Alien Nation:

A detail from Albertus Seba’s Lernaean Hydra, 1734, is part of The Last Pictures, a collection of 100 images engraved on a silicon disc that is scheduled to be launched with the EchoStar VI satellite later this fall. The project, created by artist Trevor Paglen and produced by public-art nonprofit Creative Time, is intended to present an overview of human achievements long after Earth has ceased to exist.

This picture, which spawned a famous fraud when a fake hydra (made out of weasel parts and snakeskin) turned up in Hamburg, is one of a number of manmade creatures in the collection, including farmed chickens, cloned Texas longhorns, and a genetically altered fruit fly with legs where its antennae should be. Read more.