In a science-packed cosmic encounter that’s out of this world, MOTAT takes a closer look at modern-day space exploration when it launches its latest holiday experience from 8 to 23 July.
MOTAT’s Public Programmes Manager Sarah Somerville says the Museum is keen to encourage deeper thinking and conversation about what space might look like. “Could mankind be building skyscrapers and motorways on another planet one day? The possibilities are endless and we want to inspire our future innovators to explore the options and let their imaginations run wild,” she says.
Participants in Starbound - Mission: Solar will also learn more about the “Goldilocks Zone”; the area of space where a planet is just the right distance from its home star so that its surface is neither too hot nor too cold to support life. Could there be other habitable planets out there like our own Earth? Investigate this question and many others in MOTAT’s hands-on solar system activity area.
Then it’s time for a galactic journey beginning with the gas and dust of the Sun’s formation in Sunlight – Ihi Kōmaru. In this award-winning exhibition visitors take on the role of a photon as it travels through space and can test their speed against a beam of light by racing to the Moon. Discover how light is created, see how mankind harnesses the Sun’s power in everyday devices and explore what the Sun sounds like by climbing inside an inflatable replica of a star to find out.
Aglow with a galaxy of exciting science, Sunlight - Ihi Kōmaru and Starbound – Mission: Solar will keep the whole family entertained these school holidays while helping them understand the forces that sustain life on Earth – and indeed drive the entire universe.
MOTAT – 805 Great North Road, Western Springs
Times: 10am to 5pm daily
Dates: 8 – 23 July 2017
Normal MOTAT admission fees apply. www.motat.org.nz