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Tardigrades would be a good candidate for seeding other planets in our galaxy imo
by djaouen 2y ago
Tardigrades would be a good candidate for seeding other planets in our galaxy imo
- im3w1l 2y agoI get what you mean but tardigrades don't photosynthesize, so you still have the problem of what they should eat.
- dekhn 2y agoYou send them with algae and photosynthetic bacteria, which are also pretty robust. Algae is (are?)a mazing. I would not at all be surprised if you sent tardigrades to enough remote planets, that they would find some local equivalent of algae that is mostly digestable. And photosynthetic bacteria were some of the earliest forms of life on earth, likely surviving adverse conditions (I think it's still an open question whether the earliest organisms with metabolism used geochemical energy or photosynthetic energy)
- ASalazarMX 2y agoIf we're speaking about terraforming, cyanobacteria photosynthesizes, produces oxygen, and is also hardy. Forget the tardigrades, we don't want to fight their descendants when humanity eventually colonizes. Bonus: the rise in oxygen might kill any existing native life, or make it more like ours.
- deafpolygon 2y agoMaybe they were
- MaanuAir 2y agoMaybe they are.
- dekhn 2y agoit's unlikely, as they showed up evolutionarily after preceding organisms and were wholly consistent with evolution of preceding organisms. They are remarkably similar to other organisms, like isopods.
- ASalazarMX 2y agoThe advantage of panspermia is that when cornered, it can retreat to more primitive life forms, and even basic life molecules. It can't be reasonably unproven, so the onus is on the supporters to prove it.