Beyond Planet Earth: the Future of Planet Earth: Beyond 20 22 18 14 12 6 8 4 ; and the of 35Th the Anniversary 3

Member Magazine Fall 2011 Vol. 36 No. 4

Searching For Life on Mars

How to Opening Build November 19 a Lunar BEYOND Elevator PLANET EARTH:

THE FUTURE OF SPACE EXPLORATION

Astrophysics at the Museum 2 Next A Laboratory onMars Astrophysicsthe Museum at An Elevatorthe Moon to Close-Up News Table of Contents V. Ellen Futter President From the Seen Members Explore Kristin Phillips, Elena Sansalone, Michael Shara, Michael Walker Michael Shara, Design Michael Sansalone, Elena Phillips, Kristin Contributors Editor Magazine Director of Membership Chief Philanthropy Ofﬁcer Strategic Planning, and Education Senior Vice President of Institutional Advancement, President Chairman History Natural of Museum American Eugenia V. Levenson Hinterland

Ellen V. Futter Ellen Lewis W. Bernard Lewis

Whitney Barlow, Joan Kelly Bernard, Jill Hamilton, Jill Bernard, Kelly Joan Barlow, Whitney

Louise Adler Louise Peter W. Peter Lyden

Lisa J. Gugenheim J. Lisa

conducted conducted a comprehensive study, in which many exhibition, exhibition, Space Space Exploration or college a will master’s offer program for science Conservatory always always feels like “back to school”—a time for new more about your needs and interests, the Museum new venture at the Museum is our Master of Arts Membership program. Last year, in an toeffort learn Mead Margaret Film Festival. ventures and new The adventures. most exciting initiative initiative on page 3. in Teaching (MAT) program, which marks the ﬁrst Even for those of us long past our years, school fall for for the including public, our thrilling new teachers. Please read teachers. more about this pioneering time that an institution other than a university

The fall also brings important changes to the Fall 2011 brings a full slate of exciting offerings

Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Planet Earth: Beyond 20 22 18 14 12 6 8 4 ; and the of 35th the anniversary 3

; perennial favorite Please send questions, ideas, and feedback to to feedback and ideas, questions, send Please to at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: please send address changes Museum of Natural History. Periodical postage paid at New York, NY, and of $70 per year and higher includes a subscription to Phone:10024-5192. Website:212-769-5606. amnh.org. Museum membership Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY Rotunda Vol. 36, No. 4, Fall 2011 Permit #472-650USPS 0194-6110 ISSN The Butterfly The Butterfly Rotunda is published quarterly by the Membership Office of the American

, Membership at Ofﬁce,the aboveAMNH, address.

20 4

And, moving forward, there And, will moving forward, be an increased get get “back to at school” the Museum and embark group. I know you have many demands on your emphasis on including communication, keeping on on some new together! adventures of, with new Family and Adult tracks that will of you participated. Based on that work, the Museum steadfast involvement in involvement steadfast the Museum. Now, let’s us us by a completing or survey in participating a focus allow allow us and to benefits. tailor programs, services, means, means, including a new digital membership. reflect the kinds that reflect of households you are part Museum Museum family, and I thank all of you who helped in closer touch with Members through electronic in touch closer through with electronic Members it more fully in line with Members’ lives. has restructured and enhanced its program to bring time, time, and I want to thank personally you for your

Photo 4 © AMNH/J. Sparks; image 12 © AMNH/5W Infographics; photo 20 © AMNH/R. Mickens; photo 21 © istockphoto.com/Ammit

