There are no living creatures on the moon, and Chang'e, as we often say, is just the fantasy of the ancients. However, today's moon has welcomed a group of "distinguished guests" due to the crash of an Israeli spacecraft. It is said that these distinguished guests are immortal, and as creatures of the earth, it is even possible to survive on the surface of the moon!
What are they? If there were creatures on the moon, would they develop things that humans could not have predicted?
The water bears that have been left on the moon can resist the impact of bullets
In February 2019, an Israeli spacecraft called Genesis flew to the moon on a Falcon 9 rocket. According to the Israeli plan, after the arrival of Genesis on the moon, it will carry out a lunar surface survey mission on the moon.
However, just as the Genesis Tower was about to reach the lunar surface, the main engine suddenly failed. Then Genesis crashed straight into the surface of the moon at a speed of 139 meters per second. After seeing this scene, the people from spaceX and the Israel Space Agency shook their heads helplessly.
Of course, the spacecraft hitting the moon is a small matter, after all, such an event has happened more than once. But this spacecraft crash into the moon is somewhat special because the spacecraft is carrying a group of living creatures.
According to the Israeli space agency, on board the Genesis, a special device called the Lunar Library was carried. The device contains thousands of tardigrades. If the tardigrades hadn't died, they would have been the first lunar settlers.
Lunar Library
In order to verify whether these water bears survived, the staff of the Israeli space department specially conducted an experiment. They froze 20 tardigrades for 48 hours and put them into a dormant state. In this case, the metabolic rate of the tardigrades dropped to 0.1% of the normal rate.
After that, the scientists loaded all the tardigrades into nylon bullets and then shot them out with a secondary air cannon. The maximum velocity of the bullet once reached 852 meters, which is equivalent to 6 times the speed of Genesis hitting the moon.
To the surprise of the scientists, after the violent impact, the water bears did not die, but were still alive in the bullets. After seeing this scene, scientists couldn't help but imagine that the water bears that landed on the moon are estimated to really have a home on the moon.
What kind of species is the tardispeller, and how strong is its ability to survive?
How scary are tardigrades?
Judging from the relevant information, the tardiquin is actually an arthropod, and its body is divided into 4 segments. From the outside, the back of the tardigrade is covered with thick cuticle scales, and it seems to have a feeling that no one is close to the living.
Of course, as scary as the tardigrades look, they are actually pitifully small, only 0.05-1.2 mm, which is many times smaller than ants.
Because the tardigrade is so small, it has just over 1,000 cells on its body. The most critical thing is that these cells only grow and do not proliferate. Once these cells die, the tardigrades follow suit.
According to zoologists, the tardigrades are actually a creature more than 600 million years ago, almost in the same era as the dinosaurs. Today, there are more than 1,000 species of tardigrades, covering seven continents and four oceans. In Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu, Xinjiang and other places in China, there are a series of water bears.
In terms of diet, tardigrades generally feed on mosses and lichens. In the process of eating, like mosquitoes, they like to use the needle of the mouth needle to suck, rather than chewing with their mouths like other animals.
It is worth mentioning that the breeding and egg-laying process of water bears is also carried out on lichens and mosses. And their mating time can last more than 1 hour, which can be described as the envy of others.
Of course, what we're going to talk about today isn't how strong the tardigrades' kung fu is in bed. Today, the main thing is to understand how survivable the water bears are.
According to scientists' observations, tardigrades can survive in temperatures of up to 151 degrees above zero. Even a hot pot of oil is like soaking in a hot spring for a tardigrades.
As for the lowest temperature that tardigrades can accept, it reaches -272 degrees. The temperature is close to absolute zero, and the fact that the tardigrade can survive at such a low temperature is enough to prove that it has the strength to defy the sky.
As mentioned earlier, Israel accidentally crashed a spacecraft carrying water bears on the moon, which has a temperature range of -183 to 127 degrees. In this case, there is a high probability that the water bear immigrants will not die. Maybe at this moment, they are marrying wives and having children on the moon, enjoying the beauty of a paradise.
In addition to not being afraid of cold or heat, what other anti-weather skills do tardigrades have?
Why can't tardigrades die?
Water bears, for example, can also withstand high levels of radiation. Some scientists have studied that even if the tardigrades are placed under the radiation level of 5700 Gray, it will be fine.
You know, this strength can reach the level of a nuclear weapon. In this case, the tardigrades can be safe and sound, which is really amazing.
In 2007, scientists conducted a space experiment. They send a batch of tardigrades into space, then expose them all to the spacecraft and let the cosmic rays mercilessly strafe them. Even so, the survival rate of tardigrades is still as high as 68%. If the tardigrades were humans, it is estimated that humans would have been dried by cosmic rays long ago.
Speaking of which, some people may ask, what kind of ability do these unnatural tardigrades rely on to resist the invasion of the external environment?
A 2017 study gave the answer to this question. According to scientists' analysis, tardigrades can secrete a damage inhibitory protein called Dsup in the face of life and death.
Under the action of this protein, tardigrades can protect cells from damage. Even after being boiled and roasted, the tardigrades are still not afraid of the threat, and they can easily reach a state of "spring breeze blowing and rebirth".
If the tardigrades are left in a harsh environment for a long time, the tardigrades will adjust themselves to a "cryptophytic" state according to the surrounding environmental conditions, which is commonly known as suspended animation.
In this case, the tardigrades shrink their bodies into a ball and then reduce their metabolism to 0.01%. Once in a "cryptobiotic" state, water bears cannot die even without food, oxygen and water.
For example, some tardigrades that live in desert areas will deliberately remove 95% of the water from their bodies, and then let the air and wind blow them away. When they float to a place with a water source, the tardigrades are "resurrected" again, just like being reborn in Nirvana.
It can be said that the reason why tardigrades can survive for hundreds of millions of years is because of this set of highly adaptable fake death skills. While other creatures were unable to escape disasters and catastrophes, they were able to survive in the world and eventually achieved a miracle of their own.
This is the water bear, a low-key and secretive peerless powerhouse.