To some, watching a butterfly emerge from its cocoon, transformed from larva to magnificent winged beauty, is proof of nature's great wonder. For two butterflies aboard the International Space Station, it was a wonder that they emerged at all. For the first time in history, two painted lady butterflies each survived the larvae stage, formed a chrysalis and emerged as mature butterflies.
The experiment, launched aboard the space shuttle Atlantis last month, is part of an ISS outreach experiment that lets students on the ground follow test subjects as they live life (and sometimes don't) in orbit. And it should yield some interesting results.For instance, though the butterflies should be able to fly given that the ISS is pressurized, who knows what flying in microgravity will be like for such delicate creatures? Will they grow naturally, or will the environment impede their growth, similar to the way it causes astronauts to atrophy during long space missions. Will they fall victim to some kind of Simpsons-esque calamity?
To keep up with this intrepid duo, you can periodically check in on the project's Facebook page.
Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone with full articles, images and offline viewing
Carry everything you need to make a smart buy on HDTVs, cameras and 14 other product categories right in your pocket
Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed
Share links with friends, comment on stories and more
Innovative fixes for five of the country's biggest infrastructure messes, plus a look the quest to read the human mind, the LCD screen that might finally kill paper dead, and the world's scariest science.
Read the issue here.
So if they were born in space. Does that make these butterflies alien?
Extra-terrestrial definitely.
If you were born in space, would that make you an alien?
So... If your an alien born on earth, does that make you an earthling?
Well yes I should say it does. So if we bring these Alien Papilionoidea (butterfly) back to earth and they reproduced, their offspring would be that of earthen origin, hence earthling. But even cooler alien-earthling! but they would most likely be social outcasts and be shunned by their peers.
There are allot of people with concerns about proper embryonic development under luna or martian gravity. I think this helps to show that life is perfectly capable of adapting to different conditions without the need to evolve, it just works out of the box. If feats like this can happen in 0g I see no problem for reduce gravity. But I still want to see a cat go berserk on the iss but NASA would have to invent a 0g liter box. ^_^
We are also aliens to other planet dwellers. We also born in the Space, because,
1. Earth is also in the Space.
2. Anything above the ground/land of the Earth is also the Space.
so wait do they just float since they cant fly in space?
Like the article says, it's pressurized. They could probably fly just fine, but they'd have to change how they did it completely since every flap would send them shooting skyward..they should have video of this!
from avondale , az
they should put somthing the cat could hold on to in the shuttle such as a cat play pen and put let the cat claw on. put another one jus barely in the cats reach with some food.
Let the cat get hungry and wait to see if he moves. When he does put another play pen a little bit further and wait to see if the cat will leap and since his claws can grab on he will have some sense control in 0 g. eventually move the play pens across the room and wait for the cat to learn how to fly
has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?