The Water Bears That Survived Space
In 2007, scientists put tiny animals outside a spacecraft, in the vacuum and raw sunlight of space. Some of them came home alive.
What was reported
Tardigrades, or water bears, are animals less than a millimetre long that live in moss and puddles. In September 2007, a European experiment carried dried-out tardigrades into orbit on a Russian Foton capsule and exposed them directly to space for ten days.
When the capsule landed in Kazakhstan, the scientists added water. Many of the tardigrades shielded from the Sun's ultraviolet light revived and even laid eggs, and a few survived full exposure.
Explanations offered
Tardigrades survive extremes by drying out almost completely and shutting down, protecting their cells with special proteins. They were the first animals known to survive the vacuum of open space.
- When
- September 2007
- Where
- In orbit; landed in the steppe of Kazakhstan
- Witnesses
- European scientists
- Status
- Confirmed
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