PLANETARIUM HALL

Shoot for the moon in this gallery, which includes displays about Earth's atmosphere and the solar system. Exhibits include:

MOON ROCK
This plum-sized moon rock is 3.3 billion years old and was collected during the 1971 Apollo 15 mission. This lunar sample is on loan from NASA's Johnson Space Center.

AURORA IN A BOX
Long ago, Alaskans believed the Northern Lights were their ancestors' spirits. But now we know auroras are the result of photon emissions in Earth's upper atmosphere. In this exhibit, you can introduce different conditions into a box to create your very own aurora.

MAGIC PLANET
What does the Earth look like from space right this minute? What would you see if you landed on Mars? Find out with Magic Planet. This interactive globe streams NASA and NOAA imagery so you can see the Earth's weather patterns in real time. The globe screen also transforms into other planets so you can examine craters on the moon, the polar ice caps of Mars or the Great Red Spot of Jupiter.

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Did you know?

A day on Venus lasts 5,832 Earth hours.

Astronauts on the moon can jump 13 feet high.

Ancient Egyptians used astronomy to create their calendar and align the pyramids.