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Tardigrades, also known as “water bears” or “moss piglets”, were on board the Israeli lunar lander Beresheet when it crashed on the moon in 2019. Tardigrades are able to survive in extreme conditions, including the vacuum of space, but have been dehydrated for the journey. It is unlikely they will survive on the moon unless they come into contact with water. Tardigrades can enter a death-like state called cryptobiosis and have existed on Earth for 600 million years.
While speculation runs rampant when it comes to life on other planets, people generally don’t talk about the possibility of life on the moon. After all, humanity has visited its lunar neighbor several times since Neil Armstrong and company first landed there in 1969, with no sign of life. But all that may have changed, thanks to the bizarre micro-animals known as tardigrades. It turns out that thousands of microscopic creatures, also referred to by the nicknames “water bears” and “moss piglets”, were aboard the Israeli lunar lander Beresheet. Unfortunately, the mission failed when the vehicle crashed in 2019. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the tardigrades are in the dust. One of the reasons tardigrades were added to the mission was their ability to survive in all kinds of conditions, from freezing and boiling to the vacuum of space. The only problem for tardigrades is that they’ve been dehydrated for the journey, with all metabolic activity suspended, so unless they come into contact with some water, it’s unlikely they’ll be moon-dwelling in the foreseeable future.
A little peek at baby tardigrades:
In a 2017 study, scientists determined that tardigrades could survive a number of doomsday scenarios on Earth, including asteroid impacts and supernova explosions.
To survive dangerous situations, tardigrades enter a death-like state called cryptobiosis, from which they can return to life within hours.
Tardigrades are believed to have existed on Earth for 600 million years. They first appeared about 370 million years before dinosaurs roamed the planet.
