Wonders Of The Solar System

The Oberhausen Gasometer currently holds an exhibit called 'Out Of This World - Wonders Of The Solar System'. It depicts the human exploration of the universe in a stunningly beautiful and very informative way, containing dozens of oversized pictures, recreations of space stations and historical/modern age tools for cosmic measurement, and - probably the main feature of the exhibition - remodels of the planets of our solar system, sized in scale to each other, shown on the lower floor of the Gasometer. Only the Moon appears a little larger (it is considered 'the largest Moon on Earth'), floating above the heads of visitors on the main stage, illuminated so that it is simulating its phases.

View from the top of the Gasometer. Picture taken by Tiny (2010)

I visited the exhibit with my fellow hobby scientist Tiny; check out her sweet blog for more cool pics and impressions!


Btw: Just the name alone made me want to watch the great documentary series from the early 80s, 'Cosmos: A Personal Voyage'. Carl Sagan really built himself a monument with this series; the whole universe (as far as we knew back then) explained by a very charismatic Sagan with visual greatness and deep philosophical elements, but still so very easy to understand that you feel really smart. Go check it out, if you can and if you are at least a little interested in our universe; 'Cosmos' is probably the best way to learn about it. When I visited the exhibit, I felt really clever because I knew some of the facts already - and more, since you can only put so much text on a single information panel.

Here's a great song made entirely from 'Cosmos' quotes (including a cameo from Stephen Hawking) for the five people out there who don't know it already.


'If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars'. Yes please.


The same guy who made this great video made another song consisting not only of Sagan quotes, but other great scientists as well. It doesn't flow as well as the first one though (at least in my opinion), but the quotes are grand. 
Also, check out Sagan explaining our limited understanding of the Fourth Dimension:


' 'Hello', says the three-dimensional creature.'

Always blows my mind if I think about it for too long.

Tiny sent me an interesting video featuring Carl Sagan, Richard Feynmann and others, talking about 'The Fine Art Of Not Knowing':
'Science is not about the truth. What science is about is making our beliefs less false.'

And to end this little rant, here's another great quote by Carl Sagan considering early assumptions about the atmosphere of Venus.
'The arguments, if we can dignify such a phrase, went something like this:
I can't see a thing on the surface of Venus. Why not? Because its covered with a dense layer of clouds. Well, what are clouds made of? Water of course. Therefore Venus must have an awful lot of water on it. Therefore the surface must be wet. Well if the surface is wet it's probably a swamp. If there's a swamp there's ferns. If there's ferns, well maybe there's even dinosaurs.
Observation: You couldn't see a thing.
Conclusion: Dinosaurs.'

Brilliant.