Last call for “Exoplanètes”
The wall of exoplanets. (Photo: Philippe Wagneur/Muséum de Genève)
The exhibition “Exoplanètes” of the Geneva Museum of Natural History comes to an end and according to numbers provided by the museum, some 300,000 people have visited it, one month before its scheduled closure on 4 April. “Exoplanètes” then will hand over to dinosaurs, a unique topic capable of drawing in as many or even more visitors, since tyrannosaurs, pterodactyls and other brontosaurs are the only ones able to compete with the alien worlds in the collective imagination. “Exoplanètes” has also attracted many young people, in fact around 3,500 primary and secondary students took a guided tour and more than 2,000 attended the workshops “Discovery” offered on Wednesday afternoons by the museum and partly animated by members of PlanetS.
The museum also organized conferences and events with exoplanets as a backdrop. In particular, there were many lectures by members of the NCCR on satellite hunters exoplanets, extraterrestrial life or the history of the discovery of 51 Peg b. Some of these events were specially prepared for private institutions, as for example the evening organized for the children of employees of the BCG (Banque Cantonale de Genève), which was attended by over 200 people including parents and kids. The evening was hosted by a member of the NCCR and accompanied by a guided tour.
NASA’s travel ad. (Credit: NASA)
The highlights of “Exoplanètes” were, according to organizers, the wall of exoplanets, calculations of distances and the movie in which we could hear Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz talking about their discovery and its consequences. The dream prize, however, goes to the hall dedicated to science fiction and its fantastic creatures, with credit to NASA for its posters worthy of a travel agency specialized in interplanetary tourism.
Categories: External Newsletter
