Mark Burchell News Today

The tree predates the houses but is now considered a potential risk.

The tree predates the houses but is now considered a potential risk.

Tiny, weirdly adorable creatures called tardigrades are one of the toughest organisms on Earth.

The extremely hardy (and cute) tardigrades thrive in harsh environments ill-suited for most life, including the vacuum of space.

And how big would an asteroid really have to be to actually destroy our planet?

Over 200 witness reports were submitted online after a meteor entered Earths atmosphere over the northwest coast of the U.S. on October 12.

Tardigrades are super tough, but they can't withstand *everything*.

Small space probes containing tardigrades could be propelled up to 30 per cent the speed of light into space, scientists at University of California, Santa Barbara have proposed.

A recent experiment put tardigrades’ indestructibility to the test by firing the critters at speeds up to 1,000 meters per second.

“They enter a tun state,” astrophysicist Mark Burchell, who co-led a study recently published in Astrobiology, told SYFY WIRE. “This means they eject most of their water content and greatly reduce metabolic activity, so they simplify themselves and reduce their internal processes. Being inert seems to help them survive.” The Beresheet crash opens up the question of whether it is possible that other life like tardigrades may be able to travel through space on pieces of debris or shoot f...