A magnified Water Bear in its natural habitat (Credits: Mother Board).
The Water Bear, more formally known as the Tardigrade, is the only known animal able to survive in outer space. Water Bears undergo an extreme type of hybernation that allows them to survive vacuum, space radiation, and extreme temperatures completely unprotected. Some theorize that the Water Bear may have originated off-Earth, thereby accounting for its ability to handle extreme environments. Wherever they came from, scientists are anxious to discover the secret of their hardiness and hopefully learn how to better protect humans in such environments.
Naturalist Mike Shaw has spent years studying the Tardigrade. He introduces us to the cuddly microorganism in the video below:
![A trajectory analysis that used a computational fluid dynamics approach to determine the likely position and velocity histories of the foam (Credits: NASA Ref [1] p61).](https://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/fluid-dynamics-trajectory-analysis-50x50.jpg)
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