Ants in space! Cygnus craft delivers 640 new astronauts to space station.

A small colony of sterile ants in space will help scientists learn how these creatures adjust to microgravity.

For millions of years, ants have been one of most industrious creatures on Earth. Now we're going to see how they fare in space.

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With the help of NASA, a team of scientists now seeks to understand how the insects, renowned by biologists for their navigational and organizational skills, adjust to microgravity.

The experiment could provide us with a better understanding of foraging methods used by ants, the University of Colorado's Stefanie Countryman, one of the co-investigators of the experiment, told the Monitor.

After a two-day voyage, Orbital Science's robotic Cygnus spacecraft delivered the 640 small black common pavement ants to the International Space Station on January 12.

To avoid infestation, sterile worker ants were chosen for the project.

The ants were divided into eight equal groups each consisting of 80 ants. They were assigned to their individual habitats, eight in total. A habitat, says Stanford biologist Deborah Gordon, principal investigator of the project, is a 4-inch by 6-inch covered arena made of acrylic with three sub sections Nest, Forage Area 1, and Forage Area 2.

The ants were first kept in the nest area before the experiment was initiated. As soon as the ants reached the space stationthey were moved to Forage Area 1 a more compact subsection within the habitat where density of ants was high. Their interactions and path shape were monitored on video for 25 minutes, according to NASA.

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Ants in space! Cygnus craft delivers 640 new astronauts to space station.