only slightly higher than absolute zero.
Travel in space
In 2007, thousands of water cubs were exposed to the vacuum of space at 270 km altitude. On their return, the animals showed no biological alteration.
He survives :
• At the interstellar vacuum.
• Cosmic rays that damage DNA normally.
F I N.
New inhabitants on the moon, the tardigrades?
Monday, August 12, 2019.
They look like extraterrestrials but come from Earth: tardigrades could have become the first inhabitants of the Moon.
Indeed, the Israeli probe Berenuts who crashed there on April 11 carried with it, stored in glue, a thousand of these tiny almost indestructible animals. Their fate remains uncertain, but their chances of survival are high. Because these tiny animals, also known as "water bears", are able to withstand extreme radiation, stifling heat, the coldest temperatures in the universe and survive decades without food.
Present but inactive
To grow and reproduce, the tardigrade needs water, air and food (algae, small nematode worms or small aquatic animals called rotifers). The moon has nothing to offer except water in the form of ice at the bottom of some craters.
Milnesium tardigradum
Invertebrate type, this animal existed for 500 million years on Earth and would be composed of a thousand different species.
Means of transport
Moves very slowly, clinging to the ground and objects with his clawed eight.
Not the first form of earthly life
The tardigrades were preceded on the Moon by the DNA and microbes contained in the hundred bags of excrement and urine left by American astronauts during the Apollo rocket landings from 1969 to 1972.
Other infos
Measurement : Measure from 0.5 to 1.5 mm.
Main habitat : Wetlands, mosses.
Life expectancy : About one year (under normal conditions).
Features : Has 17.5% DNA of other species due to lateral transfer of DNA genes from plants, bacteria or viruses.
They resist everything
Dehydration
When deprived of water, the tardigrade can go into cryptobiosis and can survive in this world for 100 years.
• Need only 1% of its natural hydration level in cryptobiosis.
• Dislocates its DNA.
• Metabolism reduced to 0.01% of normal activity.
Extreme temperatures
Two tardigrades were frozen for 30 years in Antarctica. They were woken up successfully and one of them was able to lay more than a dozen eggs. They survive.
• At temperatures from -273 degrees to 150 degrees Celsius.
• With boiling water and alcohol.
• At temperatures only slightly higher than absolute zero.
Travel in space
In 2007, thousands of water cubs were exposed to the vacuum of space at 270 km altitude. On their return, the animals showed no biological alteration.
He survives :
• At the interstellar vacuum.
• Cosmic rays that damage DNA normally.
F I N.
