Jakarta –
Not lions or elephants, these tiny creatures have become the strongest animal in the world, tardigrade his name. Uniquely, the appearance of this creature, also known as a water bear, is anything but ferocious. On the contrary, tardigrades look cute and adorable.
Tardigrades are included in a group of microorganisms that are very hardy and can thrive in extreme environments, even in places unsuitable for life.
To survive, they squeeze water out of their bodies and roll it into dehydrated balls known as tun. In this form, tardigrades can survive in the harshest environments, even in a vacuum.
For example, these microscopic creatures can survive for years without food or water and survive radiation and extreme temperatures. This toughness makes tardigrades often used as test objects in various scientific experiments.
Scientists hope to find out what makes these tiny creatures nearly indestructible. They are really tiny, ranging in size from 100 to 1,000 microns, which is the thickness of a sheet of paper.
Here are five scientific experiments that have been done to test strength tardigradequoted from Scientific alarm.
1. Go to space
In 2021, NASA will send 5,000 tardigrades into space on a cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
“We wanted to see what ‘tricks’ they used to survive when they got to space. And, over time, what tricks their descendants used,” said Thomas Boothby, principal investigator on the experiment, in a NASA statement.
In 2007, a team of European researchers sent 3,000 tardigrades into Earth orbit in a 12-day spacecraft. When they returned to Earth, the scientists found that 68% of the tardigrades survived.
“Our main finding is that the vacuum, which causes extreme dehydration and cosmic radiation, is not a problem for these water bears,” said Ingemar Jönsson, project leader of the experiment.
2. Emergency landing on the Moon
In April 2019, the Israeli spacecraft crashed into the moon. In the vehicle participate thousands of tardigrades suffering from dehydration.
Many have speculated that water bears may have survived the crash. “We think the chances of survival of tardigrades are very high,” said Nova Spivack, co-founder of an organization that places tardigrades in space.
According to the researchers, any of these tardigrades, should they survive in the future, would need to be returned to Earth to be rehydrated in the atmosphere they came from.
3. Frost resistance more than 30 years
In 2016, scientists at Japan’s National Institute of Polar Research studied tardigrades from frozen lichen samples collected in Antarctica in 1983.
After rehydrating them, the researchers were able to revive the tardigrades that had been frozen for more than 30 years. The researchers also found that tardigrades reproduced successfully after decades of being in cold conditions.
According to laboratory experiments, tardigrades even survive temperatures that are more than double the coldest temperature on the earth’s surface.
4. Survive extremely hot temperatures
Tardigrades can survive very hot temperatures. These creatures can be found in some of the most extreme environments on Earth, such as underwater vents, hot springs, and volcanic lava.
But in a 2020 study, researchers finally found that long-term exposure to high temperatures, even in hibernation, can kill tardigrades in just a day.
In the study, after exposure to water temperatures of around 38 degrees Celsius, half of tardigrade in the study sample he was dead.
“We found their weakness,” said Ricardo Neves, the study’s principal investigator.
5. Tardigrades survive gunfire
Some scientists believe that tardigrades may be able to spread across planets, not just Earth. In a 2021 study, researchers loaded tardigrade nylon bullets in a hibernating state and fired them at targets at various velocities.
The creature has survived hitting the target at speeds up to approximately 3.2 km/h. However tardigrade fired at a faster rate, crumbling on impact.
They want to check if tardigrade it could survive a cosmic impact like a meteorite landing on Earth, as doing so would open up opportunities regarding the idea that tardigrades could hitchhike meteorites across the cosmos.
Watch a video “The moment a meteor flies across the Alaskan sky“
[Gambas:Video 20detik]
(rns/afr)
