Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit gets green light for first orbital space launch from UK — and will use a repurposed Boeing 747 for the mission

Kate Duffy
Wed, December 21, 2022

Virgin Orbit was founded by Richard Branson.

Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit gained a license for the first orbital space launch from the UK.


The mission, based at Spaceport Cornwall, will send small satellites into orbit.


A Boeing 747 named Cosmic Girl will release a rocket from underneath its wing after takeoff.

Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit has been granted its remaining licenses, setting the stage for the first orbital space launch to take off from British soil.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the UK's space regulator, announced in a statement on Wednesday that Virgin Orbit was permitted to launch from Spaceport Cornwall in southern England. The company, founded by Branson, had "taken all reasonable steps to ensure safety risks arising from launch activities are as low as reasonably practicable," the CAA said.

Issuing the final license to Virgin Orbit for the UK's first orbital satellite launch was another "major milestone," the CAA said in the statement.

Virgin Orbit's Cosmic Girl.PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

The UK's transport secretary, Mark Harper, who agreed to grant the license, said in the statement that the launch "reinforces our position as a leading space nation as we look to the future of spaceflight, which can spur growth and innovation across the sector, as well as creating thousands of jobs and apprenticeships."

The launch was scheduled to happen on December 14, but the date was pushed back because of regulatory and technical challenges, Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart told media outlets at the time. Virgin Orbit didn't respond to Insider's request for comment about the new launch date.

Virgin Orbit has named the mission "Start Me Up" after a song by The Rolling Stones.

The launch will involve a repurposed Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 aircraft, named Cosmic Girl, flying 35,000 feet into the sky. It will release Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne rocket stored under the wing. The rocket will then release a batch of satellites into orbit.

Richard Branson.Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

Virgin Orbit, which provides launch services for small satellites, is part of Branson's Virgin Group, which offers a wide range of amenities such as healthcare and airlines. Another part of the group is Virgin Galactic, a commercial-spaceflight company.

Branson was a passenger on Virgin Galactic's first crewed flight to the edge of space in July 2021. The VSS Unity, a rocket-powered plane, lifted off from Virgin Galactic's facilities at Spaceport America in New Mexico and flew more than 50 miles above the Earth.

Virgin Orbit issued licences ahead of Cornwall space launch

Wed, December 21, 2022 

Virgin Orbit's Cosmic Girl has been at Spaceport Cornwall since October

The final remaining licences required for Virgin Orbit to launch from Spaceport Cornwall have been issued by the UK space regulator.

The Civil Aviation Authority has granted the launch operator and range control licences, which have been signed off by the Transport Secretary.

The CAA said it was "another major milestone" towards the first orbital space launch from UK soil.

A launch from the spaceport at Cornwall Airport Newquay is expected in January.

Earlier in December the launch was pushed back due to technical issues.

Virgin Orbit's Cosmic Girl 747 has been at Spaceport Cornwall since October, followed a week later by their LauncherOne rocket that will carry nine satellites.

The CAA said the company had "taken all reasonable steps to ensure safety risks arising from launch activities are as low as reasonably practicable".

Tim Johnson, director for space regulation at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said: "This is another major milestone in enabling the very first orbital space launch from UK shores and these licences will assist Virgin Orbit with their final preparations for launch."

Spaceport Cornwall was granted an operating licence by the CAA in November.

Each of the nine satellites also requires a licence, but these are understood to be imminent.

Analysis by Jon Amos, BBC Science Correspondent

It's been a complex business pulling together all the regulatory threads for this licence.

Demonstrating its rocket system is safe has been paramount of course, but Virgin has also had to pass environmental as well as fit and proper person tests.

In addition, the location of the upcoming launch, out over the Atlantic, has required the agreement and co-ordination of the Irish, Spanish and Portuguese governments.

The nod from Dublin was complicated in recent weeks by the changeover of prime minister, or Taoiseach.

The CAA has kept its promise, however, to process a rocket licence application in under 18 months.

We were expecting a launch on 14 December, but this was pushed back when Virgin Orbit discovered a technical issue on one of its Newton rocket engines during testing in California.

This demanded further inspection and assessment of the rocket already delivered to Newquay for the Cornwall launch.

