In mid-September 2024, the Ries and the RiesCraterMuseum were once again the venue for the European Space Agency’s “PANGAEA 2024” astronaut training program.

In addition to lectures and exercises, the program included several field excursions as well as visits to the museum and the drill core repository and isotope laboratory of the Center for Ries Crater and Impact Research “ZERIN”.

From left to right: Noroshige Kanai (JAXA, Japan), Museum Director Prof. Dr. S. Hölzl, Arnaud Prost (ESA FR) and Dr. Rosemary Coogan (ESA UK) in the current special exhibition “Micrometeorites” at the RKM (Photo: ESA)

The RiesCraterMuseum is taking part in the Nördlingen Cultural Festival on September 21th, 2024. The program includes three items:

• live simulations of cosmic events in the style of “what if…?” questions. The simulations will be projected onto the museum’s movie screen;
• Live examinations using X-ray fluorescence of rocks that visitors can bring with them;
• Guided tours through the special exhibition “Micrometeroites: Dust from Outer Space – Everywhere!”.

The cultural festival program of the museum takes place between 18:30 and 22:30.

Download the program of the RiesCraterMuseum

n the night from May 10 to 11, 2024, the AllSky camera of the RiesCraterMuseum was able to capture northern lights over the sky of Nördlingen for several hours. An animation can be seen here.

The unusual visibility of an aurora borealis for this latitude is due to the strongest geomagnetic storm in 11 years, triggered by an X1.0 class solar flare.

Aurora borealis over Nördlingen. For the full video sequence of the AllSky Camera of the RiesCraterMuseum click here.I

What is the difference between a living being and a stone? What are the connections between the two? And what do greenhouse gases have to do with it?

In the lecture “What is life and how did it come about? Stony paths to an answer“, which will take place as part of the Rieser Kulturtage on May 9, 2024 at 7 pm in the RiesCaterMuseum, we will embark with Dr. Frank Trixler on a journey along paradoxes and exotic effects on very different scales, with which we will approach the fundamental questions: What actually is life and how could it have been originated?

On April 26, 2024, the RiesCraterMuseum was the venue for the ceremony to name the suevite “Rock of the Year 2024”.

The ceremony was opened by Andreas Günther-Plönes, Managing Director of the Professional Association of German Geoscientists (BDG) and Prof. Dr. Dr. Joris Peters, Director General of the Bavarian State Natural Science Collections (SNSB). The words of welcome from the District Administrator of the Donau-Ries district, Stefan Rößle, and David Wittner, Mayor of the town of Nördlingen and Deputy Chairman of the Geopark Ries e.V., were followed by numerous presentations.

All presentations helped to understand why suevite is such an important rock despite its rarity and why it deserves the “Rock of the Year 2024” award.

After the presentation of the “Rock of the Year” initiative by Dr. Manuel Lapp (BDG), Heike Burkhardt (Geopark Ries e.V.) and Dr. Gösta Hoffmann (German UNESCO Commission) gave exciting insights into the special features and significance of the Ries as part of the global UNESCO Geopark family. Afterwards, the Suevit itself took center stage and was examined from various perspectives in presentations: Geoscience (Prof. Dr. Stefan Hölzl, RiesKraterMuseum), history (Dr. Roland Eichhorn, Bavarian State Office for the Environment (LfU)) and economics (Dr. Markus Schauer, Schwenk Zement).

The ceremonial naming of Suevit as “Rock of the Year 2024” finally took place in the Aumühl quarry.

The RiesKraterMuseum has received a valuable new exhibit: A drill core from Bavaria that contains exactly those geological layers of sediment that were formed around the time of the mass extinction of the dinosaurs some 66 million years ago.

The special thing about the drill core from the Latten Mountains (south of Bad Reichenhall): At that time, its layers were formed in a geographical region that was spatially located between the site of the huge asteroid impact (Chicxulub-Crater, Mexico) and the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in Earth’s history (Deccan Trap, Indian subcontinent). Traces of both events have therefore been clearly preserved as deposits in the form of characteristic, compacted dust layers and can therefore be easily placed in a chronological relationship.

