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That's interesting but I don't think it's anything like a conclusive answer on whether tardigrades can travel between habitable worlds on asteroids, meteors, co

That's interesting but I don't think it's anything like a conclusive answer on whether tardigrades can travel between habitable worlds on asteroids, meteors, comets, and other objects travelling through space. Plenty of meteors break up in the atmosphere, with only small fragments reaching the ground at much slower speeds (significantly less than 825 meters/second by the time air resistance has decelerated them), and so the question then becomes what forces would they experience as the meteor entered the atmosphere and broke up, and could they survive those? Sure, if you're talking about a large asteroid impact that reaches the ground, it may not be possible for them to survive, but most of the objects that hit earth's atmosphere are not large asteroids (e.g., bolides, potentially comets, etc.). Presumably, at least in theory, they could also carry frozen/sleeping tardigrades?

Zenst 5y ago
You raise another aspect that is overlooked. How fast can are tartigrade travel when encased in ice (an instance already shown that it can survive).
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karmakaze 5y ago
I think the useful measure is acceleration (or deceleration). A tardigrade (as a human) could withstand deceleration from any speed if done gradually. > The researchers found that the tardigrades shot from the gun at speeds up to 825 meters per second could be resuscitated after removal from the cylinder. Those experiencing higher-speed impacts were torn apart and did not survive. What's of interest is the acceleration that can be tolerated m/s^2. Accelerating a cylinder (presumably with a mass much greater than the tardigrades) could be considered to be similar to having the tardigrades accelerated to 825 m/s then having it hit a hard metal surface, if for example the cylinder was made of such a metal and it was decelerated from 825 m/s to zero with the tartigrades then hitting the wall of the cylinder end. So it comes down to the surfaces around the tartigrade upon impact, it could be much softer than metal, glass, etc.

Zenst 5y ago

You raise another aspect that is overlooked. How fast can are tartigrade travel when encased in ice (an instance already shown that it can survive).

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karmakaze 5y ago

I think the useful measure is acceleration (or deceleration). A tardigrade (as a human) could withstand deceleration from any speed if done gradually. > The researchers found that the tardigrades shot from the gun at speeds up to 825 meters per second could be resuscitated after removal from the cylinder. Those experiencing higher-speed impacts were torn apart and did not survive. What's of interest is the acceleration that can be tolerated m/s^2. Accelerating a cylinder (presumably with a mass much greater than the tardigrades) could be considered to be similar to having the tardigrades accelerated to 825 m/s then having it hit a hard metal surface, if for example the cylinder was made of such a metal and it was decelerated from 825 m/s to zero with the tartigrades then hitting the wall of the cylinder end. So it comes down to the surfaces around the tartigrade upon impact, it could be much softer than metal, glass, etc.