Once the company is satisfied it's ready, a further notice to aircraft and mariners will be issued to warn them of the activity that's coming, expected for sometime in January.

Dan Hart, chief executive of Virgin Orbit, said the licencing decision "takes us one step closer to the first satellite launch take-off from UK soil".

He said: "This is a major milestone for the CAA and represents the successful completion of an enormous effort, which has included the construction of new regulations, new processes and new teams."

A specific date for the launch has not yet been set.

Melissa Thorpe, head of Spaceport Cornwall, said: "We are thrilled for the Virgin Orbit licenses to be in place for this historic launch.

"It has been an incredible effort by all partners to reach this milestone, and my team cannot wait to share in the excitement of the upcoming launch with everyone that has made it happen."

Speaking to BBC Radio Cornwall, Steve Double, MP for St Austell and Newquay, said he was very keen for the launch to take place.

He said: "For me this is such an exciting opportunity for Cornwall and something I'm now desperate to see happen."

Follow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.

Forgotten Monopoly rule changes the game completely

‘This makes the game 10 times better,’ one person tweeted

Ella Kipling


Board game fans have discovered a forgotten Monopoly rule which changes the whole game.

As families and friends gather for Christmas, Monopoly boards all across the world will be dusted off for after-dinner fun.

With arguments bound to start brewing from the first roll of the dice, it is best to be prepared with a solid understanding of the rules.

Most people know that when a player lands on a property they may buy the property from the bank. However, the rules also state that if the player chooses not to buy the property, it goes to auction and can be bought by the highest bidder.

Any player can bid on the property, and bidding can start at any price.

This rule was shared by @Dtrain22 onTwitter, who also posted a picture of where it states this in the rule book.

“Just found out I’ve played monopoly wrong my whole life. If you don’t buy a property you land on it goes to auction for everyone for any bid amount. Had no idea,” they said.

Many people replied to say they had also gone for some time without realising this was one of the rules.

This is not the first time the rule has come up. In 2017, Twitter user @rubenfandueltv responded to a tweet asking for the one trivial hill on which users are willing to die. They then named the Monopoly rule and wrote: “IT. IS. IN. THE. RULES.”

One person then responded: “Omg this makes the game like 10 times better.”

Another board game connoisseur said that they finally read the rule a few years ago and now their games go “much quicker” as a result.

Meanwhile, in 2019, Uno’s official Twitter page settled an ongoing dispute that many people have been having for years when playing the card game.

When it comes to the +4 card it said “you must draw 4 and your turn is skipped”.

“You can’t put down a +2 to make the next person Draw 6. We know you’ve tried it,” Uno tweeted.

When another player asked if you can place a +4 card on another +4 card, Uno replied: “No, you can’t stack any cards!”

NASA captures "snapshot in time" showing how a star is born

Li Cohen

Thu, December 22, 2022 

Hidden in the Cosmic Cliffs behind clouds of dust lies a mysterious happening that has intrigued astronomers for years – a "hotbed for star formation." And now, thanks to NASA's James Webb Telescope, you too can see how a star is born.

The Cliffs, which NASA describes as an area of space located "at the edge of a gigantic, gaseous cavity" within the NGC 3324 star cluster, has been studied for years. But it wasn't until the Webb Telescope was able to observe it that astronomers found some of the more immaculate details.

With it, NASA scientists found 24 previously unknown outflows from baby stars, revealing a "gallery of objects ranging from small fountains to burbling behemoths that extend light-years from the forming stars."

And it's a gallery that is difficult to come by.

NASA said that the "very early" formation of every star is a "relatively fleeting event – just a few thousand to 10,000 years amid a multi-million-year process of star formation."

But Webb was able to capture a "snapshot in time," astronomer and leader of the study Megan Reiter said, "to see just how much star formation is going on in what may be a more typical corner of the universe that we haven't been able to see before."

A study on the findings was published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society this month.

Dozens of previously hidden jets and outflows from young stars are revealed in this new image of the Cosmic Cliffs from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). / Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI. Image processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)

Jets and outflows are essentially star excretions of space gas and dust left over during star formation. They can be seen by the presence of molecular hydrogen, an essential ingredient in the formation process. Previously, Hubble was only able to see these ejections of more evolved objects that were in the telescope's visual wavelengths, but Webb has an "unparalleled sensitivity," allowing scientists to witness younger star stages and get "an unprecedented view into environments that resemble the birthplace of our solar system."

