Tardigrade the water bear

GS-III:Tardigrade the water bear

NEWS

On April 11, the Israeli spacecraft Beresheet attempted to land on the Moon but crashed on the surface.
It was carrying a number of items — including thousands of specimens of a living organism called Tardigrade.

Tardigrade

The Tardigrade, also known as the water bear, is among the toughest and most resilient creatures on Earth.
The Tardigrade can only be seen under a microscope.
Half a millimetre long, it is essentially a water-dweller but also inhabits land and, a 2008 study found, can survive in the cold vacuum of outer space.
It derives its name from the fact that it looks like an eight-legged bear, with a mouth that can project out like a tongue.
Its body has four segments supported by four pairs of clawed legs.
A tardigrade typically eats fluids, using its claws and mouth to tear open plant and animal cells, so that it can suck nutrients out of them.
It is also known to feast on bacteria and, in some cases, to kill and eat other tardigrades. Although they are famed for their resilience, they are destructive too.
Should a human being swallow a tardigrade with her food, her stomach acid will cause the flesh of the tardigrade to disintegrate.

Survival instinct

In 2017, a study found that if all other life were to be wiped out by a cataclysmic event — a large asteroid impact, a supernova or a gamma-ray bursts — the tardigrade would be the likeliest to survive.
It can endure extreme hot and cold temperature levels.
Although the tardigrades on the Israeli spacecraft were dehydrated, the organism is known to “come back to life” on rehydration.
In fact, they themselves expel water from their bodies and set off a mechanism to protect their cells, and can still revive if placed in the water later.
However, there is no evidence of liquid water on the Moon, although there is ice.
Without liquid water, it is possible that the tardigrades will remain in their current state, unless future astronauts find them and revive them in water.

Source: Indian Express

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