Space spiders build webs in an unusual way

Earth-bound spiders spin their webs with the center of the web offset towards the upper edge. These spiders are always facing down.

We can’t grow spiders in the vacuum of space, but luckily we do have an entire laboratory orbiting above our heads.

That’s the International Space Station, orbiting Earth about 250 miles up, at about 5 miles per second.

Back in 2011, a team of scientists sent two spiders up to the ISS in a special habitat — complete with webcam — and observed two similar spiders on Earth to see how the webs differed in space vs on the ground.

The scientists noticed that in zero-gravity, the webs looked a lot more symmetrical and the spiders didn’t always face down.

Under light, the space spiders oriented themselves downwards — like on Earth.

In the absence of gravity, the spiders may use light as a way to orient themselves.

“That spiders have a back-up system for orientation like this seems surprising, since they have never been exposed to an environment without gravity in the course of their evolution,” lead author Samuel Zschokke said in a statement.

Without gravity, the spider may be confused about which way it is facing, Zschokke said. The light from above could serve as a clue for the confused spiders.