The drill core makes these depositional sequences, which are very important for understanding the mass extinction, optimally accessible for precise scientific investigations and directly visible to museum visitors. It is therefore a very valuable object for research and a unique exhibit.

On March 13, 2024, the new exhibit was handed over to the director of the Ries Crater Museum, Prof. Stefan Hölzl, by Dr. Roland Eichhorn, head of the Geological Service of the Bavarian State Office for the Environment (LFU), in the presence of Mayor David Wittner. The drill core will be on permanent display there.

Below you find a selection of former special exhibitions of the RiesCraterMuseum:

Since December 8, the new special exhibition “Micrometeorites: Dust from outer space – everywhere!” has been on display at the RiesKraterMuseum. The exhibition was opened the evening before with over eighty guests.

The special exhibition was developed by the RiesKraterMuseum. The starting point for the planning were fascinating microphotographs by Jan Braly Kihle, chief geologist at the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE), Norway, who appeared as an invited guest at the opening of the special exhibition.

Introductory words from the museum director, Prof. Stefan Hölzl, were followed by words of welcome from the 2nd Mayor of the town of Nördlingen, Rita Ortler, and the 2nd Deputy District Administrator of the district of Donau-Ries, Ursula Kneißl-Eder.

The keynote speaker at the exhibition opening was Lutz Hecht, Professor of Impact Petrology at the Free University of Berlin and the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. He spoke about the scientific aspects of micrometeorites and showed how these cosmic dust grains can also be found in urban areas. Jon Larsen, jazz guitarist, painter and currently guest researcher at the University of Oslo, Norway, spoke as the discoverer of the first urban micrometeorites and founder of “Project Stardust“, above all about the diverse significance of micrometeorites for life on earth. His key message at the end of his presentation was that, contrary to popular belief, most of them are still undiscovered. Yet a new discovery can be made literally before our eyes on a kitchen table.

The exhibition Molassic Park – an expedition to Bavaria’s great apes, primitive elephants and subtropical forests was developed as a joint project by Museum Mensch und Natur, Biotopia – Naturkundemuseum Bayern, the Bavarian State Collection of Palaeontology and Geology, the Munich-Nymphenburg Botanical Gardens and the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen.

The exhibition was inspired by the discovery of bones of the great ape Danuvius guggenmosi, known as “Udo”, who lived 11.6 million years ago and who presumably already walked upright. However, the exhibition went far beyond this, as visitors were given an insight into the development of the landscape, flora and fauna between 17 and 11 million years ago – including the time of the impact of the Ries asteroid 15 million years ago.

Extraordinary fossils from various sites in Bavaria bring the fauna and flora of the freshwater molasse to life in the exhibition and are brought to life in large-scale landscape reconstructions by the well-known Spanish palaeo-artist Mauricio Antón. A special highlight are the sensational finds of the great ape “Udo”, which were discovered a few years ago.

Dr. Madelaine Böhme, Professor of Terrestrial Palaeoclimatology at the University of Tübingen and head of the excavation team that found the fossils of “Udo”, and Caroline Illinger, who played a leading role in the conception of the touring exhibition, spoke at the exhibition opening. Introductory remarks by Museum Director Prof. Stefan Hölzl were followed by words of welcome from Lord Mayor David Wittner, Deputy District Administrator Claudia Marb and Dr. Elisabeth Schepers, Secretary General of the Bavarian State Natural History Collections.

Blogs on Molassic Park

From Friday, December 8, the new special exhibition “Micrometeorites: Dust from outer space – everywhere!” can be seen.

Micrometeorites are cosmic dust particles that hit the earth every day, mostly unnoticed by us. When they enter the atmosphere, the tiny rock particles are heated up and cool down again. This creates fascinating sculptures of crystals and glass.

For a long time, it was considered impossible to detect such particles from space in populated areas among all the dust and industrial pollution on earth. Two researchers from Norway have succeeded in finding micrometeorites on house roofs and in gutters and have developed a special photographic technique to make the fascinating spheres visible to the naked eye.

The special exhibition focuses on large-format photographs that allow visitors to immerse themselves in the strange, bizarre and extremely aesthetic world of these extraterrestrial particles.

We look forward to your visit!