3/26/2023 0 Comments Water bear![]() The study results show that tardigrades can survive impact speeds of around 1,845 miles per hour. At higher speeds, the seemingly invincible water bears turned to mush. Researchers found the bears could withstand an impact of up to 900 meters per second and shock pressures of up to 1.14 gigapascals. Then, the water bears were collected from the target, poured into a water column, and observed to see how long it took them to wake from the hibernation state, reports Michelle Starr for Science Alert. Once frozen, the microscopic organisms were placed into hollow nylon bullets and fired towards a sand target at velocities higher than a handgun can reach, Science reports. Freezing the water bears places them into a "tun" state, sort of like hibernate. IT can shoot projectiles at speeds of 23,000 feet per second, or about four miles per second.) The "gun" in the study does use traditional gun powder and pressurized hydrogen or helium to fire at high speeds up to five miles per second, Futurism reports.īefore the experiment, the research team fed 20 freshwater tardigrades, Hypsibius dujardini, a diet of moss and mineral water before freezing them for two days, Science reports. (A similar machine at NASA has a 24-foot-long "barrel" aimed at a target located 175 feet away. ![]() They put the theory to the test by shooting tardigrades out of a lab-grade, two-stage, light-gas gun, which resembles a canon more than a gun. With this event in mind, astrochemist Alejandra Traspas and astrophysicist Mark Burchell, who both work at the University of Kent, set out to find if the water bear's impact survival was possible. Since then, researchers have wondered if the water bears survived the impact, reports Victor Tangermann for Futurism. In August 2019, Israel's lunar lander, Beresheet, crashed into the moon's surface while carrying thousands of tardigrades. It could also determine whether a similar redistribution of life could happen by the same method on other hospitable planets. Panspermia may potentially explain how life began on Earth. It could be the first step in exploring whether life can be distributed to other planets via asteroids-if the impact doesn't kill the lifeform first.įor years, scientists have speculated the possibility of panspermia, or microscopic lifeforms arriving from one planet to another via meteorites or comets, reports Becky Ferreira for Vice. It turns out, tardigrades can survive the violent impacts, but only to a certain point before they begin to fall apart. To further test the water bear's survival limits, researchers loaded the microscopic beings into a gun and fired them at sand bag targets to test their impact survival rate, according to a study published in Astrobiology. The microscopic organism can also resist the vacuum of space and lethal doses of radiation, reports Jonathan O'Callaghan for Science. ![]() Tardigrades, also known as water bears, are hardy life forms that can survive extreme temperatures-from volcanic vents on the ocean floor to the frigid climes of Antarctica. ![]()
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