Definitely the best “other creature” in the news during the last few days:
It looks like a space monster in a movie, from the far off time before special effects became perfect and boring, and everything had to be made by hand.
But this is actually a real creature, much smaller than it looks, and now, maybe, getting a whole new start as a miniature moon monster:
Thousands of tardigrades – also known as “water bears” or “moss piglets” – were on board the Beresheet spacecraft when it crash landed on the moon in April.
The tiny creatures are incredibly hardy and can survive extremely low temperatures and harsh conditions– and The Arch Mission Foundation, which sent them into space, believes some may have survived.
Tardigrades are pudgy little animals no longer than one millimeter. They live in water or in the film of water on plants like lichen or moss, and can be found all over the world in some of the most extreme environments, from icy mountains and polar regions to the balmy equator and the depths of the sea.
The Arch Mission Foundation sounds scary, doesn’t it? Like something a Bond villain would preside over. An arch villain.