Spiders In Space - The Beginning Of The End

by James Temple

Title

Spiders In Space - The Beginning Of The End

Artist

James Temple

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

It has been observed that being in Earth's orbit has an effect on the structure of spider webs in space. Spider webs were spun in low earth orbit in 1973 aboard Skylab, involving two female European garden spiders (cross spiders) called Arabella and Anita, as part of an experiment on the Skylab 3 mission. The aim of the experiment was to test whether the two spiders would spin webs in space, and, if so, whether these webs would be the same as those that spiders produced on Earth. The experiment was a student project of Judy Miles of Lexington, Massachusetts. After the launch on July 28, 1973, and entering Skylab, the spiders were released by astronaut Owen Garriott into a box that resembled a window frame. The spiders proceeded to construct their web while a camera took photographs and examined the spiders' behavior in a zero-gravity environment. Both spiders took a long time to adapt to their weightless existence. However, after a day, Arabella spun the first web. It was thought that both spiders died during the mission. True story... check out http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryinthenews/a/spiders-in-space-skylab.htm. Parts of this image use NASA photos and are copyright free.

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April 7th, 2010

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