As of: March 6, 2024, 5:46 a.m
By: Tanja Banner
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Tardigrades are also called “tardigrades” or “water bears” because of their appearance.
They are almost indestructible.
(Computer illustration) © Science Photo Library/Imago
The extremely resilient tardigrades could have been on the moon since 2019.
But could they live there – without water and oxygen?
Munich – No person has set foot on the moon since 1972.
However, other life forms may have found their way to the celestial body since then: tardigrades, also known as water bears or tardigrades.
In 2019, an Israeli spacecraft crashed while attempting to land on the moon.
On board were thousands of these tiny creatures, less than a millimeter in size, in a dehydrated state.
Tardigrades are known for their extraordinary resilience, but the question still arises as to whether they could also exist under the extreme conditions of the moon?
Tardigrades are capable of surviving long periods without water or food and can survive in extreme heat as well as extreme cold or radiation.
In the process, they lose a large part of their water without being damaged.
This process is called cryptobiosis by experts.
In this state, tardigrades do not age, scientists have confirmed.
Tardigrades have even survived the vacuum of space, as an experiment by Esa showed.
Can tardigrades survive in the extreme lunar conditions?
But could the tardigrades also have survived on the moon?
There they would have to cope with almost 15 days of extremely cold (up to -190 degrees Celsius) lunar nights and similarly long, extremely hot (up to 120 degrees Celsius) lunar days.
On the moon, amenities such as water are only found in icy craters, and oxygen is not available at all.
Solar radiation and cosmic rays on the lunar surface cannot be neglected either.
Laurent Palka from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris explains: “First of all, they should have survived the impact.”
Laboratory tests have shown that tardigrades can survive impacts at speeds of 1,600 mph or less - and the moon impact was significantly slower.
Tardigrades on the Moon are probably inactive
In a guest post on
The Conversation
, Palka continues: “Unfortunately, tardigrades cannot overcome the lack of liquid water, oxygen and microalgae - they would never be able to reactivate, let alone reproduce.
Their colonization of the moon is therefore impossible.”
However, Palka is convinced that inactive tardigrades could be on the lunar surface.
He also explains why this could be problematic for future space travel: "At a time when space exploration is advancing in all directions, contamination of other planets could mean that we lose the possibility of discovering extraterrestrial life."
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