[HN Gopher] Among the Moss Piglets: The First Image of a Tardigr...
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Among the Moss Piglets: The First Image of a Tardigrade (1773)
Author : ljf
Score : 72 points
Date : 2024-09-10 21:10 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (publicdomainreview.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (publicdomainreview.org)
| jsbg wrote:
| Why don't we send tardigrades and other extremophiles into space
| to colonize possible life-sustaining planets and moons?
| pram wrote:
| I think the general idea is not to contaminate planets with
| possible life so we can eventually study what completely
| different evolution circumstances produces.
| andsoitis wrote:
| > I think the general idea is not to contaminate planets with
| possible life so we can eventually study what completely
| different evolution circumstances produces.
|
| History suggests that is not what will happen when we find a
| planet that harbors life sustaining conditions, even if our
| presence would destroy all life on it.
|
| Homo sapiens' track record is one of self-interest and the
| (largely-ish, though sadly not mostly) unintentional
| devastation of life forms in human vicinity.
|
| But I digress. When we discover a world with livable
| conditions, we will occupy it, fill the pace, mine it, etc.
| Native life on it will come under selective pressure. And
| that's not necessarily a bad thing.
| mc32 wrote:
| Do you think we'd put information gathering over survival? I
| don't think so. I'm not sure a successful species would.
| thanatos519 wrote:
| Yes that's the idea and I think it is stupid. We should be
| spreading DNA far and wide instead of sending humans. As much
| as I am curious about evolution, I am more interested in a
| deep future full of life.
| euroderf wrote:
| Fungi have you covered.
| AnotherGoodName wrote:
| They can go dormant in extreme conditions they can't thrive in
| such conditions. It's a bit of a myth with these. They need
| similar conditions to multiply as all other life. If you put
| them temporarily in an extreme condition they can go dormant
| and come back when conditions are better.
|
| FWIW we trade so much material with outer space (super volcanos
| etc) that if life could colonize space that easily it would
| have done so billions of years ago.
| joshdavham wrote:
| This brings up an interesting question though.
|
| Could we create a minimially viable living environment for
| these extremophiles to survive on other planets? For humans,
| we'd need pretty incredible technology to sustain life on
| mars, but for tardigrades, they could probably survive with a
| lot less.
| kombookcha wrote:
| There's surviving, and there's thriving - tardigrades could
| probably hang out in a Mars crater for a long time, but
| what they'd need to sustainably live on an alien planet is
| something to eat during the periods where conditions are
| right for them to thaw out. If there's nothing for them to
| wake up to, they won't be making anymore tardigrades.
|
| Say, a very hardy algae that could make it in some suitable
| microbiome - like humid cracks in the rocks, or a fungus
| that could hang out in underground caverns shielded from UV
| radiation.
|
| If we are trying to seed a place with life where we can't
| reliably go ourselves, it seems important that the 'colony'
| should become self-sustaining immediately-ish.
|
| (Also I find the idea of launching swarms of micro-pods
| loaded up with hardy, tiny lifeforms endearing - like
| throwing seed bombs over a tall fence :) )
| ljlolel wrote:
| What makes you think our ancestors haven't?
| librasteve wrote:
| https://www.nasa.gov/general/swarming-proxima-centauri/
| tomcam wrote:
| Legend has it that tardigrade was the one they sent into space
| ljf wrote:
| Can you elaborate on this?
| seb1204 wrote:
| Likely referring to Star Trek Discovery series.
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