Ethan DeneaultCorinne Speight2018-02-212018-02-212015Speight, Corinne. “The Search for a Model Organism for Panspermia: Examining the Effects of Vacuum and Ultraviolet Radiation Exposure on Differently Encysted Artemia Embryos.” Acta Spartae, 2015. https://doi.org/10.48497/EPNP-6466.http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11868/272Recommended Citation: Speight, Corinne. “The Search for a Model Organism for Panspermia: Examining the Effects of Vacuum and Ultraviolet Radiation Exposure on Differently Encysted Artemia Embryos.” Acta Spartae, 2015. https://doi.org/10.48497/EPNP-6466.Panspermia, or the idea that sources of life are distributed throughout the Universe via transportational units such as meteoroids, has become a tantalizing possibility throughout the realm of astrobiology. In this experiment, Artemia franciscana (brine shrimp a.k.a. Sea Monkey) embryos under different encystment states (dehydrated, hydrated-capsulated, and hydrated-decapsulated) were exposed to extreme vacuum and ultraviolet radiation conditions similar to those found in space in order to determine whether or not they could be a prototypical organism for this theory. Quantitative analyses were done by calculating Artemia hatch rates for umbrella, naupliar, and both umbrella & naupliar stages following treatments. Although hatch rates varied, exposure to these extreme space-like conditions did not completely impede the viability of the encysted Artemia studied. This suggests that encysted Artemia franciscana may be a model organism supporting the theory of panspermia, although the effects of encystment state during exposure to other space-like conditions besides extreme vacuum and UV radiation warrants further investigation.en-USDepartment of BiologyDepartment of ChemistryDepartment of Chemistry, Biochemistry, and PhysicsPanspermiaUltraviolet radiationArtemiaResearch Subject Categories::NATURAL SCIENCESResearch Subject Categories::NATURAL SCIENCES::BiologyResearch Subject Categories::NATURAL SCIENCES::ChemistryArticlehttps://doi.org/10.48497/epnp-6466