[meteorite-list] Renovated Hall of Meteorites to Reopen

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:29:55 2004
Message-ID: <200309152250.PAA28012_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/entertainment/6779030.htm

Renovated Hall of Meteorites to Reopen
DEEPTI HAJELA
Associated Press
September 15, 2003

NEW YORK - The newly renovated Arthur Ross Hall of Meteorites is reopening
Saturday at the American Museum of Natural History, allowing visitors to again
come in contact with objects as old as the sun.

"We display some of the first rocks formed in the solar system," said Denton Ebel,
curator of the hall.

The exhibition centers on Ahnighito, a 34-ton fragment of the 4.5 billion-year-old
Cape York meteorite that hit Greenland 10,000 years ago. A new, raised platform
brings visitors right up to the rock, which is so heavy that its supports go through the
floor all the way down to the bedrock below the museum.

On the circular walls around Ahnighito are sections on the origins of the solar
system, the development of planets and the role of meteorite impacts on Earth.

"We are delighted to offer ... even more vital information about the formation of our
solar system and the planet we call home," Ellen Futter, president of the museum,
said Monday.

The impact section includes an assessment of the likelihood of a meteorite of any
catastrophic size hitting the Earth. (Don't worry, it's not likely.)

"There has been no large, crater-forming impact on Earth in human history," Ebel
said. "Big impacts are extremely rare and really big ones are even rarer."

The Hall of Meteorites first opened at the museum in 1981. The renovation reflects
the advances in the study of meteorites since then, as well as Ross' desire for the
gallery to have the kind of presence that is seen in other parts of the museum, such
as the Rose Center for Earth and Space, Ebel said.

One of the changes includes the labeling of some of the museum's meteorites as
being from Mars. When the hall first opened, that wasn't definitely known, Ebel said.

Other changes include a scale model of Meteor Crater in Arizona, as well as a
section of a football-size meteorite that hit a car in Peekskill, N.Y., in 1992, and
stones from the museum's collection that have not previously been on view.

The museum also has added interactive components, and a seven-minute video
presentation narrated by astronaut Sally Ride. The reopening of the hall also allows
for the reopening of the adjacent Morgan Memorial Hall of Gems and the Harry
Frank Guggenheim Hall of Minerals. Both had been closed during the six-month
renovation of the Hall of Meteorites.

Ebel said he hoped the renovation would help visitors get a sense of how important
meteorites are.

"They're our only samples of other planets," he said.

ON THE NET

American Museum of Natural History: http://www.amnh.org
Received on Mon 15 Sep 2003 06:50:34 PM PDT