ScienceBiology
Tardigrades survived ten days of open space vacuum.
In 2007, dried-up tardigrades were flown to low Earth orbit and exposed to open space for ten days. The group shielded from solar UV but left in hard vacuum and cosmic radiation largely revived on rehydration back on Earth and went on to reproduce — the first animals known to survive space exposure.
Step by step
- In 2007, dried tardigrades rode a capsule into low Earth orbit.
- For ten days they sat in hard vacuum and cosmic radiation.
- Rehydrated on Earth, most of that group revived — and went on to reproduce.
Source
This fact is written from the English Wikipedia article it links to, so you can check every word in one tap. Fact Drop rates that source 4 out of 5 for credibility, and the rating travels with the fact on the back of its card in the app.
Keep digging
Their survival trick starts with losing nearly all their water…
This fact is a step in the rabbit hole The unkillable. Follow the rabbit hole
More science facts
Science facts that sound like a prank until you read the source. Tardigrades survived ten days in open space, a strong enough magnet can float a live frog, and time runs measurably faster at your head than at your feet. Short, sourced and picked for the double take.
- Enzymes can turn one blood type into another.
- T. rex lived closer to you than to Stegosaurus.
- Frozen for 30 years, a tardigrade woke and laid eggs.
- A tardigrade's trick: dry out and turn to glass.
- The largest living thing on Earth is a fungus the size of a town.
- There are more trees on Earth than stars in the Milky Way.