"Jets like these are signposts for the most exciting part of the star formation process," study co-author Nathan Smith said. "We only see them during a brief window of time when the protostar is actively accreting."

For team member Jon Morse, "it's like finding buried treasure."

"In the image first released in July, you see hints of this activity, but these jets are only visible when you embark on that deep dive – dissecting data from each of the different filters and analyzing each area alone," he said.

Many of the stars observed in this study are expected to become low mass stars like our galaxy's sun. And according to Reiter, astronomers will now have a better idea of where in space they can observe just how "sun-like stars" come to fruition.

"It opens the door for what's going to be possible in terms of looking at these populations of newborn stars in fairly typical environments of the universe that have been invisible up until the James Webb Space Telescope," Reiter said.

NASA gets "unusually close" look at a black hole devouring a star

Li Cohen

Wed, December 21, 2022 

What happens when a star gets too close to a black hole? "Unusually close" observations from NASA reveal just how complex and catastrophic it can be.

The agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said on Tuesday that multiple telescopes recently watched a massive black hole about 10 times the mass of our sun located about 250 million light-years away from Earth "tearing apart an unlucky star that wandered too close." It was the fifth-closest observation of such an occurrence, known as a tidal disruption event, and was first spotted on March 1, 2021.

So, what exactly happened when the star and the black hole crossed paths?

First of all, it's not something that happens in a single moment. According to NASA, it's a long process that can take weeks or months as the black hole's gravity slowly sucks in the star's being. In the most recent observation, it took place over the course of about five-and-a-half months.

"The side of the star nearest the black hole was pulled harder than the far side of the star, stretching the entire thing apart and leaving nothing but a long noodle of hot gas," NASA said.

The observations of the event, called AT2021ehb, were published in the Astrophysical Journal in September.

"Tidal disruption events are a sort of cosmic laboratory," study co-author Suvi Gezari said. "They're our window into the real-time feeding of a massive black hole lurking in the center of a galaxy."

The study said that the event also provided an "unprecedented view" of one element of the process – the formation of a corona. This happened as the star was being demolished and spawned a "dramatic rise" in high-energy X-ray light, NASA said. As that happened, the corona formed above the black hole.

But the creation of the corona – a cloud of hot plasma – in this particular event surprised astronomers. Coronae usually come with jets of gas flowing in opposite directions from the black hole, but in this case, there were no jets at all.

Yuhan Yao, a Caltech graduate student and lead author of the study, said this isn't just a rare occurrence – it's a totally new observation.

"We've never seen a tidal disruption event with X-ray emission like this without a jet present, and that's really spectacular because it means we can potentially disentangle what causes jets and what causes coronae," they said. "Our observations of AT2021ehb are in agreement with the idea that magnetic fields have something to do with how the corona forms, and we want to know what's causing that magnetic field to get so strong."

James Webb telescope: Amazing images show the Universe as never before


Jonathan Amos - BBC Science Correspondent
Sat, December 24, 2022 


The Tarantula Nebula: Only 161,000 light years from Earth, this is a place where thousands of stars were born

It was the $10bn gift to the world. A machine that would show us our place in the Universe.

The James Webb Space Telescope was launched exactly a year ago, on Christmas Day. It had taken three decades to plan, design and build.

Many wondered whether this successor to the famed Hubble Space Telescope could actually live up to expectations.

We had to wait a few months while its epic 6.5m primary mirror was unpacked and focused, and its other systems tested and calibrated.

But, yes, it was everything they said it would be. The American, European and Canadian space agencies held a party in July to release the first colour images. What you see on this page are some of the pictures subsequently published that you may have missed.

A $10bn machine in search of the end of darkness

The first thing you have to remember about James Webb is that it is an infrared telescope. It sees the sky at wavelengths of light that are beyond what our eyes are able to discern.

