Natural History Museum Exhibition Space: Could Life Exist Beyond Earth?

[Ad- gifted experience] The Natural History Museum is a large, free to enter museum in London that is a fantastic educational day out for all ages. It’s one of those places to see in London, especially with their newly created Dinosaur garden out the front, which we loved going through to get to the main museum itself. Often, they have temporary exhibitions, that highlight a specific topic. Previously, we’ve been to the Birds: Brilliant and Bizarre and were excited when we were asked to explore the Space: Could Life Exist Beyond Earth? exhibition, which does require a separate ticket, which is honestly well worth the price.

The Space: Could Life Exist Beyond Earth? Exhibition explores a bunch of information about space, split into different sections around planets or the moon. There is a lot of interaction points, which is always fantastic for keeping children engaged with the various splits of the exhibition. Robin and Amelia very much enjoyed all of the touch sections, which allowed us all to touch different rocks from space, meteorites, and the like. Next to a lot of the touch sections there were also sections where you could smell what they think various things in space smell like – like Mars, for example, could be smelled. Kai liked this bit best, as it was very interesting to him to smell some parts of space!

Robin spent a lot of time reading each section out loud, which was a very good sign, as it was clear she was interested in the content. The over-arching conversation was about what it takes to create life, why Earth is perfect for creating life, and what sort of life could live on the various planets out there. Space Could Life Exist Beyond Earth? showcased how challenging it is to have life there as well, with a giant spinner that has you spin for different characteristics, before telling you if you have a planet that could support life.

Another super fun interactive, which was Amelia and Kai’s favorite, was a giant Mars Rover game where you can move a little rover car around a landscape, seeing it move on screen, to scan and collect different bits of the biome. The idea is to re-create how they collect samples and scan the samples to see if there could be life supported on a planet. This game did have a little bit of a queue, because it’s on the longer side, but was well worth waiting for! I felt it did a great job of re-enforcing the types of needs a planet has to be able to have life live on it.

Space Could Life Exist Beyond Earth? does a fantastic job of going through all of the different places in space that have been explored, to see if some sort of life could be found there. They have put together examples of micro-organisms that have been found and why specific planets, moons, and asteroids have not been ideal for new life. It’s a really fantastic exhibition for those who have an interest in space, with so much interaction and general knowledge to explore.

You can use code SPACE10JH for 10 percent off the ticket price.

You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!