ON EXHIBIT NOW through Summer of 2012
Sponsored by Mutual of Omaha
The threat of a catastrophic impact from an asteroid or comet is a staple of popular culture. If there was a dinosaur killer in Earth’s past, is there a human killer in our future? What are the chances and how do we assess the risks? For that matter, what are asteroids, comets, and meteorites, and where do they come from? Great Balls of Fire explores recent discoveries and cutting-edge science relating to these incredible objects.
Origins
This area of the exhibit presents the story of the formation and structure of the Solar System. Planets and the ‘leftovers’ of formation – asteroids and comets – orbit our massive Sun. The story embraces the way the asteroid belt, the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud formed and their location in dramatically different parts of the Solar System.
Asteroids
This area sheds light on bodies in space frequently heard about but rarely understood. The story of asteroids, the largest rocks in space, will encompass their place in the Solar System, in the asteroid belt orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter or, and the Near-Earth Objects which cross the orbits of Earth and Mars. Historic discoveries and missions have expanded our understanding of the various types of asteroids, and this section of the exhibit explores those encounters.
Comets
Scientists do not know comets as well as asteroids. What lies below the crust is largely unknown. As comets orbit closer to the Sun, their inner ices gradually warm, and form immense tails that can grow to a length of 100 million miles or more. The story of our developing understanding of comets begins with sightings recorded throughout history and the interpretations humans attributed to them for thousands of years as harbingers of catastrophic events. Today’s comet hunters and missions into space are deepening our understanding of the origins of these icy objects.
Scientists do not know comets as well as asteroids. What lies below the crust is largely unknown. As comets orbit closer to the Sun, their inner ices gradually warm, and form immense tails that can grow to a length of 100 million miles or more. The story of our developing understanding of comets begins with sightings recorded throughout history and the interpretations humans attributed to them for thousands of years as harbingers of catastrophic events. Today’s comet hunters and missions into space are deepening our understanding of the origins of these icy objects.
Impacts and Risk
This area presents three major impact stories from different periods of history – the 65 million year old Chicxulub crater thought to be responsible for killing most of the planet’s species including the dinosaurs; the 50,000 year old Barringer Meteor Crater made by a nickel-iron meteorite roughly 50 – 60 meters across; and the 1908 Tunguska Event, the explosion of a small asteroid about 5 miles – roughly the cruising altitude of a modern jet airplane – above the surface of Siberia. Anchored by the stories of these three earth-shaking (literally!) events, this area of the exhibit interprets the energy of impacts and the concept that their incredible speed is what makes them so destructive for their size.
Sponsored by
