BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy Creepy Crawlies in Space

What was the first Earth creature to go into space? Not a dog, but a fruit fly. Insects and arachnids have been mini-astronauts for over sixty years. They have also inspired the naming of heavenly objects.

Creepy Crawlies in Space

I come from a long line, on the maternal side, of ladies with a severe aversion to flies. The idea of naming a constellation - let alone two of them! - after a fly would not occur to any female in my family. But I guess it's not too bad as long as they're far away in the sky and not buzzing around my kitchen.

I missed this while I was researching the article:

"In 1754 the English naturalist John Hill published 15 new constellations . . . . These were tucked into spaces between existing figures and represented various unappealing creatures including a toad (Bufo), a leech (Hirudo), a spider (Aranea), an earthworm (Lumbricus), and a slug (Limax). Hill was a noted satirist and he may have been attempting to perpetrate a joke on astronomers – a joke that never caught on."
Ian Ridpath, Star Tales

Oh no! A giant spider about to attack a Space Shuttle. Perhaps a scene from a horror film? No, it's real. This is not for arachnophobes however.

Giant spider and Space Shuttle Atlantis

Spoiler alert!