A spider web hangs in the forefront of a sunrise at Kennedy Space Center on March 15, 2021. Kennedy shares space with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on Florida’s east coast. The refuge includes about 140,000 acres on land and water and provides a wide variety of habitats.

A spider web hangs in the forefront of a sunrise at Kennedy Space Center on March 15, 2021. Kennedy shares space with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on Florida’s east coast. The refuge includes about 140,000 acres on land and water and provides a wide variety of habitats.

A delicate pattern, like that of a spider web, appears on top of the Mars residual polar cap, after the seasonal carbon-dioxide ice slab has disappeared

A spider web hangs in the forefront of a sunrise at Kennedy Space Center on March 15, 2021. Kennedy shares space with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on Florida’s east coast. The refuge includes about 140,000 acres on land and water and provides a wide variety of habitats.

Looking like a spider web swirled into a spiral, galaxy IC 342 presents its delicate pattern of dust in this infrared light image from NASA Spitzer Space Telescope.

This image shows a lava channel north of Kuiper Crater in the high southern latitudes just before spring equinox. It was a target suggested by members of the public, using our suggestion tool called HiWish. The channel confluence at the top of the image illustrates interesting volcanic processes that took place long ago. However, it was the mounds on the rim of the channel to the south of the confluence that we initially found alarming. These mounds, up to 400 meters in diameter, are decorated by radial and concentric patterns that resemble spider webs. Radial and concentric fractures are familiar from forces penetrating a brittle layer, such as a rock thrown through a glass window. These particular fractures were evidently produced by something emerging from below the brittle surface of Mars. It seems likely that ice lenses, resulting from the accumulation of ice beneath the surface, created these peculiar mounds. Ice is less dense than rock, so the buried ice rose and pushed upwards on the surface and generated these spider web-like patterns. An analogous process creates similar sized mounds in arctic tundra on Earth that are known as "pingos," an Inuit word. The Martian fractures in this location are nowadays filled with dust instead of ice, so it is unclear how long ago this activity took place. It seems likely that these pingo-forming periglacial processes took place much more recently than the volcanic activity also evident in this region of Mars. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21110

SL3-108-1307 (July-September 1973) --- A close-up view of Arabella, one of the two Skylab 3 common cross spiders "Araneus diadematus," and the web it had spun in the zero-gravity of space aboard the Skylab space station cluster in Earth orbit. This picture was taken with a hand-held 35mm Nikon camera. During the 59-day Skylab 3 mission the two spiders, Arabella and Anita, were housed in an enclosure onto which a motion picture and a still camera were attempts to build a web in the weightless environment. The spider experiment (ED52) was one of 25 experiments selected for Skylab by NASA from more than 3,400 experiment proposals submitted by high school students throughout the nation. ED52 was submitted by 17-year-old Judith S. Miles of Lexington, Massachusetts. Anita died during the last week of the mission. Photo credit: NASA

Huge waves are sculpted in this two-lobed nebula called the Red Spider Nebula, located some 3,000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. This warm planetary nebula harbors one of the hottest stars known and its powerful stellar winds generate waves 100 billion kilometers (62.4 billion miles) high. The waves are caused by supersonic shocks, formed when the local gas is compressed and heated in front of the rapidly expanding lobes. The atoms caught in the shock emit the spectacular radiation seen in this image. Image credit: ESA/Garrelt Mellema (Leiden University, the Netherlands) <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html" rel="nofollow">NASA image use policy.</a></b> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></b> enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. <b>Follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a></b> <b>Like us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897?ref=tsd" rel="nofollow">Facebook</a></b> <b>Find us on <a href="http://instagrid.me/nasagoddard/?vm=grid" rel="nofollow">Instagram</a></b>

A massive cluster of yellowish galaxies is seemingly caught in a spider web of eerily distorted background galaxies in the left-hand image, taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys ACS aboard NASA Hubble Space Telescope.

Looking like a spider web swirled into a spiral, galaxy IC 342 presents its delicate pattern of dust in this infrared light image from NASA Spitzer Space Telescope. The very center glows especially brightly in the infrared.

