New travel companions for astronauts! Four blobs will join the International Space Station (ISS) so that astronauts can study their behavior in space.

This surprising creature is neither a plant, nor an animal, nor a mushroom. Physarum polycephalum, its scientific name, is an organism made up of a single cell, but which contains several nuclei.

Read also: Do ​​you meet the medical criteria to become an astronaut?

Surprising behaviors

Even though the blob has no brain, it is capable of learning and assessing risks.

According to Audrey Dussutour, research director at the CNRS and initiator of this experiment, the blob ages but it is capable of falling asleep in a kind of stasis for several years and of waking up regenerated once rehydrated.

???? Our #blobs will be launched to the #ISS so on ???? !
???? ‍ ???????? ‍ ???? we will also send thousand of blobs to schools so that kids will be able to run the same experiments as the french astronaut @Thom_astro ????

An exciting project run in collaboration with @CNES @CNRS @COMATSPACE @actoulouse pic.twitter.com/zE0dmBQBMl

– Audrey Dussutour (@Docteur_Drey) March 18, 2021

Why send it to space?

The blob is far from the first terrestrial creature to go to space for experiments. Fish, dogs, cats, monkeys have already participated in this very instructive experiment for scientists.

For example, scientists observed how this fish adapted to microgravity:

After a period of adaptation, where he could not differentiate the top from the bottom due to lack of gravity, this fish finally began to swim with its back to the laboratory lights. According to scientists, he considered it to be the sun, therefore the top.

For the blob, scientists will closely monitor its behavior and organism in space. Thomas Pesquet will be responsible for awakening these four blobs and photographing their evolution according to various factors.