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D. radiodurans is capable of withstanding an instantaneous dose of up to 5,000 Gy of ionizing radiation with no loss of viability, and an instantaneous dose of up to 15,000 Gy with 37% viability. A dose of 5,000 Gy is estimated to introduce several hundred complete breaks into the organism's DNA. For comparison, 10 Gy can kill a human, over 4000 to kill the radiation-resistant tardigrade, and 60 Gy will kill E. coli. (A chest X-ray or Apollo mission involves about 1 milligray).