July 15, 2022

MoAW

presents

STARSCAPE:

A Journey To The Beginning Of Time

OUR PLANETARY SYSTEM

The Webb telescope’s image of the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 includes thousands of galaxies, including the faintest objects ever observed in infrared. The light from SMACS 0723 in this image is 4.6 billion years old. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI.

This spectacular collection of space photographs combines breathtaking digitalized images from the historic Mariner, Viking, and Voyager probes with stunning photographs from the Apollo lunar missions, and ground-based observatories. Gathered from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the California Institute of Technology, the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, and the Hansen Planetarium, this awesome display of cosmic spectacles is a journey to the early days of the cosmos. The latest and most ambitious in a string of space observatories is the James Webb Space Telescope, launched in late December of 2021. The JWST is expected to allow us to see even further into the birth of the universe.

Simply put, the main difference between galaxies and nebulae is an extreme difference in size, as well as their basic structure. A nebula is a cloud of dust and gas, usually tens to hundreds of light years across. A galaxy is much larger — usually thousands to hundreds of thousands of light years across. Nebulae are one of the many things that galaxies are made of, along with stars, black holes, cosmic dust, dark matter, and more.

Narrated by Zachary Weingart.

MERCURY. Mosaic of Images (figure 19, Atlas of Mercury) recorded by Mariner 10 in 1974. Professor Bruce C. Murray, main project scientist.

As the planet closest to the sun, Mercury is an inhospitable place indeed for any life forms as we know them. Since Mercury has virtually no atmosphere to scatter light, the sky would be black, even though the Sun's disk itself would be over twice as large as what we observe from the Earth. With an average temperature of 354 degrees Fahrenheit (178.9 degrees Celsius) the existence of any form of life there is unlikely at best.

Mercury's surface temperatures are both extremely hot and cold. Because the planet is so close to the Sun, day temperatures can reach highs of 800°F (430°C). Without an atmosphere to retain that heat at night, temperatures can dip as low as -290°F (-180°C).

Despite its proximity to the Sun, Mercury is not the hottest planet in our solar system – that title belongs to nearby Venus, thanks to its dense atmosphere. But Mercury is the fastest planet, zipping around the Sun every 88 Earth days.

Mercury is appropriately named for the swiftest of the ancient Roman gods.

VENUS. Image of the atmosphere of Venus (p14400) recorded in ultraviolet light by Mariner 10 in 1974. Professor Bruce C. Murray, main project scientist.

The planet Venus, named for the Roman goddess of love and beauty, is in fact a hellishly inhospitable place for romance or even life itself, being even hotter than Mercury. This is due to its dense, toxic atmosphere, composed primarily of carbon dioxide, which traps and retains the sun’s rays like a blanket. The surface of Venus is hot enough to melt lead.

Venus is sometimes rather oddly referred to as the Earth’s twin or sister planet. In some ways it is more an opposite of Earth than a twin: Venus spins backward, has a day longer than its year, and lacks any semblance of seasons. It might once have been a habitable ocean world, like Earth, but that was at least a billion years ago. A runaway greenhouse effect turned all surface water into vapor, which then leaked slowly into space. The present-day surface of volcanic rock is blasted by high temperatures and pressures, making the harsh climate of Venus unlikely to be able to support life.

EARTH. Apollo 13 (AS13-60-8588) photograph taken in 1970. The southwest part of North America is visible. Courtesy of Mapping Science Laboratory, Johnson Space Center.

The third rock from the sun, Earth’s nickname derives from a popular TV series that aired from 1996-2001. In fact, Earth is the only planet not named for a Greek or Roman god or goddess. “Earth” is a word of Germanic origin that simply means “the ground,” and was given to our home planet only about 1000 years ago.

Earth has a very hospitable temperature and mix of chemicals that have made life abundant here. Most notably, Earth is unique in that most of our planet is covered in liquid water. Earth's vast oceans provided a place for single-celled organisms to form about 3.8 billion years ago, contributing oxygen to our atmosphere and eventually differentiating into the millions of lifeforms we know today from the fossil record and from our own observation.

The ongoing effects of climate change – primarily due to human-caused overutilization and alteration of some of the features of our planet that make it so successful for sustaining life, such as widespread deforestation and overdependency on fossil fuels– pose a threat to the nature of life itself on Mother Earth.

MARS. Viking orbiter mosaic image (P-31254) taken in 1976. Note the three volcanoes and the large valley (Valles Marineris). Dr. M. H. Carr, main project scientist.