Judith S. Miles of Lexington High School, Lexington, Massachusetts, proposed skylab student experiment ED-52, Web Formation. This experiment was a study of a spider's behavior in a weightless environment. The geometrical structure of the web of the orb-weaving spider provides a good measure of the condition of its central nervous system. Since the spider senses its own weight to determine the required thickness of web material and uses both the wind and gravity to initiate construction of its web, the lack of gravitational force in Skylab provided a new and different stimulus to the spider's behavioral response. Two common cross spiders, Arabella and Anita, were used for the experiment aboard the Skylab-3 mission. After initial disoriented attempts, both spiders produced almost Earth-like webs once they had adapted to weightlessness. This photograph is of Arabella, a cross spider, in her initial attempt at spirning a web. This picture was taken by the crew of the Skylab 3 mission before Arabella adapted to her new environment.

Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) is partially obstructed by fog during the early morning on March 15, 2021. Built in 1966, the VAB remains a central hub for the Florida spaceport. The national landmark plays a major role in NASA’s plans to launch people and equipment deep into space on missions, including to the Moon in the Artemis program.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Among the palmettos near a road in NASA's Kennedy Space Center, a large web supports this female Golden-silk Spider, along with the considerably smaller male in front of her (more visible in an enlargement). Golden-silk spiders build a roundish web, with an orb-shaped center like a fishnet. Like the spider, the silk is bright yellow, leading to the alternate reference of "banana spider." In Florida, a single golden-silk spider can place a web across a 12-foot wide trail overnight. It is frequently about 6 to 9 feet above the ground and normally has an area from 8 to 36 square feet. They eat almost all insects; their natural enemies are wasps. Golden-silk spiders are found in Florida to the Carolinas, the West Indies, Central and South America. Photo credit: NASA/Ken Thornsley

This chart describes the Skylab student experiment Web Formation. Judith S. Miles of Lexington High School, Lexington, Massachusetts, proposed a study of the spider's behavior in a weightless environment. The geometrical structure of the web of the orb-weaving spider provides a good measure of the condition of its central nervous system. Since the spider senses its own weight to determine the required thickness of web material and uses both the wind and gravity to initiate construction of its web, the lack of gravitational force in Skylab provided a new and different stimulus to the spider's behavioral response. Two common cross spiders, Arabella and Anita, were used for the experiment aboard the Skylab-3 mission. After initial disoriented attempts, both spiders produced almost Earth-like webs once they had adapted to weightlessness. In March 1972, NASA and the National Science Teachers Association selected 25 experiment proposals for flight on Skylab. Science advisors from the Marshall Space Flight Center aided and assisted the students in developing the proposals for flight on Skylab.

Lexington, Massachusetts high school student, Judith Miles, discusses her proposed Skylab experiment with Keith Demorest (right) and Henry Floyd, both of Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). In her experiment, called the “Web Formation in Zero Gravity”, called for spiders to be released into a box and their actions recorded to determine how well they adapt to the absence of gravity. Spiders are known to adapt quickly to other changes in the environment but nothing was known of their ability to adapt to weightlessness. At the same time spiders were weaving webs in Earth orbit, similar spiders were spinning webs in identical boxes on Earth under full gravity conditions. Miles was among the 25 winners of a contest in which some 3,500 high school students proposed experiments for the following year’s Skylab Mission. Of the 25 students, 6 did not see their experiments conducted on Skylab because the experiments were not compatible with Skylab hardware and timelines. Of the 19 remaining, 11 experiments required the manufacture of equipment.

On the grounds of Kennedy Space Center, a female Golden-Silk Spider repairs its web. During the day spider hands head downward from the underside of the web near the center. Its web may measure two to three feet across and it repairs the webbing each day, replacing half but never the whole web at one time. The center shares a boundary with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, a 92,000-acre refuge that is a habitat for more than 331 species of birds, 31 mammals, 117 fishes, and 65 amphibians and reptiles. The marshes and open water of the refuge provide wintering areas for 23 species of migratory waterfowl, as well as a year-round home for great blue herons, great egrets, wood storks, cormorants, brown pelicans and other species of marsh and shore birds, as well as a variety of insects

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- On the grounds of Kennedy Space Center, a female Golden-Silk Spider repairs its web. The female can be identified by its brownish-green abdomen with a white spotted irregular pattern. The golden-silk spider repairs the webbing each day, replacing half but never the whole web at one time. Its web may measure two to three feet across. The center shares a boundary with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, a 92,000-acre refuge that is a habitat for more than 331 species of birds, 31 mammals, 117 fishes, and 65 amphibians and reptiles. The marshes and open water of the refuge provide wintering areas for 23 species of migratory waterfowl, as well as a year-round home for great blue herons, great egrets, wood storks, cormorants, brown pelicans and other species of marsh and shore birds, as well as a variety of insects