Photo © AMNH/D. Finnin A side-by-side test of the two projection systems over the summer illustrates a dramatic improvement. a improvement. over the dramatic summer illustrates systems of test the projection two A side-by-side Rotunda / Fall 2011 / AMNH.org / Fall2011 Rotunda/ not changed during the preceding 12 months. Extent and nature of circulation: of this organization and the exempt status for federal income tax purposes has and other security holders: None. The purpose, function, and nonprofit status Owner: American Museum of Natural History. Known bondholders, mortgage 15 West 77th Street, New York, NY 10024-5192. Editor: Eugenia V. Levenson. Louise Adler, Director of Membership, American Museum of Natural History, headquarters or general business offices of the publisher: Same: Publisher: 77th Street, New York, NY 10024-5192. Complete mailing address of the or higher. Complete mailing address of known office of publication: 15 West annually: 4. Annual subscription price: Museum membership of $70 a year August 2, 2011. Frequency of issue: Quarterly. Number of issues published Title of Publication: 472-650).0194-6110 RotundaUSPS (ISSN Date of filing: Statement of ownership, management, and circulation. News For upcoming Hayden Planetarium programs, visit as part of the Milky Way. of stars, gas trails, and dense, cloud like masses of stars easily recognizable of interstellar gases; the new projection showed a veritable explosion of the dome showed a darkened sky with a smattering of stars, and a few trails previous system was shown side by side with one from the upgrade. One half a trial run in the Hayden Planetarium this summer when a projection from the of color and smoother, more natural-looking color gradients. a new file format, in addition to building new servers. The result is greater depth color—a major technological leap that required Museum engineers to develop projectors have a ratio of only 2,000 to 1.) The new system can also project 10-bit ratio between light and dark to 500,000 to 1. (By comparison, most movie theater previously been displayed. The upgrade increased the video projector’s contrast allowing for brighter colors, which makes visible many more stars than had of stars that had previously not shown up on the dome’s surface. Hayden Planetarium projection system that makes it possible to view thousands presentations of the Digital Universe Atlas, thanks to a $2 million upgrade to the There’s a new, more vivid way to see the Museum’s Space Show and Hayden Planetarium Upgrade More Stars Shine Brighter With The improved effect of the new projection system was vividly apparent at A key feature of the new system is the ability to convey true black as well as atMuseum the amnh.org .

Printed by R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., Pontiac, Illinois. Pontiac, Co., & Sons Donnelley by R.R. Printed made by me above are correct and complete. (signed) Louise Adler Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation: 96%. I certify that the statements Copies not distributed: (A) 524 (B) 837. Return from news agents: None. outside of mail: (A) 2,263 (B) 1,840. Total distribution: (A) 47,084 (B) 49,813. (A) 44,822 (B) 47,973. Free distribution by mail: (A) 0 (B) 0. Free distribution Other PaidNon-USPS Distribution (A) and (B): None. Mail subscription: circulation through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and nearest to filing date. Total number of copies (A) 47,608 (B) 50,650. Paid months, and (B) signifies average number of copies of single issue published (A) signifies average number of copies of each issue during preceding 12

Science Teaching Degree Museum To Offer visit visit For more about the Museum’s MAT program, program in comparative biology. Graduate School, which offers a doctoral to grant the Ph.D. through its Richard Gilder the first museum in the Western Hemisphere education. In the 2006, Museum became on the Museum’s work in post-secondary class slated to begin next summer. for the new program this fall, with the first high rates of attrition. support for new teachers that directly addresses development program, a critical element of a two-year formal early-career professional Museum scientists and educators. school in addition to two summers with will spend a full academic year in a partner the Bronx, Yonkers, and Freeport. Candidates with six high schools in Manhattan, Queens, development, will be conducted in partnership history of leadership in teacher professional on the Museum’s scientific resources and in student achievement in science. State and help address the national crisis of qualified science teachers in New York is designed to ameliorate a critical shortage and the National Science Foundation, which the New York State Education Department supported by funding provided in part by part of a specialized five-year pilot initiative, for science teachers. a university or college will offer such a program the first time that an institution other than of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program, marking This fall, the Museum is launching a Master The new MAT program continues to build The Museum begins the planning process Alumni of the program will be offered The MAT program, which will draw The pioneering 15-month program is amnh.org/education/mat .

