Blick von oben ins historische Treppenhaus: Besuchende liegen auf einer Liegefläche und verfolgen einen Film zur Entstehung des Sonnensystems.

Exhibition

The Cosmos and the Solar System
Our Place in the Cosmos

Step into the dimensions of space and time

The historic staircase, with its cast-iron flights and railings, becomes a gateway to the universe: at the center of the exhibition Cosmos and Solar System, a large, movable projection sky floats above, bringing the history of the cosmos – from the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago to the present day – to life in impressive images.

How, where, and when did the matter from which we are made come into being? From a reclining platform, you can experience galaxies, stars, and planets in their earliest stages of development.

Around the projection, models of the planets of our solar system glow. Each planet tells its own story:

  • Mercury, the swift rocky planet, follows tight orbits around the Sun.
  • Venus, Earth’s hottest neighbor, is enveloped in a dense layer of clouds.
  • Earth, the blue planet, is full of life – the only known place with water in all three states of matter.
  • Mars, the red planet, fascinates researchers with traces of water and the question: was there once life there?

Further out, the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn orbit with enormous storms, shimmering rings, and countless moons. Even farther away, the mysterious ice giants Uranus and Neptune await, blue and icy cold, at the threshold of interstellar space.

Our solar system is a place of contrasts – hot and cold, bright and dark, ancient yet full of motion. In the exhibition, models, images, and original objects reveal the diversity and dynamism of our cosmic home.

What is a meteorite?

Meteorites are fragments of asteroids or planets that survive their passage through the atmosphere and fall to Earth. Each one tells a story from the depths of space – older than any rock on Earth.

Between Mars and Jupiter lies the asteroid belt, containing more than 200,000 celestial bodies. Many meteorites that reach Earth originate from this region.

Three main groups are distinguished:

  • Stony meteorites (the most common, rich in chondrites – the most primitive rocks of our solar system),
  • Stony-iron meteorites (such as the shimmering pallasites, in which green olivine crystals sparkle within an iron matrix),
  • Iron meteorites (composed of iron–nickel alloys). This group also includes the large Gibeon meteorite, which you can touch in the museum.

Around 40,000 tons of cosmic material reach Earth every year – mostly as microscopic dust. Even on the rooftops of Berlin, tiny micrometeorites can be detected, studied by researchers at the museum. They tell of the formation of our solar system, the origin of water and life, and how closely Earth and cosmos remain connected to this day.

Meteorites – Messengers from Space

In the display cases and along the staircase, you can admire real meteorites – 4.5 billion years old and part of our meteorite collection, the largest in Germany. You can even touch one of these extraterrestrial objects: the 215-kilogram iron meteorite from Gibeon in Namibia.

These witnesses to the early history of the solar system are also research objects of our Department of Solar System, Impacts and Meteorites. Here, scientists study the formation and collision history of planets and asteroids. They participate in international missions for asteroid deflection, aiming to understand how celestial bodies can be diverted from Earth’s orbit – and thus potentially protect our planet from impacts.

How relevant this topic remains today is shown by the case of the Ribbeck (Havelland) meteorite, which fell in January 2024 and whose fragments are on display in the mineral hall.