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - On the grounds of Kennedy Space Center, a female Golden-Silk Spider repairs its web. The female can be identified by its brownish-green abdomen with a white spotted irregular pattern. The golden-silk spider repairs the webbing each day, replacing half but never the whole web at one time. Its web may measure two to three feet across. The center shares a boundary with the Merritt Island Wildlife Nature Refuge, consisting of 140,000 acres. The Refuge provides a wide variety of habitats: coastal dunes, saltwater estuaries and marshes, freshwater impoundments, scrub, pine flatwoods, and hardwood hammocks that provide habitat for more than 1,500 species of plants and animals. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - On the grounds of Kennedy Space Center, a female Golden-Silk Spider repairs its web. The female can be identified by its brownish-green abdomen with a white spotted irregular pattern. The golden-silk spider repairs the webbing each day, replacing half but never the whole web at one time. Its web may measure two to three feet across. The center shares a boundary with the Merritt Island Wildlife Nature Refuge, consisting of 140,000 acres. The Refuge provides a wide variety of habitats: coastal dunes, saltwater estuaries and marshes, freshwater impoundments, scrub, pine flatwoods, and hardwood hammocks that provide habitat for more than 1,500 species of plants and animals. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis

Lexington, Massachusetts high school student, Judith Miles, discusses her proposed Skylab experiment with engineers and scientists during a design review of the experiment equipment. At left is Ron Pavlue of Kennedy Space Flight Center (KSC), holding a box is Keith Demorest of Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Right of Miles is Dr. Raymond Gause, also of MSFC, who is Miles’ scientific advisor. In her experiment, called the “Web Formation in Zero Gravity”, spiders were released into a box and their actions recorded to determine how well they adapt to the absence of gravity. Spiders are known to adapt quickly to other changes in the environment but nothing was known of their ability to adapt to weightlessness. At the same time spiders were weaving webs in Earth orbit, similar spiders were spinning webs in identical boxes on Earth under full gravity conditions. Miles was among the 25 winners of a contest in which some 3,500 high school students proposed experiments for the following year’s Skylab mission. Of the 25 students, 6 did not see their experiments conducted on Skylab because the experiments were not compatible with Skylab hardware and timelines. Of the 19 remaining, 11 experiments required the manufacture of equipment.

SL3-109-1345 (August 1973) --- View of scientist-astronaut Owen K. Garriott, Skylab 3 science pilot, taking TV footage of Arabella and Anita, the two Skylab 3 common cross spiders "aranous diadematus," aboard the Skylab space station cluster in Earth orbit. During the 59-day Skylab 3 mission the two spiders Arabella and Anita, were housed in an enclosure onto which a motion picture and still camera were attached to record the spiders' attempts to build a web in the weightless environment. Note the automatic data acquisition camera (DAC) about 3.5 feet to Garriott's right (about waist level). Photo credit: NASA

S73-34206 (8 Aug. 1973) --- A closeup view of Arabella, one of two Skylab 3 common cross spiders ?Araneus diadematus,? and the web it had spun in the zero-gravity of space aboard the Skylab space station cluster in Earth orbit. This is a photographic reproduction made a color television transmission aboard Skylab. During the 59-day Skylab 3 mission the two spiders, Arabella and Anita, were housed in an enclosure onto which a motion picture camera and a still camera were attached to record the spiders? attempts to build a web in the weightless environment. The spider experiment (ED52) was one of 25 experiments selected for Skylab by NASA from more than 3,400 experiment proposals submitted by 17-year-old Judith S. Miles of Lexington, Massachusetts. Anita died during the last week of the mission. THIS PHOTOGRAPH IS A GOVERNMENT PUBLICATION ?NOT SUBJECT TO COPYRIGHT. It may not be used to state or imply the endorsement by NASA or by any NASA employee of a commercial product, process or service, or used in any way that might mislead. Accordingly, it is requested that if this photograph is used in advertising and other commercial promotions, layout and copy be submitted to NASA prior to release. Photo credit: NASA

S73-33164 (27 Aug. 1973) --- A close-up view of Anita, one of the two common cross spiders “Araneus diadematus” aboard Skylab, is seen in this photographic reproduction of a color television transmission made by a TV camera aboard the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. A finger of one of the Skylab 3 crewmen points to Anita. The two spiders are housed in an enclosure onto which a motion picture and still camera are attached to record the spider’s attempt to build a web in the zero-gravity of space. The spider experiment (ED52) is one of 25 experiments selected by NASA for Skylab from more than 3,400 experiment proposals submitted by high school students throughout the nation. ED52 was submitted by 17-year old Judith S. Miles of Lexington, Mass. Photo credit: NASA

