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pfdietz 2 days ago

I think they could be cooked by thermal radiation as the ejecta expands.

sebzim4500 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Probably most would be, but there are a lot of microorganisms and only a few need to get lucky.

blooalien 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Tardigrades were placed in the "extremophile" class with good reason. If anything could survive a truly catastrophic impact event, I'd say the smart money goes on the lowly "water bear" to win. :)

Keysh a day ago | parent [-]

Tardigrades are not "extremophiles", which refers to organisms that live (grow, reproduce) in "extreme" environments ("phile" = "like, love"). Tardigrades can temporarily survive some rather extreme conditions, but they generally require fairly ordinary environments to actually live. (As suggested by common names like "water bear" and "moss piglet".)