There are places in this universe that are very different from the planet you and I inhabit. Take, for example, the planet Lobble in NGC 5194 (the Whirlpool Galaxy). The Lobbles look like giant, furry arthropods and they have an insatiable wanderlust. They started out just walking around their world, but some realized that there were places that were too far away to reach by walking. So they invented motors hundreds of years earlier than most civilizations. Not long after that they discovered that exploring their own planet had become too easy and they set their sights on the stars. Thus they became the first species in the Whirlpool Galaxy to develop international flight. Despite their friendly natures, they often inspired terror in the creatures of the planets they visited. Many species in the Whirlpool Galaxy terrify their children with tales about giant rat-beetles. Even now they often inspire fear and revulsion the first time someone sees them. Ironically, all of the Lobbles left their planet and it has been millennia since any have set foot on their own planet.
These illustrations were drawn using Stable Diffusion 2.1.
