Last month, China sent four baby zebrafish as “stowaways” to the Tiangong space station. So far, the fish are thriving in the microgravity environment of their space aquarium, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
Despite this, astronauts on board the station monitored the fish They show abnormal directional behaviorSuch as swimming upside down and moving alternately.
In a video clip published by the Chinese National Space Administration, fish are shown swimming in all directions inside a glass cube. He seems unable to understand the right direction. Before receiving the awards, the zebrafish had to pass strict selection tests, explained Wang Gaohong, an aquatic biology researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Their difficulties serve an important scientific purpose. Scientists hope so Study the effect of microgravity on vertebrates such as zebrafishFocusing on their behavior, growth and development, and analyzing water samples and fish eggs during the experiment. The data collected could provide more information about how space and cosmic radiation affects larger vertebrates such as humans, with important implications for future space missions (here animals sent into orbit).
This is not the first time fish have been transported into space. In 1973, NASA launched two mommyfish into space, along with a container containing 50 eggs. Once they arrived at NASA’s Skylab space station, the fish swam in elongated circles, as if they were the rotating hands of a clock created by Salvador Dali, not knowing which direction was right without gravity. Finally, the creatures They turned their backs toward the lights inside SkylabUsing light as a guide.
Despite initial success, both fish and humans suffer bone density loss in space, as the Japanese discovered in 2012.
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