3 4 Close-Up at the Museum 5

Partners in Light Original Fossil The ponyfish does not produce its own light Brain Case: The Diplodocus longus braincase was but instead relies on its resident population discovered on a Museum expedition in 1901 of Photobacterium leiognathi, a luminous Diplodocus longus at Bone Cabin Quarry, Wyoming. The other marine bacterium that lives in its light organ. In a corner of the exhibition The World’s Largest Dinosaurs, an elegant wire half is on permanent display in the Hall of The relationship between the two is mutually outline of the head of Diplodocus longus, a sauropod that lived in the Late Jurassic Saurischian Dinosaurs in the David H. Koch beneficial: the ponyfish provides the bacteria period about 156 million years ago, anchors a fascinating fossil: one half of Dinosaur Wing. Today, such a find would be with oxygen and nutrients, and the bacteria give a bony braincase, its interior carefully color-coded to denote various functional studied with a CT scanner, eliminating the need their host the ability to use light displays. structures once within it. to bisect it with a rock saw to see what’s inside. One’s first impression is how very small the brain must have been, especially An Abundance of Fishes given that the brain itself probably took up about only 70 percent of the bony By the Dozen The size of the Museum’s Ichthyology collection, case, with protective outer layers called meninges taking up the other 30 percent. With the exception of frogs and salamanders, which includes some 2 million specimens Despite the dinosaur’s massive size—it was 80 feet long and weighed 20,000 all four-limbed animals, including humans, housed in four floors of two adjacent buildings, pounds—its brain weighed about 4 ounces. By comparison, the average adult have 12 cranial nerves that are involved in is rapidly growing and ranks fourth among the human brain weighs 48 ounces. everything from smell (olfactory) to heart rate eight major international centers for ichthyology. Of course, scientists can only speculate about this because brains—composed (vagus). This commonality helps scientists make mostly of water—don’t fossilize well and are extremely rare, almost nonexistent, sense of what they see when studying Tools for Study Secutor ruconius within the fossil record. the empty braincases of extinct animals. Sparks’s research into the evolution and “It’s informed guesswork,” says Jonah Choiniere, a postdoctoral fellow in the function of bioluminescent signaling systems Division of Paleontology. “We’re extrapolating based on comparative data from Breathing Room in fishes is supported by two National Science living animals such as birds and crocodiles.” Some scientists speculated that D. longus had Foundation grants. As part of these projects, Though the brain itself is lost forever, the endocast, or cavity within the a trunk because of the location of the bony he is collaborating with colleagues at other Cleared and Stained: braincase, offers valuable clues to the dinosaur’s basic functions, metabolism, nasal opening high on the skull between the eye institutions to develop, refine, and implement and lifestyle. In the exhibition display, four key structures are identified with sockets, akin to today’s elephants and tapirs. 3-D magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) Picturing a Ponyfish different colors: the optical nerve opening (green); the facial nerve opening But recent research on the tiny opening for technology for analyzing soft tissue structures (orange); the pineal opening (yellow); and the site of the pituitary gland (blue). the facial nerve—at most, 1.5 mm in diameter in bioluminescent marine fishes, hearing While advances in imaging technologies have opened new pathways for “This particular specimen was chosen for this exhibition because it has been compared to half of an inch for an elephant— mechanisms in cichlids, and brain development scientists to study natural phenomena, researchers continue to make remarkable delicately prepared and sectioned to expose the brain cavity,” says Mark A. suggests that the animal lacked the wiring in