Water Bears Can Survive Unprotected In Space

It's not hard to imagine that some creatures would be able to withstand the conditions in outer space given the extreme conditions under which some animals live on earth (see extremophile: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremophile)

I also found this interesting: http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970603.h...

apparently humans can survive for a very short time in outer space unprotected. No explosions or boiling blood as portrayed in movies and such.

Space cannot be cold.

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22space+is+not+cold%22

there is the threat of [epithet deleted] radiation from stars.

...And from black holes, supernovae, and other sources.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_ray#Cosmic_ray_sources

It is considered the most hostile of environments

No. The center of a star might be considered more hostile.

where unprotected humans would last for a fraction of a second.

No. "Animal experiments show that rapid and complete recovery is normal for exposures shorter than 90 seconds ... There is only a limited amount of data available from human accidents, but it is consistent with animal data. Limbs may be exposed for much longer if breathing is not impaired."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum#Effects_on_humans_and_an...