Astronomers use its different cameras to explore regions of the cosmos, such as these great towers of gas and dust. The Pillars were a favourite target of Hubble. It would take you several years travelling at the speed of light to traverse this entire scene.
Carina Nebula

Carina Nebula

They call this scene the Cosmic Cliffs. It's the edge of a gigantic, gaseous cavity within another dusty, star-forming nebula, known as Carina.

The cavity has been sculpted by the intense ultraviolet radiation and winds from hot, young stars just out of shot.

From one side of this image to the other is a distance of roughly 15 light years. One light year is equal to about 9.46 trillion km (5.88 trillion miles).
Cartwheel Galaxy

Cartwheel Galaxy

This large galaxy to the right was discovered by the great Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky in the 1940s. Its intricate cartwheel structure is the result of a head-on collision with another galaxy. The diameter is about 145,000 light years.
Planet Neptune

Neptune

James Webb doesn't look into only the deep Universe. It probes objects in our own solar system, too. This jewel is the eighth planet from the Sun: Neptune, seen with its rings. The small white dots that surround it are moons, and so is the big "pointed star" above. That's Triton, Neptune's largest satellite. The spikes are an artefact of the way James Webb's mirror system is constructed.

Read more: Ringed Neptune captured by James Webb telescope
Orion Nebula

Inner Orion Nebula

Orion is one of the most familiar regions of the sky. It's a star-forming region, or nebula, about 1,350 light years from Earth. Here, Webb pictures a feature called the Orion Bar, which is a wall of dense gas and dust.
Dimorphos

Dimorphos

In one of the big space stories of the year, Nasa ran a spacecraft into an asteroid, called Dimorphos, to see whether it was possible to deflect the path of the 160m-wide rock. It was a test of a strategy to defend the Earth from threatening asteroids. James Webb caught the shower of 1,000 tonnes of debris kicked up on impact.

Read more: Asteroid deflection experiment boosted by debris
WR-140

WR-140

This was one of the most intriguing Webb images of the year. The "WR" refers to Wolf-Rayet. It's a type of star, a big one that's reaching the end of its life. Wolf-Rayets billow huge gaseous winds into space. An unseen companion star in this image is compressing those winds to form dust. The dusty shells you see extend outwards over 10 trillion km. That's 70,000 times the distance between Earth and our Sun.

Read more: Dusty star mystery solved by James Webb telescope
Phantom Galaxy

Phantom Galaxy

M74, nicknamed the Phantom Galaxy, is known for its ostentatious spiral arms. It's about 32 million light years away from Earth in the constellation Pisces, and lies almost face-on to us, giving Webb the perfect view of those arms and their structure. The telescope's detectors are particularly good at picking out all the fine filaments of gas and dust.

Artwork of James Webb in space: The telescope should give 20 years' good service

You can still hear Jonathan's Discovery programme for the BBC World Service in which he discusses the Webb project with its leading scientists and engineers.

NASA Reveals New Pictures From the James Webb Space Telescope

Melissa T. Miller

Thu, December 22, 2022

The James Webb Space Telescope continues to deliver awe-inspiring images and insights into the universe. Its mirror is six times the size of the Hubble Space Telescope, which has been taking stellar pictures since 1990. But it’s not just about size. The new telescope records infrared wavelengths rather than visible light so it can see farther and more clearly. Older stars appear as bright eight-pointed spikes in the Webb telescope pictures below due to the way the images are taken. But it also adds to the ethereal nature of each image as we peer farther and farther into infinity.

A Holiday Galaxy

The James Webb Space Telescope shared this festive image just in time for the holiday season. Galaxy NGC 7469‘s spiral looks like a wreath, complete with glowing lights. The large red starburst is actually made up of spikes from the telescope’s hexagonal mirrors caused by the light from the galaxy’s center. The gas and dust shines brightly as it falls into a black hole, but doesn’t it look lovely? Scientists are excited about the star-forming regions they can now see thanks to the telescope’s infrared cameras. But it’s also the perfect image for this year’s holiday card.

ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, L. Armus, A. S. Evans

An Illuminating Protostar

NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI. Image processing: J. DePasquale, A. Pagan, and A. Koekemoer (STScI)

A new star, “only” about 100,000 years old, is forming in the neck of this cosmic hourglass. The protostar L1527 itself is hidden in this view, but the light it creates illuminates clouds of gas and dust that are being sucked inwards. The vivid pinks, oranges, and blues are only visible in the infrared light of the James Webb Space Telescope. As the star ages, it gathers these nearby materials into its accretion disk, gaining mass and eventually reaching the size and stability of a full star.

