| Out of this world |
| Tuesday, 11 November 2008 | |
 Out of this world A new exhibition at Turlough House in Castlebar is set to attract thousands of astronomy-lovers in the coming months Neill O’Neill THE heavens opened last week and descended on Castlebar, when a temporary exhibition about meteorites, space and all things cosmological was opened at the National Museum of Country Life in Turlough House. Running until February, and with no admission charge, ‘Planet Earth: Our Place in Space’ is the only exhibition of its kind in Ireland, and contains many extraterrestrial objects and never-before-seen artefacts. Among the many unique displays is a rare piece of red rock which has travelled millions of kilometres around the cosmos from Mars – over countless millennia – before crashing to earth as a meteorite. Visitors to the exhibition will first encounter a strange-looking object on open display – which looks like a silver painted rock. It is in fact a section of the Campo del Cielo (Field of Heaven) meteorite which fell in South America over 5,000 years ago. Amateur astronomers will be forgiven for thinking that this is a rock – for though part of a meteorite, it is actually a piece of natural steel which was formed 4.5 billion years ago. The rock, which comprises the land mass of Ireland, is 100 million years old by comparison – easily making the Campo del Cielo meteorite fragment the oldest object in the country at present. Doubters will be amazed by the sheer weight of the very dense steel – a reason it is permitted to be kept on open display – and by the fact that it is completely magnetised. Another must-see exhibit is a plaque which was presented to the people of Ireland in 1973. It contains a small Tricolour which was carried onboard the Spacecraft America which was on the moon during the Apollo XVII mission from December 7 to 19, 1972. There is also a piece of moon rock on the plaque, with the inscription: “This fragment is a portion of rock from the Taurus Littrow Valley of the Moon. It is given as a symbol of the unity of human endeavour and carries with it the hope of the American people for a world at peace.” The plaque was presented to the people of Ireland from the people of the United States of America, and bears the name of former US President Richard Nixon. Remarkably, this piece of historic memorabilia has never been put on public display before, and there is also a video which shows astronauts on the moon picking up the actual rock that is on display – which was subsequently brought back to earth, broken up and presented to the then 40 member countries of the United Nations. ‘Planet Earth: Our Place in Space’ also contains fragments of some of the eight meteorites that have been seen falling and actually found in Ireland since 1779. This is the first time that all these have been together in the same display case, and the last discovered – at Leighlinbridge in Carlow in 1999 – is among them, along with others from counties ranging from Westmeath to Tyrone and back to Tipperary. Details and eye witness accounts of all the falls are documented in the exhibition, where there are also six full-colour display boards on ‘Minerals in our Daily Lives’, ‘The Solar System’, ‘Impact Zones’, ‘Meteorite Zones’ and ‘Folklore of the Night Sky’. According to David Moore, Chairman of Astronomy Ireland, who officially opened the exhibition, around two meteorites land on Ireland every year, though most go unnoticed, and one is witnessed and subsequently found every 30 to 40 years. He added that many meteorites land on cloudy or bright days and nobody notices them, and that once a month Astronomy Ireland gets a call from somebody thinking they have found a meteorite. He said that in 20 years of testing samples from these finds, geologists in Trinity College have not identified a single meteorite – ‘just plenty of meteorwrongs’ – but he urged people to keep looking to the skies and hunting for cosmic objects. Mr Moore was also full of praise for the exhibition. “Astronomy Ireland have 11,000 members – the biggest astronomy society in the world relative to population – and I will be recommending to each one of them that they visit Castlebar and bring their family and friends with them,” he said. “Quite simply, this exhibition is one of a kind. Displays like this never happen and Turlough House will now become a focal point for astronomy lovers the length and breadth of Ireland. It is a ten out of ten, spectacular effort, is displayed in an Irish context, and just could not have been done any better. We are delighted with it.” Recalling the heady days of space exploration last century, he urged the children present to keep up their interest in astronomy, telling them that in an era of a new space race it is the children of today who will be the first people to walk on Mars in coming decades. Head Curator at the Museum of Country Life, Tony Condon, thanked the numerous people and agencies that were involved in bringing the exhibition to fruition – work that has been in progress for 12 months. “It is great to see the teamwork here in Turlough House and that which exists between ourselves and other national museums in Dublin,” he said. “Though this is a museum of country life we do look beyond our horizons from time to time and do have exhibits here from the antiquities and history museums – including the Moylough Belt Shrine at present. “We work well with our counterparts in Dublin and it is good that some of the artefacts from the capital can come to Castlebar for us all to enjoy.” With 2009 already dedicated as ‘International Year of Astronomy’ – it being 400 years since Tuscan astronomer Galileo first turned his improved telescope on the stars – Nigel Monaghan, Keeper of the Natural History Division at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin, said that it was fitting to have such an exhibition on display at this time. He also thanked the many individuals and associations that contributed to the exhibition, including Astronomy Ireland and NASA – who he said had been very generous in allowing the museum access to their archives. With the renovations currently under way at the Natural History Museum on Kildare Street in Dublin scheduled to keep it closed for several years to come, the indications are that Turlough House can become an important national site for exhibitions. Next year also marks the fortieth anniversary of one of the most significant events in the history of astronomy and space exploration – the first moon landing – which occurred on July 20, 1969, and everybody is being urged to visit the exhibition before next March and celebrate these milestones of human endeavour. Related Items:
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