Named for the Roman god of war because of its blood red appearance from earthly telescopes, Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. With an inhospitable climate of its own, Mars would seem at first thought to be another opposite of Earth. However, the two planets do have some remarkable similarities. Although its atmosphere is only about 0.1 of that of Earth and is composed primarily of carbon dioxide, of all the planets in the solar system, Mars is the most Earth-like in terms of its water patterns. Mars has polar ice caps that grow and recede with the seasons and has evidence of water channels similar to those on Earth today. With a planned attempt to establish the first extraterrestrial human colony later this decade NASA will undertake its boldest mission yet.

 JUPITER WITH FOUR MOONS. Voyager I Photographic Montage – Satellites (from left to right) are: Io, Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto. Photograph courtesy NASA/JPL.

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in our Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined; but slightly less than one-thousandth the mass of the Sun.

Jupiter has a long history of surprising scientists – all the way back to 1610 when Galileo Galilei found the first moons beyond Earth. That discovery changed the way we see the universe.

Jupiter's familiar stripes and swirls are actually cold, windy clouds of ammonia and water, floating in an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot is a giant storm bigger than Earth that has raged for hundreds of years.

 SATURN WITH SIX MOONS. Voyager I photographic Montage – Satellites (clockwise from lower right) are: Dione, Enceladus, Rhea, Titan, Mimas, and Tethys. Photograph courtesy NASA/JPL.

With thousands of beautiful ringlets, Saturn is unique among the planets. It is not the only planet to have rings – made of chunks of ice and rock – but none are as spectacular or as complicated as Saturn's, with seven rings and several gaps and divisions between them.

Like fellow gas giant Jupiter, Saturn is a massive ball made mostly of hydrogen and helium.

Saturn has 53 known moons with an additional 29 moons awaiting confirmation of their discovery—for a potential total of 82 moons.

URANUS WITH FIVE MOONS. Voyager 2 photographic montage – satellites (clockwise from lower right) are: Ariel, Umbriel, Oberon, Titania, and Miranda. Photograph Courtesy NASA/JPL.

One day on Uranus takes about 17 hours (the time it takes for Uranus to rotate or spin once). And Uranus makes a complete orbit around the Sun (a year in Uranian time) in about 84 Earth years (30,687 Earth days).

Uranus is also one of just two planets that rotate in the opposite direction than most of the planets (Venus is the other one), from east to west.

Uranus has 27 known moons. While most of the satellites orbiting other planets take their names from Greek or Roman mythology, Uranus' moons are unique in being named for characters from the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.

NEPTUNE. A full-disk photograph of Neptune showing the Great Dark Spot as transmitted by Voyager II during the August 1989 encounter. Photograph courtesy NASA/JPL.

Neptune is an ice giant. Most of its mass is a hot, dense fluid of "icy" materials – water, methane, and ammonia – above a small rocky core. Its atmosphere is made up mostly of molecular hydrogen, atomic helium, and methane. Neptune boasts some of the strangest weather in the solar system. The sun’s eighth planet holds the record for the fastest winds observed on any world, with speeds cutting through the atmosphere upward of 1,100 miles per hour, or 1.5 times the speed of sound.

Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun at a distance of about 2.8 billion miles (4.5 billion kilometers). Neptune takes about 16 hours to rotate once (a Neptunian day), and about 165 Earth years to orbit the sun (a Neptunian year).

CURRENT EXHIBTIONS ON DISPLAY

Figure of Maitreya Buddha

He who arrives on Earth from Heaven after a time of decline and chaos

to restore order and harmony.

China, Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)

Painted Wood, Glass & Obsidian

ALL UNDER HEAVEN

Earth, Heaven,

and the Afterlife

A Very Special Gift From

Marlene and Bruce Kanter,

Heather James Fine Art

Tim Walsh

Michael H. Healy

Tianxia (天下) or, All Under Heaven, is the ideal of a perfect and harmonious empire in the eyes of the people.

50 original antiquities spanning millennia (3,600 B.C. to 1850 A.D.) of ancient Asian cultures, from mysterious funerary objects and life-size protective temple guardians, to delicate terracotta sculptures created for the tombs of the deceased. A tapestry of silk and gold thread, a rare lacquered cosmetic box, earthen vessels, and bronze statues, these ancient treasures from China, Japan, and Southeast Asia, celebrate everlasting happiness, remembrance, and eternal life.

This grand collection of 50 Asian antiquities is divided into three sections: Earthly possessions, objects used by the living, the temple icons of Buddha and Shiva (Heaven), and funerary goods, objects found in the tombs of the elite (the Afterlife). Representing China, Japan, and Southeast Asia, MoAW premieres these dazzling artifacts for the first time together in one exhibition All Under Heaven: Earth, Heaven, and the Afterlife.

PALEO: The Story of Life

4.6 billion years of fossil history 

Drawn from the world’s foremost fossil collections, the unprecedented treasury of fossil casts known as PALEO: The Story of Life brings together in one exhibition some of the most exciting finds in the history of paleontology from over a century of worldwide excavations, exhibited in geological, chronological order.