The James Webb Space Telescope Captures the Pillars of Creation

The first image of the Pillars of Creation from the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995 is one of the most widely seen space photos. Now the James Webb Space Telescope adds its remarkable abilities to share even more of the wonder that is the Pillars of Creation with the world.

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

The near-infrared view of this cosmic nursery 6,500 light years away reveals many new details. The red dots seen on the edges of the top pillar are young stars, only a few hundred thousand years old. The red lava-like areas in the other pillars are ejections of hydrogen molecules from still-forming stars. The entire image is eight light years across but represents only a small area of the Eagle Nebula. This image from the James Webb Space Telescope is truly astounding.

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

In addition, we also got to see a slightly more creepy version of the Pillars of Creation courtesy of the James Webb Space Telescope. This rendition was taken with the telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). The first image, meanwhile, was taken with the telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). This second view allows researchers to see concentrations of gas and dust. But it also makes for another amazing, slightly horror-movie-inspired image from the James Webb Telescope.

Dust Rings Around Binary Stars

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, JPL-Caltech

The James Webb Space Telescope imaged a system with two enormous stars, each 25-30 times more massive than our Sun. Called Wolf-Rayet 140, their orbits bring them close together about every eight years. The gravitational forces push out a huge dust cloud when that happens. Previous images from ground-based telescopes could see two dust rings, but the new image from JWST shows at least 17. Check out this video from JPL for a visualization of the two stars orbiting each other and a comparison to the older images.

Neptune’s Rings in Focus Courtesy of the JWST

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

The James Webb Space Telescope has captured the clearest view of Neptune’s ring in more than 30 years. We see the rings and the planet’s fainter dust bands. Neptune system expert and interdisciplinary scientist Heidi Webb said, “It has been three decades since we last saw these faint, dusty rings, and this is the first time we’ve seen them in the infrared.”

Tarantula Nebula

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team

The image above of the Tarantula Nebula is 340 light years across. It introduces us to tens of thousands of stars never seen before because they were lost in the dust of Hubble’s view. The region forms news stars, which appear pale blue. And in case you’re trying to find the eight-legged creature the nebula is named for, apparently it looks like a tarantula’s burrow with silk around the entry, rather than the spider itself. The video below also shows the mid-infrared image from the Webb Telescope. Gases and cosmic dust glow turquoise and purple. It’s beautiful to us casual observers, but adds even more data for astronomers.

The James Webb Space Telescope Reveals the Phantom Galaxy

Also known as M74, the Phantom Galaxy is 32 million light years away in the constellation Pisces. When compared to pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope, the image from the James Webb Space Telescope cuts through the gas and dust to show off the star clusters at the galaxy’s core. Stars and other distant objects are also visible through patches in the arms of the spiral. Combining the images from the two space telescopes gives astronomers the best of both worlds. The visible and infrared light spectrums provide complementary insights into the mesmerizing center of the Phantom Galaxy.

ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team

Exoplanet HIP 65426 b

Images of this faraway planet are the first of one outside of our Solar System. Different cameras and filters on the James Webb Space Telescope provide multiple views and insights to astronomers. HIP 65426 b is a gas giant nine times the mass of Jupiter, but we don’t know much more about it yet. Scientists are analyzing all the new data from the Webb Telescope. They removed the light from the planet’s sun using a coronagraph. Once the much brighter star was masked, the faint planet could finally be photographed.

First Images from the JWST

NASA,/ESA/CSA/STScI/Webb ERO Production Team

Keep up with the telescope’s Twitter account to see the newest images and research. These include tests taken right here in our own Solar System. Like stunning views of Jupiter, including aurora and some of its many moons. And plenty of distant targets, like the Cartwheel Galaxy and its swirling dust clouds. And of course the first images, including a deep field view that included the oldest and farthest away objects ever photographed.

NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Judy Schmidt

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth.

