Last week on Tuesday night my wife and I were invited to the opening ceremony of a new exhibition in the Deutsches Museum, the biggest science and technology museum in Germany. The exhibition, called “The Evolution of the Universe”, was created by scientists from the Excellence Cluster ‘Universe’, to which I also belong. The exhibition shows the links between particle and nuclear physics, astrophysics and cosmology, and tells the story of the evolution of the universe from the big bang to today, and even looks at what lies ahead.
The story starts with theories about the very first instances after the big bang including inflation and then moves into the realms we are now probing with the LHC. There is a slice of an LHC main dipole magnet, and a real piece of the ATLAS silicon strip tracker SCT. It moves on through primordial nucleosynthesis to the formation of neutral hydrogen, the point where the universe became transparent. This is as far back as we can look today by studying the cosmic microwave background. From there it is on to star and galaxy formation, the role of dark matter and black holes in the structure formation in the universe, and the synthesis of heavy elements in supernova explosions. It ends with a look at the effects in an ever expanding universe. All these topics are also being studied by scientists within the Excellence Cluster.
The exhibition was professionally designed with the help of the agency “Die Werft”, and is definitely a pleasure to look at and to explore. There are interactive models that show the effect of dark energy and dark matter on the structure sizes, the role of black holes in galaxy formation and the origin of different chemical elements, to just name a few.
If you happen to pass through Munich, the Deutsches Museum is always worth a visit, and this new exhibition in the astronomy section makes it even more attractive.
Picture Credits: KB Media
The first second of the universe, with an illustration of CP violation, and a slice of an LHC dipole and a piece of the ATLAS SCT.
The microwave background: As far as we can look back in time.
A place to rest and to admire the wonders of the universe.
For more information on the exhibition (in German), and more pictures, go to
http://www.deutsches-museum.de/ausstellungen/naturwissenschaft/astronomie/ausstellung/kosmologie/
http://www.universe-cluster.de/news/newsdetails/article/1/Ausstellung-im-Deutschen-Museum-eroeffnet/
