Tag Archives: survives

What makes the “headless chicken monster” a deep-sea ninja that survives on poop?

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Sea cucumbers are related to sea urchins and starfish. They typically rest on the ocean floor and are not very active, similar to plants. However, in the deep sea, sea cucumbers exhibit different behaviors.

Resembling the twirling skirts of flamenco dancers, the Spanish Dancers are transparent ruby-red creatures that gracefully swim and float with the ocean currents in the deep sea, wearing their webbed cloaks. Also known as the “Remarkable Dreamer” (Enypniastes excimia).

They also have a more grotesque alias: the headless chicken monster. It looks like a plucked chicken carcass tossed into the sea and can grow up to 25cm (9 inches) long. The part that resembles a neck after decapitation is actually its mouth, surrounded by feeding tentacles. When it settles on the ocean floor, it uses its tentacles to scoop sediment into its mouth.

Like other sea cucumbers, they feed on marine snow, which is a shower of organic debris sinking from the ocean surface. It includes dead plankton and their feces bound together by a sticky microbial glue.

This swimming sea cucumber was discovered in the 1870s by scientists on a Royal Navy battleship during the famous ocean expedition known as the Challenger. They inhabit all oceans, including near Antarctica, at depths ranging from 500 meters (1,600 feet) to at least 6,000 meters (about 19,600 feet).

Due to their high water content, they are fragile, and collecting specimens often damages them. To observe them live, scientists rely on remote-controlled deep-diving robots with video cameras to get a clear picture of their appearance this century.

Thanks to their hydrated bodies, they have neutral buoyancy, enabling them to swim without much effort. This is a vital survival strategy in the deep sea where food is scarce.

Through their see-through bodies, you can see their coiled digestive tract filled with pale sediment. Before propelling into the water column, they expel their cleaned sediment waste, similar to dropping ballast sandbags from a hot air balloon.

By mixing and aerating the ocean floor, they contribute to the ecosystem like earthworms do on land. They can also illuminate their bodies, which helps them navigate in the dark.

When threatened, their skin glows and flakes off, acting as a warning signal to predators. Lab studies showed that they can quickly regenerate their skin and retain their glowing ability.

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SLIM, Japan’s Lunar Lander, Astonishingly Survives Second Night on the Moon

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View of the lunar surface taken from the tilted position of the SLIM lander

JAXA

Most landers we send to the Moon will operate for one lunar day, or about two weeks on Earth, until they die from the extreme cold of the lunar night. But Japan’s Smart Lunar Lander (SLIM) has now survived two nights on the moon and continues to send images back to Earth, an amazing feat.

SLIM is Japan’s first lunar lander and becomes the fifth country to land a spacecraft on the lunar surface. When the plane landed on January 19, it was tilted and the solar panels could not provide enough power to continue operating for more than a few hours. After nine days, the sun began to move again, moving across the sky.

But just three Earth days later, the lunar night began. Nighttime temperatures on the moon can drop as low as -133°C (-208°F), potentially damaging the spacecraft’s batteries and electronics. Normally, the lunar lander shuts down on a lunar night and never wakes up again, but it started up again on February 25 as the sun rose above Slim.

This in itself was a surprise. The lander was not specifically designed to withstand lunar nights, and its original mission was scheduled to end at night. So, as night approached again, this seemed to be the end of SLIM.

However, on March 27th, the SLIM official account I posted an image above X has the following caption: “Last night, we received a response from SLIM confirming that SLIM achieved its second success during the night. Last night, the sun was still high and the equipment was hot, so I quickly turned on my navigation camera. It looks like the lander will be able to resume analyzing its surroundings within the next few days.

Its survival is especially surprising because while some spacecraft use radioactive elements to stay warm, SLIM does not. “This is a significant achievement considering we are not using radioisotope heaters,” he says. Haim Benaroya at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “This result is important and impressive, given that this is a major design consideration for electronics (and people) to survive moonlit nights.” SLIM has failed while many other spacecraft have failed. Analyzing how they survived may help us understand how they stay warm on the moon.

topic:

  • moon/
  • space exploration

Source: www.newscientist.com