ESA's 2007 tardigrade experiment reveals extreme survival in space

In 2007, the European Space Agency sent three thousand tardigrades — microscopic creatures long known for their extraordinary resilience — into low Earth orbit for ten days, exposing them to the vacuum of space and unfiltered ultraviolet radiation. When the capsule returned, enough of these water bears had survived to confirm what scientists had dared to hypothesize: that life, in certain forms, is not confined by the boundaries we once assumed. The experiment did not merely test the limits of a small animal; it quietly expanded the boundaries of where, and how, life itself might exist across