IMPACT. 14th – 22nd February. Deptford Lounge

From meteor showers to giant asteroid impacts, the Earth is constantly bombarded by debris from space.

In IMPACT, we take a look at these fiery visitors and what they mean to us.

Asteroids and comets can cause death and destruction; laying waste to vast areas and are even thought to be responsible for wiping out the dinosaurs!

Could the same really happen to us? According to records only 2 individuals have been known to have been hit by space rocks, but both survived.

Asteroids and meteorites give us vital clues about the violent formation of our Solar System. Plus there’s the chance to see and touch real space rocks!

The exhibition uses spectacular images, film and exhibits to explore how asteroids and comets have shaped our solar system, and what we can learn from them.

IMPACT was originally created by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, who have kindly allowed us to reproduce it for SMASHfestUK.

Deptford Lounge

Saturday 14th February to Sunday 22nd February 2015

10am – 10pm daily – drop in.

SMASHfestUK and The Royal Observatory would like to thank the following people and organisations for their support with this exhibition:

Dr Judith Pillinger, Open University

Natural History Museum, with special thanks to Dr Gretchen Benedix, Dr Caroline Smith and Professor Sara Russell

Dr Phil Bland, Imperial College London

Armagh Observatory

Dr Thomas Quinn’s image of a computer simulation of planet formation appeared in the following journal article: Lucio Mayer, Thomas Quinn, James Wadsley, Joachim Stadel, ‘Formation of Giant Planets by Fragmentation of Protoplanetary Disks’, Science 298, 1756–59 (2002)