S73-32499 (July 1973) --- Dr. Ray Gause of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) places dinner, in the form of a housefly, in the web of Arabella - the prime spider for the ED-52 Web Formation Experiment. Arabella can be delineated near the end of the black pen in Dr. Gause's hand. The experiment is one of 25 student experiments accepted for the Skylab program and will be performed during the Skylab 3 mission. Judy Miles, a 17-year-old high school student from Lexington, Massachusetts, is the student experimenter and Dr. Gause is the NASA student advisor. Photo credit: NASA

The southwestern border of Brunei with Sarawak, Malaysia is strikingly apparent due to differences in land use practice. On the Malaysian side, a spider web of small roads indicates intensive land use: in this case clearing of the forest for palm oil plantations. On the Brunei side, the virgin forest is preserved, with few if any roads cutting through the forest. The image was acquired September 10, 2012, covers an area of 38 by 38 km, and is located at 4.2 degrees north, 114.4 degrees east. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22034

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Near Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a Golden-Silk Spider repairs its web after a capturing a moth. The golden-silk spider repairs the webbing each day, replacing half but never the whole web at one time. Its web may measure two to three feet across. The center shares a boundary with the Merritt Island Wildlife Nature Refuge, consisting of 140,000 acres. The Refuge provides a wide variety of habitats: coastal dunes, saltwater estuaries and marshes, freshwater impoundments, scrub, pine flatwoods, and hardwood hammocks that provide habitat for more than 1,500 species of plants and animals. Atlantis and its crew of four; Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim are scheduled to lift off at 11:26 a.m. EDT on July 8 to deliver the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module packed with supplies and spare parts for the International Space Station. Atlantis also will fly the Robotic Refueling Mission experiment that will investigate the potential for robotically refueling existing satellites in orbit. In addition, Atlantis will return with a failed ammonia pump module to help NASA better understand the failure mechanism and improve pump designs for future systems. STS-135 is the 33rd flight of Atlantis, the 37th shuttle mission to the space station, and the 135th and final mission of NASA's Space Shuttle Program. For more information, visit www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts135/index.html. Photo credit: Ken Thornsley

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Near Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a Golden-Silk Spider repairs its web after a capturing a moth. The golden-silk spider repairs the webbing each day, replacing half but never the whole web at one time. Its web may measure two to three feet across. The center shares a boundary with the Merritt Island Wildlife Nature Refuge, consisting of 140,000 acres. The Refuge provides a wide variety of habitats: coastal dunes, saltwater estuaries and marshes, freshwater impoundments, scrub, pine flatwoods, and hardwood hammocks that provide habitat for more than 1,500 species of plants and animals. Atlantis and its crew of four; Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim are scheduled to lift off at 11:26 a.m. EDT on July 8 to deliver the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module packed with supplies and spare parts for the International Space Station. Atlantis also will fly the Robotic Refueling Mission experiment that will investigate the potential for robotically refueling existing satellites in orbit. In addition, Atlantis will return with a failed ammonia pump module to help NASA better understand the failure mechanism and improve pump designs for future systems. STS-135 is the 33rd flight of Atlantis, the 37th shuttle mission to the space station, and the 135th and final mission of NASA's Space Shuttle Program. For more information, visit www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts135/index.html. Photo credit: Ken Thornsley

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Near Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a Golden-Silk Spider repairs its web after a capturing a moth. The golden-silk spider repairs the webbing each day, replacing half but never the whole web at one time. Its web may measure two to three feet across. The center shares a boundary with the Merritt Island Wildlife Nature Refuge, consisting of 140,000 acres. The Refuge provides a wide variety of habitats: coastal dunes, saltwater estuaries and marshes, freshwater impoundments, scrub, pine flatwoods, and hardwood hammocks that provide habitat for more than 1,500 species of plants and animals. Atlantis and its crew of four; Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim are scheduled to lift off at 11:26 a.m. EDT on July 8 to deliver the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module packed with supplies and spare parts for the International Space Station. Atlantis also will fly the Robotic Refueling Mission experiment that will investigate the potential for robotically refueling existing satellites in orbit. In addition, Atlantis will return with a failed ammonia pump module to help NASA better understand the failure mechanism and improve pump designs for future systems. STS-135 is the 33rd flight of Atlantis, the 37th shuttle mission to the space station, and the 135th and final mission of NASA's Space Shuttle Program. For more information, visit www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts135/index.html. Photo credit: Ken Thornsley