freshwater and marine fishes. discoveries using techniques that have been around for decades. John Sparks, Norell, chair of the Division of Paleontology and curator of The World’s Largest to power the muscles needed for a trunk. associate curator in the Museum’s Department of Ichthyology, uses enzymes Dinosaurs. “Only rarely are sauropod dinosaur skulls found with the braincase MIF at the Museum and dyes to reveal key anatomical structures in different species of fishes for relatively intact and undistorted.” Cold Case The Museum’s Microscopy and Imaging study of their function and evolution. Color-coding the braincase for the current special exhibition involved Sometimes called “the third eye,” the pineal Facility offers scientists a range of state-of- Among his study subjects are ponyfishes (family Leiognathidae), a group a process designed to be fully reversible. First, preparators covered the interior opening at the apex of the skull is found in some the-art technologies for research. Among the of bioluminescent fishes common in the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific that with a layer of acetone-soluble plastic—a substance commonly used to harden extinct and a few extant tetrapods, notably, sophisticated equipment is a high-powered have a light organ. This internal structure, which varies among ponyfish species, fossils. Then, they applied acrylic paint, which can be peeled off the plastic base the tuatara, a lizardlike reptile in New Zealand. computed tomography (CT) scanner, one of only surrounds the esophagus and contains luminescent bacteria, the source of the that in turn can be removed with acetone, a solvent familiar to anyone who In living animals, it is thought to play a role four of its kind in the country; a scanning fish’s light. The light organ is larger in males, which have a second species- has ever used nail polish remover. in detecting light, which may help regulate electron microscope, which can magnify images specific anatomical feature: translucent skin patches, which allow them to use circadian rhythms and body heat. Its function up to 500,000 times; and a confocal laser the light organ in displays to attract mates in turbid waters. (Bioluminescent The World’s Largest Dinosaurs, which is free for Members, closes on January 2. in sauropods like Diplodocus remains a mystery. scanning microscope, which provides 3-D organisms will be explored in the exciting new exhibition Creatures of Light: images in microscopic detail. Nature’s Bioluminescence, which opens at the Museum in Spring 2012.) Growth Factor In expeditions to Madagascar, Taiwan, South and Southeast Asia, and other The pituitary gland secretes hormones that Safeguarding Specimens sites, Sparks and his colleagues have collected thousands of specimens, including AMNH no. 694 mounted influence an animal’s body size. In humans, in a wire frame In addition to offering a window into the Secutor ruconius pictured above. Back in the laboratory, Sparks treats the the pituitary is the size of a pea, or about previously unseen phenomena, advanced fish with a series of chemical dyes: red for tinting bones, blue for cartilage, and 0.2 percent of brain volume. In D. longus, instruments—such as the electron enzymes to make tissues transparent. Photos of the treated fish—including those the pituitary was roughly 10 percent of the microprobe that reveals mineral composition featured in the exhibition Picturing Science: Museum Scientists and Imaging brain volume. Quite simply, says Choiniere, of meteorites—provide another significant Technologies—show the whole body with inner organs intact in striking multi- “This tells us it was a giant!” benefit: they leave valuable specimens intact. colored images that illuminate structural differences. Sparks is using this technique, in combination with 3-D imaging, DNA analysis, and other methods, to compare the light organs of different ponyfish species and gain insight into the evolution of light-signaling systems, the role of sexual selection in ponyfish diversification, and co evolution of the fish and the luminous bacteria abundant in its light organ.

