Deinococcus radiodurans
Polyextremophile bacterium (“Conan the Bacterium”) with exceptional tolerance to ionizing radiation, desiccation, cold, and vacuum — properties that make it the canonical exemplar in panspermia feasibility arguments for surviving interplanetary transit.
Per src-loeb-panspermia-impact-survival-2026-03, a March 2026 study reportedly demonstrated D. radiodurans and other microbes survive transient pressures up to ~2 GPa (~20,000× Earth atmosphere), the regime produced during impact-spallation ejection from a planetary surface. avi-loeb uses this as the missing piece to argue that natural panspermia — and by extension directed-panspermia — is physically plausible.