When the Sun turns into a crimson giant and puff up to consume the Earth in a impassioned death , we can be trusted that there will be at least one survive fauna to experience the end . capable to last the beat pressures of both the deep - ocean and the freeze vacuity of the space , the endearing tardigrade will outlive us all .
Due to the nigh impossibility to actually kill a tardigrade , which can come through for a fairly impressive 30 class without food or H2O , researchers see into cataclysmic events that could potentially cause all life pattern – include tardigrades – to be wipe out . They suggest boiling ocean may be what it have . They identified three result that could cause this variety of outcome : gravid asteroid impact , supernovae , or a gamma - ray fusillade .
They found that there are only a handful of known asteroids and midget planet that have enough lot that if they were to hit Earth , they would boil the ocean . The closest of these is the asteroid Vesta and overshadow planet Pluto , but the celestial orbit of both of these intend that they are unlikely to wiretap Earth before the Sun die .
For a supernova or an explode star to moil the water on our planet it would have to be ridiculously unaired . Within 0.14 scant - years , to be exact . With our nearest star , aside from the Sun obviously , being some 4 clean - class off this scenario can be ruled out too . Finally , the researchers then ferment their attention to a gamma - irradiation burst , a shiny but rare occurrent than supernova . This would have to happen within 40 light - years , the betting odds of which are also pretty minor .
This mean that water supply bear , an lovesome condition for tardigrade , are most in all likelihood going to outlive for an telling 10 billion years , or until the Sun dies .
Despite giving the small moss piglets ( another great soubriquet ) some newfound regard the research actually gives an interesting look into what we could look from life on other supernal bodies . Living creatures , it would seem , are far more resilient and much harder to wipe out entirely than we could have imagined , meaning that if life has evolved somewhere else in the universe , which it almost certainly has , it is most potential still pick apart about .
“ Tardigrades are as close to indestructible as it gets on Earth , but it is possible that there are other resilient specie example elsewhere in the universe , ” says Dr Rafael Alves Batista , co - generator of the newspaper publish inScientific Reports . “ In this context of use , there is a real caseful for looking for life story on Mars and in other area of the solar system in oecumenical . If tardigrade are Earth ’s most lively species , who know what else is out there . ”
So when we finally rival down on the Red Planet , perhaps we ’ll find the water bears ' Martian relative .
