Ries Crater Museum
Rieskrater Museum
Rieskrater Museum is located in Bavaria
Rieskrater Museum
Location within Bavaria
Rieskrater Museum is located in Germany
Rieskrater Museum
Rieskrater Museum (Germany)
Established1990-05-06[1]
LocationEugene Shoemaker-Platz 1, 86720 Nördlingen, Germany
Coordinates48°51′14″N 10°29′13″E / 48.853943°N 10.486919°E / 48.853943; 10.486919
TypeGeological museum
DirectorProf. Dr. Stefan Hölzl[1]
Websitewww.rieskrater-museum.de?lang=en

The Rieskrater Museum, sometimes known in English as the Ries Crater Museum, focuses on meteors and their collisions with Earth. The museum is housed in a 16th-century barn in Nördlingen, Germany which was part of the medieval city's center.[2]

The area (Nördlinger Ries) is the location of a meteor's impact with Earth c. 15 million years ago. This might have been a double impact, as the Steinheim crater is nearby and has the same estimated age.[3][4] The Ries Crater has been recognized as an impact crater since the early 1960s.[2]

The museum's collection includes a genuine Moon rock from the 1972 Apollo 16 mission, on loan from NASA in return for using the Nördlingen crater for training the Apollo 14 astronauts due to its similarities to a Moon crater.[5][6][7]

The museum is affiliated with the nearby Geopark Ries (UNESCO - International Network of Geoparks), whose mission is to protect the crater.

The museum opened in May 1990 and received its millionth visitor on 15 December 2012.[1][2]

Further reading

  • G. Pösges & M. Schieber (2000). Das Rieskrater-Museum Nördlingen. Museumsführer und Empfehlungen zur Gestaltung eines Aufenthalts im Ries. München: Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil. ISBN 3-931-51683-0.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "1.000.000ster Besucher war eine Besucherin". W09.devweb.mwn.de. Archived from the original on 2013-02-17. Retrieved 2013-01-20.
  2. 1 2 3 Pösges, G (September 2005). "The Ries Crater Museum in Nördlingen, Bavaria, Germany". Meteoritics & Planetary Science. 40: 1555. Bibcode:2005M&PS...40.1555P. doi:10.1111/j.1945-5100.2005.tb00417.x. Retrieved 2013-01-19.
  3. ↑ "Ries Crater Museum Nördlingen". Ries Crater Museum Nördlingen. Germany Bavaria Museums and Galleries. Retrieved 2013-01-19.
  4. ↑ Shoemaker, E. M.; Chao, E. C. T. (1961). "New evidence for the impact origin of the Ries basin, Bavaria, Germany". Journal of Geophysical Research. 66 (10): 3371–3378. Bibcode:1961JGR....66.3371S. doi:10.1029/JZ066i010p03371.
  5. ↑ Schulte-Peevers, Andrea (2010). Germany. Lonely Planet. p. 348.
  6. ↑ "Nördlingen". The Speedy Turtle. Retrieved 2013-01-21.
  7. ↑ Phinney, William (2015). Science Training History of the Apollo Astronauts. NASA SP -2015-626. p. 237.



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