Great Balls of Fire: Comets, Asteroids and Meteors
Now on Exhibit through January 10, 2016

The Space Science Institute’s National Center for Interactive Learning, with funding from the National Science Foundation and NASA, has developed a national traveling exhibition program called Great Balls of Fire: Comets, Asteroids, and Meteors.

Great Balls of Fire explores the mysteries of these celestial objects. The threat of a catastrophic impact from an asteroid or comet is a staple of popular culture. If there was a dinosaur killer in Earth’s past, is there a human killer in our future? What are the chances and how do we assess the risks? For that matter, what are asteroids, comets, and meteorites, and where do they come from? These and many other questions are answered in Great Balls of Fire.

• The exhibition is divided into four areas: Origins,Asteroids, Comets, and Impacts.Designed by Jeff Kennedy Associates, this exhibit will include a variety of interactive, multimedia experiences, ranging from straightforward computer-based activities to a larger scale, “pod” where visitors play the role of “explorers-in-training” – an important theme that threads throughout the exhibit.

This interactive exhibit takes visitors on an astronomical adventure to climb into a “spaceship” and blast off to the asteroid belt and Jupiter on a mission to gather data about asteroids and comets. Navigate through a display of art and artifacts that tell the story of comet observations throughout human history. Learn the size of the average rock in a meteor shower event (it’s smaller than you think!).


See what would happen if asteroids or comets of various sizes hit your hometown. Guests will also use a variety of tests (magnetism, color, density/relative weight) to detect if a rock is a meteorite (or a meteor-wrong) and determine if clips from Hollywood films are Science Fact or Science Fiction. Explorers can end their expedition by creating their own solar system, including asteroid belts and comets.
 
Visitors are encouraged to upgrade to a combo ticket to view "Hubble 3D" and "Space Station 3D" at AutoNation ® IMAX 3D Theater in conjunction with this exhibit. Click HERE for film show times.

This exhibit and the IMAX space films and related programs are supported by a grant from the John H. Rau Space Education Fund of Community Foundation of Broward for Beyond the Kármán Line: A Comprehensive Learning Initiative in Space Science.