From 2.5 billion-year-old single cellular cyanobacteria responsible for the oxygenation of the atmosphere to the first multicellular life of 700 million years ago, PALEO: The Story of Life spans 4.6 billion years in scope. From the Precambrian to the Paleozoic Era, from the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous Periods of the Mesozoic Era to mammals and prehistoric humans of the Cenozoic Era (including the famous Lucy skeleton), this internationally acclaimed, comprehensive collection dramatically illustrates the awesome story of prehistoric life on Earth.

Displaying casts of rare fossils from the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, this prestigious collection includes skeletons, skulls, claws, and eggs gathered from such revered museums as the Smithsonian Institution, the American Museum of Natural History, The Royal Ontario Museum, the Carnegie Museum, and the National Museums of Kenya, Ethiopia, and Tanzania, as well as many others.

Cathedral City

Historical Society

presents

Then and Now

A 40th-year anniversary exhibition of the history of Cathedral City

A comprehensive photographic and artifact-rich timeline of the history of Cathedral City will greet you upon entering the lobby of the Museum of Ancient Wonders. This is an exhibition of recollections of the people and places that created Cathedral City's early history and to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its burgeoning progress, from the past to the present, THEN AND NOW is a loving tribute to the City of Cathedral City.

THE CRAB NEBULA (M1) IN TAURUS.

Photographed with the 26-inch Crossley Reflector at Lick Observatory. Copyright Regents, University of California. Lick Observatory photograph.

STARSCAPE:

A Journey To The

Beginning of Time

This spectacular collection of 33 space photographs combines breathtaking digitalized images from the historic Mariner, Viking, and Voyager probes with stunning photographs from the Apollo lunar missions, the Hubble Space Telescope, and ground-based observatories. Gathered from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the California Institute of Technology, the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, and the Hansen Planetarium, this awesome display of cosmic spectacles is a journey to the early days of the cosmos. 

photo: Steve Salisbury

LUCY:

(Australopithecus afarensis)

The Story of Human Origins

(Courtesy of the Institute of Human Origins and

the National Museum of Ethiopia,

Addis Ababa)

On view exclusively at the

Museum of Ancient Wonders

JURASSIC WONDERS

11 Lifesize Metal Dinosaurs

Public Art Display

created by

Ricardo Breceda

MoAW presents JURASSIC WONDERS, a public art installation in collaboration with Cathedral City displaying 11 lifesize Dinosaurs created by renowned artist Ricardo Breceda. Divided into 4 stunning dioramas on the corner of Buddy Rogers Drive and East Palm Canyon Drive across the street from City Hall until December 31, 2022.

TUTANKHAMUN

"Wonderful Things"

Treasures From The Pharaoh's Tomb

2022 marks the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon. To share in the commemoration, MoAW's "Wonderful Things" exhibition is on a nationwide tour. Click on the link below to see the installation on the banks of the Sacramento River at Turtle Bay Exploration Park in Redding CA. 

READ REVIEWS FROM FROM  MoAW's VISITORS

Become A Member of MoAW

The newest perk of membership: Free admission to more than 1,200 museums nationwide through the North American Reciprocal Museum Program (NARM) Plus, discounts at their museum shops and restaurants (if given to their members). Local museums include the Palm Springs Art Museum and Cabot's Pueblo Museum, several museums in Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco, throughout California, all 50 states, and the District of Columbia, including Canada, Mexico, and Bermuda. This is available to all members at the Donor Level ($125.00) or higher. Members who qualify will be receiving new membership cards with the NARM logo to be used at participating museums.

Current members who would like to upgrade their membership to take advantage of this new benefit please give us a call, (442) 268-5004.

Click below for more information and to join.

THANK YOU

MoAW's mission is to educate a diverse audience about the history of ancient civilizations and prehistoric life using fossils and artifacts from a variety of cultures and time periods; to enhance universal curriculum development for local and surrounding school districts, colleges, and universities, establishing museum diversity for the Coachella Valley.

Hours of Operation:

Monday - Saturday

10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Sunday 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m.



The last admission is taken one hour before closing.

Admission:

$15.00 Adults

$12.00 Students, Seniors, & Military

$ 3.00 Discount available for Coachella Valley Residents

$10.00 Group Rate for 10 or more individuals.

A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, MoAW is a member of the North American Reciprocal Museum (NARM) Association, the American Alliance of Museums, and the California Association of Museums. Contributions are tax-deductible and gratefully accepted.

MoAW IS SPONSORED WITH FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS

BY THE FOLLOWING:

Alberto Acosta, Executive Director & Chief Curator

Joseph McCabe, Director of Development

Art Laboe Foundation, Inc.

Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation

Members and Patrons

THANK YOU