Tardigrades on the Moon?
[ by Charles Cameron — nothing much, just noting that all membranes are permeable, and that we leave our disgusting litter everywhere we go — me too, I suppose ]
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via CNN: tardigrade, water bear or yes, that’s it, moss piglet — just look at it
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According to Wired, the Israeli private lunar lander somewhat arrogantly named Bereshith (Bereshith, In the beginning, the first word of Torah and expressive of HaShem’s creation of HaOlam, the entire cosmos, also en arche (In the beginning), the opening of words of John’s Gospel)..
..crash-landed on the moon, presumably losing thousands of half-millimeter tardigrades, ugly little beasties that have an extraordinary capacity to endure difficult environments
I mnean:
When will we learn, eh?
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Luckily for those of us who are interested, there’s a Scientific American piece on the topic of the tardigrades, headlined and sub-headed thus:
Tardigrades Were Already on the Moon
It may not be smart to add more, but nature probably beat us to it anyway
It contains this charming fact, which will presumably haunt all those who know it, myself included, as we regard the lunar beauty:
On the Moon there are already about 100 baggies of, well, astronaut poop, from the Apollo landings.
Note that even SciAm is embarrassed: that shit should have been cleaned up.
But read the whole thing..
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Sources:
Scientific American, Tardigrades Were Already on the Moon CNN, Crashed spacecraft may have left tiny but tough creatures on the moon Wired, A Crashed Israeli Lunar Lander Spilled Tardigrades on the Moon My poem, Don’t you mess with my mother the moon Also, Don’t you mess with the night sky, superb and sacred
Really, that poem of mine is both angry (unusual for me) and fine — recommended reading!