Picturing Science: Museum Scientists and Imaging Technologies is on view in the Akeley Gallery.

This exhibition is made possible by the generosity of the Arthur Ross Foundation. Photo © AMNH/J. Sparks Photo © AMNH/D. Finnin

Rotunda / Fall 2011 / AMNH.org 6 7

We humans are barely toddlers when it comes to space centers of the Moon and the Earth, and more than one-ninth exploration. Our first baby steps off our home planet 50 years ago the distance from the Moon to the Earth, will fall toward Earth. took us to low Earth orbit. By 1973, 12 intrepid men had walked That’s because Earth is 81 times as massive as the Moon, so its on the moon’s surface. Since then we have sent robots to every gravitational pull exceeds that of the Moon as soon as you travel planet in our solar system. The Hubble Space Telescope has more than 26,500 miles toward Earth from the Moon. shown us that the ordinary matter we are made of comprises If you attach a cable from the lunar surface to the space station, an only 4 percent of the mass of the universe. The Kepler orbiting the station is tethered: it “wants” to fall toward Earth because of telescope has proved that billions of worlds orbit the stars of Earth’s dominant gravity, but it can’t because it’s held in place by our Milky Way galaxy. What will we accomplish in space in the the cable. Voilà: you’ve just built lunar-Jack’s beanstalk pointing coming centuries, as our steps become surer and bolder? up to Earth from the lunar equator. Now imagine extending the The new exhibition Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space cable 238,000 miles, to just above the Earth’s atmosphere. Attach Exploration takes you on the adventures awaiting humanity gripping, rotating wheels to the mechanical arm of a solar- in the next few hundred years. Suborbital tourism, deflecting powered gondola connected to the cable, and you have a rocket- elevator asteroids, establishing lunar and Martian scientific bases, terra- free way of transporting anything and anybody between the Earth forming Mars, and searching for life in Europa’s oceans will and the Moon’s surface. all happen in the coming century. While we can’t predict what Well, almost. You do have to “jump” to about 100 miles above the spaceships carrying us and our robots will look like, we do the Earth’s surface to catch the gondola as it moves by at 1,000 know where we’re going, the challenges of getting there, and the miles per hour due to the Earth’s speed of rotation. But rocket- opportunities available when we arrive at destinations as alien as airplanes suitable for this purpose are already being built by to anything out of “Star Trek.” commercial companies like Virgin Galactic. One of the great The cover of this issue of Rotunda shows what a lunar base advantages of this scheme is that you never need to speed up to, at the South Pole of the Moon might look like. The South Pole is a or slow down from, Earth-orbital speed of 17,500 miles per hour. likely place for a lunar base for two reasons. First, there’s probably Thus the dangerous heating and mechanical stresses generated a lot of frozen water there, from comets that crashed there and when reentering Earth’s atmosphere would be hundreds of times remained frozen in nearly perpetual darkness. Just as important, less on a rocket-plane-lunar elevator trip to the Moon than a the Sun is almost continuously visible from the tops of the rims trip involving rockets. A one-way trip would take about a week the of South Pole craters, so that large arrays of solar panels could and could be as comfortable as an Alaskan or Caribbean cruise, continuously supply power to a lunar base. A huge infrared- though somewhat more expensive. Tourism could help support optical-ultraviolet telescope, larger than a football field and with the operation of a lunar elevator. a rotating liquid mirror, would capture images of celestial objects The lunar elevator also offers the opportunity for the most with a resolution unmatched even by Hubble or Webb. extreme sport I can think of: space jumping. If you stepped off the The Moon’s South Pole would also be a logical base for a lunar end of a cable stretching down from the tethered space station elevator, shown at left with its cable stretching back to Earth. This to about 60 miles above the Earth—in a space suit, of course—you isn’t fantasy. A real lunar elevator for moving people and cargo would begin to fall faster and faster. Reaching about 2,500 miles such as helium-3, a rare isotope found in lunar soil that is thought per hour when you began to encounter the outer atmosphere, you to be a clean candidate for nuclear fuel, to and from the Moon would use a combination of carefully timed drogue parachutes, moon could be built with current technologies and materials. (Visitors a parasail, and a main parachute to slow down enough to avoid Astrophysicist will see a model of a lunar elevator in the exhibition.) being torn apart by wind resistance. If you were really good, The principle of a lunar elevator is elegant and simple. Any and lucky, you might land safely within a 100-yard bull’s-eye—just Michael Shara, object—let’s say a space station—placed along a line joining the 15 minutes after you left space. curator of Beyond Planet Earth: The Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration Member Preview Future of Space Opens Saturday, November 19 on Wednesday, November 16

Exploration, explains Beyond Planet Earth features a full-sized Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Members are invited to see Beyond Planet how a lunar re-creation of a lunar habitat, a model Exploration is organized by the American Museum Earth: The Future of Space Exploration at of an elevator reaching up into space, of Natural History, New York (www.amnh.org). a special preview on Wednesday, November elevator would a walk-through diorama of the Martian 16, beginning at 4 pm. See the show and stay work—and why it surface, and challenging computer Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space for a wine reception from 6 to 8 pm. Don’t interactive exhibits. Learn about robotic Exploration is proudly supported by Con Edison. forget to RSVP by calling the Membership might inspire a new missions that are currently headed deeper Ofﬁce at 212-769-5606 by November 7. into our own solar system, and explore Major funding for Beyond Planet Earth has extreme sport some possible missions of the future: been provided by the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest returning humans to the Moon, landing on Endowment Fund. and deﬂecting a potentially deadly asteroid, or traveling to Mars—and perhaps even Additional support is provided by

