Space Tardigrade- Kids

Get kids excited about nature!
Celebrate wonderfully amazing, strange, and obscure animals with this awesome T-shirt!

What is that crazy creature?  A Tardigrade!  

In 2007, a group of Swedish and German scientists sent tardigrades into space to see if they could survive. The "Tardigrades in Space" program, aka TARDIS, demonstrated that tardigrades have no problem with cosmic radiation, extreme cold, and dehydration.

Tardigrades (aka Water bears) are the ultimate survivors.   Nuclear radiation? No problem! Extreme temperatures or pressure?  Bring it on!  They can withstand temperatures from just above absolute zero (-459 ºF/-237 ºC) to way above the boiling point of water (212 ºF/100 ºC). They can deal with pressures about 6 times greater than what is found in the deepest ocean  trenches.  They can also dehydrate themselves to 3% of its normal water content and then rehydrate!  Their trick?  Cryptobiosis-a process where their metabolic processes almost stop but they can reanimate...like
zombies, but less dead when they revive.   All Hail the Tardigrade!