Mosquito Survives in Outer Space

mercurial

mercurial

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According to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, a mosquito managed to live 18 months clinging to the outside of the International Space Station, without any food, being bombarded by radiation and enduring fluctuating temperatures ranging from minus 230 degrees to 140 degrees Fahrenheit.

"We brought him back to Earth. He is alive, and his feet are moving," Anatoly Grigoryev of the Russian Academy of Sciences told RIA Novosti.

The buzzing bug was part of a larger experiment in which bacteria, barley seeds, small crustaceans and larval insects were placed in a container strapped to the exterior of the space station, which orbits in zero gravity about 200 miles above the surface of the Earth.
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phenom said:
Why coulnt they just leave it there?
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Agreed... now it'll mutate and become a super monster mozzie! :eek: :D

But how could it survive for 18 months without any food? :eek:

Maybe they should send it to Chernobyl for its further growing stages? :eek: :D

According to the article, they're unsure whether it was inserted as a larvae or fully-grown mozzie...
 
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Thats it. Mozzies are the pinacle of evolution. Anyone who disagrees with me can go see if they can surive in open space for 18 months! :eek:
 
I call BS... a mosquito's lifespan is only around 3 to 100 days, depending on species.
 
Frozen in basically Cryo stasis may extend its longevity,gotta be pretty resilient to survive the defrost though
 
texo said:
I call BS... a mosquito's lifespan is only around 3 to 100 days, depending on species.
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Assuming it's 100 days, meaning full 100 days and nights.

Now, let's say nights doesn't count as it's in a frozen state, so it's actually 200 days...

18 months = (more or less) 547 days...

naaah... doesn't cut it that way either.

I don't know how they did the experiment, think it's media waffling again :(
 
Maybe it was just frozen 90% of the time ?
and they see it as a break through :eek:
but on the other hand zero gravity and all
but i won't go telling everybody that a mosquito was in space for 18 months so basically useless info
 
More info on the Mozzie in question

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20090218/120203420.html
"Professor Takashi Okuda from the National Institute of Agro-Biological Science drew our attention to the unique, although short-lived, African mosquito (bloodworm), whose larvae develop only in a humid environment," Grigoryev said.

Rains are rare in Africa, where puddles dry up before one's eyes. However, this mosquito is well-adapted to adverse local conditions, existing in a state of suspended animation when vital bodily functions stop almost completely.

When suspended animation sets in, water molecules are replaced by tricallosa sugar, which leads to natural crystallization. The larvae were then sprayed with acetone, boiled and cooled down to minus 210 degrees Celsius, the temperature of liquid nitrogen. Amazingly, they survived all these hardships.

The Japanese also studied bloodworm DNA and found that it could be switched on and deactivated in 30 to 40 minutes. "This is facilitated by the crystallization of biological matter," Doctor of Biology Vladimir Sychev from the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems told RIA Novosti.
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