Posted on 03/06/2013 4:58:16 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Is this an alien? Probably not, but of all the animals on Earth, the tardigrade might be the best candidate. That's because tardigrades are known to be able to go for decades without food or water, to survive temperatures from near absolute zero to well above the boiling point of water, to survive pressures from near zero to well above that on ocean floors, and to survive direct exposure to dangerous radiations. The far-ranging survivability of these extremophiles was tested in 2011 outside an orbiting space shuttle. Tardigrades are so durable partly because they can repair their own DNA and reduce their body water content to a few percent. Some of these miniature water-bears almost became extraterrestrials recently when they were launched toward to the Martian moon Phobos on board the Russian mission Fobos-Grunt, but stayed terrestrial when a rocket failed and the capsule remained in Earth orbit. Tardigrades are more common than humans across most of the Earth. Pictured above in a color-enhanced electron micrograph, a millimeter-long tardigrade crawls on moss.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit & Copyright: Nicole Ottawa & Oliver Meckes / Eye of Science / Science Source Images]
So much for the "nothing could survive a ride down to the Earth's surface aboard a meteorite" claim. A good one for the X-Planets list, which admittedly has been a slow mover of late.
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So much for the "nothing could survive a ride down to the Earth's surface aboard a meteorite" claim. This picture is probably best at this size, the large one may freak ya out.
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Wow, that looks like a man-made object! The “snout” looks like a plastic grommet of some sort!
Cool indeed.
Somebody has to say it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1wzQNzttSk
Reminds me of Al Gore.
This isn’t directed in any way to be negative toward you, as we all know that you don’t choose the pictures, but this has to be one of the more lame APOD pics ever. Not only is it terrestrial, but it’s also MADE UP. lol
Surely they aren’t running low on APOD material!
Back in the day, I had a few tardigades, so I especially appreciate this creature!
Somebody tell me that guy survived having his picture taken by a Scanning Electron Microscope, and then I’ll be impressed!
Great googlie ooglies! The female sheds her skin and lays eggs in it, and then the male mates with the skin. It’s SILENCE OF THE TARDIGRADES all over again.
The face looks like the snowman from RUDOLPH THE RED NOSED REINDEER with a mini gun coming out of its nose.
Well, technically it’s a woman-made object, once she allowed it to slide out of her cloaca.
They can grow to enormous size.
Tardigrades (commonly known as waterbears or moss piglets)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade
http://www.google.com/images?q=tardigrade
Now, no. "Technically" and truly, God made the creatures (even if females, that He also made, "spit them out"), but that image looks like something out of a Chinese factory cranking out toys for kids--"fake," in other words.
"Tardigrades can withstand temperatures from just above absolute zero to well above the boiling point of water. They can survive pressures greater than any found in the deepest ocean trenches and have lived through the vacuum of outer space.
They can survive solar radiation, gamma radiation, ionic radiation— at doses hundreds of times higher than would kill a person. They can go without food or water for nearly 10 years, drying out to the point where they are 3% or less water, only to rehydrate, forage, and reproduce."
Ah, but I see you already knew that:)
Dang man! That’s the wildest thing you have ever posted. At first I thought this was a joke.
Why were the Russians going to put these things on Phobos?
Didn’t they have a clean room or were they going on purpose?
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