MOON — Earth's most indestructible organisms have crashed into the moon, and may still be alive.<br /><br />CNN reports that thousands of micro creatures called tardigrades were onboard Israel's Beresheet spacecraft when it crash landed on the moon in April.<br /><br />According to the BBC, tardigrades are about a millimeter-long, with eight legs, claws, and a sucker-like pharynx to spear prey. They are more commonly known as water bears or moss piglets.<br /><br />CNN reports that they live in water or on plants like lichen or moss, can withstand being heated to 150 degrees Celsius, and frozen to almost absolute zero.<br /><br />The non-profit Arch Mission Foundation dehydrated the water bears, which caused the organisms to enter a state of suspended animation, where metabolism lowers to 0.01% of the normal rate.<br /><br />They were then encased in amber and loaded onto the Beresheet, along with a 30-million page archive of human history called the lunar library.<br /><br />Since the tardigrades are resilient, researchers say it's likely they survived the crash. But they will need to be reintroduced to water in order to reanimate.<br /><br />Until then, guess the little buggers will just be chilling out on the moon. Though if something else gets them first, it could just be a sci-fi horror movie come to life.