The best nature photos of 2022 include giraffes fighting by 'necking,' neon green mushrooms, and a baby elephant rescue


Morgan McFall-Johnsen
Thu, December 22, 2022 

Anup Shah/Courtesy TNC Photo Contest 2022

The Nature Conservancy's photo contest recognizes stunning portraits of animals, landscapes, and plants.


This year's winners include sparring giraffes, a black sand beach, and neon mushrooms.


The photos showcase the colorful diversity of life and landscapes on Earth.

The Nature Conservancy announced the winners of its annual photo contest on September 29.

Baiju Patil/Courtesy TNC Photo Contest 2022

This year's winning photos showcase the vast diversity of life and landscapes on Earth.

Panos Laskarakis/Courtesy TNC Photo Contest 2022

Photographer Li Ping won the Grand Prize, using a drone to capture this photo of a highway cutting across tree-shaped gullies in Tibet.

Li Ping/Courtesy TNC Photo Contest 2022

Other photos capture animals in the wild — like this pair of lions rubbing heads. The one on the right is clearly older than the left lion.

Anup Shah/Courtesy TNC Photo Contest 2022

These giraffes look like they're being friendly or romantic, but necking, or swinging their heads and necks into each other, is actually how they fight.

Torie Hilley/Courtesy TNC Photo Contest 2022

These eagles were fighting, too — over a piece of salmon, according to the photographer.

Rick Dowling/Courtesy TNC Photo Contest 2022

This elephant seal had to fight off a striated caracara that was trying to attack her calf.

Fabio Saltarelli/Courtesy TNC Photo Contest 2022

Another photo shows workers at Kenya's Ol Pejeta Conservancy rushing to treat a wounded elephant calf, while sedating its mother so they can do so safely.

Marvin Mwarangu/Courtesy TNC Photo Contest 2022

Animals aren't the only ones who can be dramatic. Lightning struck this mountain at just the right moment.

Hendy Wicaksono/Courtesy TNC Photo Contest 2022

A layer of fog gave an eerie glow to this mangrove tree in Lamongan, East Java.

Waluya Priya Atmaja/Courtesy TNC Photo Contest 2022

Fog also made this scene look peaceful, as the mist thinned above a glassy lake and distant snowy trees.

Effy Varley/Courtesy TNC Photo Contest 2022

Snowy mountains stand in stark contrast against a black sand beach in Iceland.

Ivan Pedretti/Courtesy TNC Photo Contest 2022

Fireflies in Japan create contrast, standing out as circles of bright yellow light against the dark forest.

Masahiro Hiroike/Courtesy TNC Photo Contest 2022

Another bright pop of color, in another forest, comes from bioluminescent Omphalotus Nidiformis, nicknamed 'ghost mushrooms.'

Callie Chee/Courtesy TNC Photo Contest 2022

Other photos capture humans' impact on nature, like this factory built on the edge of a beach in Greece.

Janusz Jurek/Courtesy TNC Photo Contest 2022

Humans have also changed the landscape with wastewater ponds like these.

Jassen Todorov/Courtesy TNC Photo Contest 2022

A more colorful sign of human presence is these pink lagoons near a salt mine.

Nick Leopold Sordo/Courtesy TNC Photo Contest 2022

A burn scar, filled with charred trees, lies in the wake of the Dixie Fire — California's largest single wildfire.

Jassen Todorov/Courtesy TNC Photo Contest 2022

Further north, along the Oregon coast, fog pours into a natural hole in the rock, known as the Drainpipe of the Pacific.

Tom Fenske/Courtesy TNC Photo Contest 2022

These dragon blood trees only grow in the high plateaus of Socotra Island, in the Indian Ocean.

Cristiano Xavier/Courtesy TNC Photo Contest 2022

IMMORTAL & INDESTRUCTIBLE

5 of the wildest experiments tardigrades have survived in the name of science

Paola Rosa-Aquino
Thu, December 22, 2022

Colored scanning electron micrograph, or SEM, of a tardigrade.

STEVE GSCHMEISSNER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Tardigrades are hardy microscopic creatures known for their ability to withstand extreme conditions.

Water bears can go years without food or water and endure extreme radiation and temperatures.

From blasting off to space to being fired from a gun, they've served science in explosive ways.