A close-up image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter of a recent 150-meter diameter impact crater near Amazonis Mensa and Medusae Fossae is another great example of geologic complexity of Mars. The spider web-like texture of this crater is intriguing. But what does it mean? On Earth, we have many geologic mechanisms that embrace the surface of the planet in an almost constant state of metamorphosis. Although Mars is not nearly as geologically active as Earth, it is still a host to many processes that shape its surface even today (e.g., aeolian modification, periglacial processes, recent impacts, etc.). The appearance of the ejecta of this crater is likely a combination of both the characteristics of the target material it was deposited on, and processes that modified and degraded it over time. When we look to other images in this region we find a similar texture. This texture is referred to as “yardangs” by scientists who study wind erosion. Yardangs are streamlined ridge-and-trough patterns formed by the erosion of wind dominating from a specific direction; in this particular case, from the southeast to the northwest. The specific direction of the winds is supported by regional context images that show many craters in the region have wind streak "tails" that points to the northwest. Craters of this size have been observed to form recently on Mars, so the fact that this crater is modified speaks volumes, and gives us a chance to decode some geological messages from Mars. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21759

NASA image release August 23, 2012 What looks like a giant golden spider weaving a web of cables and cords, is actually ground support equipment, including the Optical Telescope Simulator (OSIM), for the James Webb Space Telescope. OSIM's job is to generate a beam of light just like the one that the real telescope optics will feed into the actual flight instruments. Because the real flight instruments will be used to test the real flight telescope, their alignment and performance first have to be verified by using the OSIM. Engineers are thoroughly checking out OSIM now in preparation for using it to test the flight science instruments later. This photo was taken from inside a large thermal-vacuum chamber called the Space Environment Simulator (SES), at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Engineers have blanketed the structure of the OSIM with special insulating material to help control its temperature while it goes into the deep freeze testing that mimics the chill of space that Webb will ultimately experience in its operational orbit over 1 million miles from Earth. The golden-colored thermal blankets are made of aluminized kapton, a polymer film that remains stable over a wide range of temperatures. The structure that looks like a silver and black cube underneath the &quot;spider&quot; is a set of cold panels that surround OSIM's optics. During testing, OSIM's temperature will drop to 100 Kelvin (-280 F or -173 C) as liquid nitrogen flows through tubes welded to the chamber walls and through tubes along the silver panels surrounding OSIM's optics. These cold panels will keep the OSIM optics very cold, but the parts covered by the aluminized kapton blankets will stay warm. &quot;Some blankets have silver facing out and gold facing in, or inverted, or silver on both sides, etc.,&quot; says Erin Wilson, a Goddard engineer. &quot;Depending on which side of the blanket your hardware is looking at, the blankets can help it get colder or stay warmer, in an environmental test.&quot; Another reason for thermal blankets is to shield the cold OSIM optics from unwanted stray infrared light. When the OSIM is pointing its calibrated light beam at Webb's science instruments, engineers don't want any stray infrared light, such as &quot;warm photons&quot; from warm structures, leaking into the instruments' field of view. Too much of this stray light would raise the background too much for the instruments to &quot;see&quot; light from the OSIM—it would be like trying to photograph a lightning bug flying in front of car headlights. To get OSIM's optics cold, the inside of the chamber has to get cold, and to do that, all the air has to be pumped out to create a vacuum. Then liquid nitrogen has to be run though the plumbing along the inner walls of the chamber. Wilson notes that's why the blankets have to have vents in them: &quot;That way, the air between all the layers can be evacuated as the chamber pressure drops, otherwise the blankets could pop,&quot; says Wilson. The most powerful space telescope ever built, Webb is the successor to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Webb's four instruments will reveal how the universe evolved from the Big Bang to the formation of our solar system. Webb is a joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Chris Gunn <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html" rel="nofollow">NASA image use policy.</a></b> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></b> enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. <b>Follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/NASA_GoddardPix" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a></b> <b>Like us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897?ref=tsd" rel="nofollow">Facebook</a></b> <b>Find us on <a href="http://instagrid.me/nasagoddard/?vm=grid" rel="nofollow">Instagram</a></b>