Tiny, weirdly adorable creatures called tardigrades are one of the toughest organisms on Earth.

Tardigrades, which are perhaps better known as water bears because of their plump bodies, belong to an extremely resilient group of microorganisms that can thrive in harsh environments ill-suited for life. In order to survive, they squeeze water from their bodies and roll into dehydrated balls known as tuns.

While in this form, tardigrades can withstand the most extreme environments — even the vacuum of space. As a tun, these microscopic critters can go years without food or water and endure extreme radiation and temperatures.

That hardy nature makes them the perfect test subjects in experiments about the tenacity of life. From being shot out of a gun to crash-landing on the moon, these are five notable times tardigrades proved their mettle in the name of science.

SEM of water bear.Cultura RM Exclusive/Gregory S. Paulson

1. Water-dwelling tardigrades became space-faring test subjects

Scientists hope to find out what makes these little creatures nearly indestructible. They really are small — they range from 100 to 1,000 microns in size, as small as the height of a sheet of paper.

In 2021, NASA sent 5,000 tardigrades into space in a cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. "We want to see what 'tricks' they use to survive when they arrive in space, and, over time, what tricks their offspring are using," Thomas Boothby, principal investigator of the experiment, said in a NASA statement.

In 2007, a European team of researchers sent 3,000 tardigrades to orbit the earth on the outside of a spacecraft for 12 days. When the water bears returned to Earth, the scientists discovered that 68% survived.

"Our principle finding is that the space vacuum, which entails extreme dehydration and cosmic radiation, were not a problem for water bears," Ingemar Jönsson, the project leader for the European experiment, said in a statement.

2. Tardigrades crash-landed on the moon

In April 2019, an Israeli lunar probe crashed into the moon while carrying thousands of dehydrated tardigrades on board.

Many speculated the water bears might have survived the crash. "We believe the chance of survival for the tardigrades are extremely high," Nova Spivack, co-founder of the organization that put the tardigrades in space, told BBC News.

According to Wired, any tardigrade found in the future would have to be brought back to Earth to be rehydrated on a planet with an atmosphere.

SEM image of a tardigrade, taken on November 16, 2012.Schokraie E, Warnken U, Hotz-Wagenblatt A, Grohme MA, Hengherr S, et al. (2012)

3. A thawed tardigrade survived being frozen for 3 decades

In 2016, scientists at Japan's National Institute of Polar Research examined tardigrades retrieved from a frozen moss sample collected in Antarctica in 1983.

After rehydrating them, researchers successfully revived a tardigrade that had been frozen for more than 30 years. What's more, researchers found tardigrades can successfully reproduce after decades in frigid conditions.

Based on laboratory experiments, tardigrades even survive at -458 degrees Fahrenheit. That's more than twice as cold as the coldest temperature that was ever observed on Earth's surface, according to NASA.

4. The creatures endured scorching temperatures

Tardigrades can survive in extremely hot temperatures, and you'll find them in some of Earth's most extreme environments like deep sea vents, hot springs, and mud volcanoes.

Still, in a 2020 study, researchers found that long-term exposure to high temperatures, even in their hibernated state, can kill tardigrades in only a day. In the study, after being exposed to water temperatures of about 100 degrees Fahrenheit, half of the tardigrades in the research sample died.

"We had found their Achilles' heel," Ricardo Neves, lead researcher of the study, told Newsweek.

Microscopic image of a water bear.Philippe Garcelon

5. Tardigrades survived being shot out of a high-speed gun

Some scientists believe that tardigrades may be capable of spreading life to different planets.

In a 2021 study, researchers loaded a nylon bullet with tardigrades in a state of hibernation and fired them into a sand target at a range of speeds. The critters survived smashing into targets at speeds up to about 2,000 mph, but the ones that were shot at faster speeds blew apart on impact.

They wanted to test if a tardigrade could survive a cosmic impact, such as a meteorite landing on Earth, since it would give credence to the idea that life might be able to hitchhike its way across the cosmos.

"If they could do it and they're the hardest thing we know, right? Maybe other things can," said Mark Burchell, supervisor on the experiment, said in a press release. "[B]ut if they can't do it, and they're the hardest thing we know, then maybe nothing else can either."