Rotunda / Fall 2011 / AMNH.org 8 9

As rain streams down the suspended glass curtain of the Rose Center for Earth and Space, the Museum is a cocoon of stillness save for the strains of music coming from a row of windows high above the Hayden Sphere. Up on the fifth floor, astrophysicists maintain a furious working pace during their night shift. Galileo supervises from a gilt frame on the wall; bronze busts of Einstein and Copernicus wear Yankees and Mets caps. Laptops fill a long wooden table: one scientist checks coordinates, one projects black and white splotches onto a screen, and one communicates with a telescope operator in Hawaii, where clear skies open a window onto distant stars. Every two minutes the team remotely targets a new potential supernova. “The whole point is to find all stars in the Milky Way that are going to explode as massive Type 1b and 1c supernovae [which occur when a massive star’s core collapses] over the next 300,000 years,” says Michael Shara, curator in the Museum’s Department of Astrophysics, as he glances up from his computer. “We think there are about 6,000 of them, and we are picking them out from the other billions of stars in the galaxy to measure their spectra—to collect a frozen tissue sample, if you will.” Shara, who is also curator of the new exhibition Beyond Plamet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration, which opens November 19, is one of three curators in the Department of Astrophysics, which includes theorist Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, who simulates star and planet formation, and Ben Oppenheimer, who images planets that orbit distant stars. Together, these curators lead a research group of two dozen graduate students, research scientists, and postdocs

Photo © AMNH/D. Finnin who peer into the cosmos from 81st Street.

Rotunda / Fall 2011 / AMNH.org 10 of “seeing” a massive supernova erupt in his lifetime. supernova-rich than the Milky Way. Shara just might get his wish Hawaii. So far, Messier 101 seems to be four to five times more colleagues working on the massive 8-meter Gemini telescope in shine brightest. These candidates will be investigated further by transmits only the light of ionized helium—where Wolf-Rayet stars candidates by imaging the galaxy through an optical filter that Using the Hubble Space Telescope, Shara has gathered a list of 100 times farther away, or 10 million light years from Earth. also looking for Wolf-Rayet stars in Messier 101, a spiral galaxy black hole as it becomes a supernova.” that would help us understand the collapse of a star’s core into a gravity waves—the rattling of space time—as well as neutrinos, and hundreds of times brighter. In addition, we can now measure because it would be only about 10,000 light years away and Cloud in 1987, but a supernova in our galaxy would be invaluable two dozen neutrinos from a supernova in the Large Magellanic years in the Milky Way,” says Shara. “Astronomers detected of the Milky Way, which is still terra incognita to astronomers. of them. His “best” and rarest specimens are from the far side since 2006. Shara’s team has found and characterized the majority Wolf-Rayet stars known in the Milky Way, an 80 percent increase they explode as Type 1b or 1c supernovae. There are now 600 that mass over a lifespan of a few hundred thousand years until 20 to 80 times more massive than the Sun and then shed much of known as Wolf-Rayets—hot, ephemeral bodies that start their lives nearby galaxies. Over the last decade, he has focused on stars Curator Shara studies stellar populations in the Milky Way and Supernovas Massive Studying Shara is increasing his odds of finding massive supernovae by “We think that supernovae occur on average every 50 to 100 to explode as massive supernovae We’re trying to find all stars in the over the next 30 0,000 years. Milky Way that are going —Michael Shara

asteroids and even dwarf planets in only ten or so orbits. accumulate that gravity can collapse it together, forming large the headwind and can accumulate there. So much material can one orbit, further rocks falling into that orbit are protected from to cyclists: drafting behind the leader. If there are more rocks in and colleagues found the answer in a phenomenon well known gas and feel a headwind that drags them into the star. Mac Low As the rocks collide and grow larger, they orbit faster than the system whose star is still surrounded by its natal gaseous disk? dwarf planets—evolve from rocks and boulders in a young solar astrophysicists for decades: how do planetesimals—asteroids and of a supernova explosion.” around. Over millions of tiny steps, we follow the gross evolution follow the motions of a gas as it is heated and cooled and pushed programs used for weather prediction,” says Mac Low. “They the speed with which stars form. gravitational collapse to the gas between the stars, determining it becomes clear that chaotic motions provide stability against when simulations include more realistic turbulent gas flow, assumption of an idealized geometric distribution of gas. But astrophysicists’ models of star formation were based on the Until he began working on this problem a decade ago, most and amused by, by and large.” what you want it to do is something that I’m comfortable with not primarily a mathematician…but getting a computer to do international network of collaborators and students. computing time and routine digital conference calls with an theoretical approach to astrophysics requires months of the Hayden Sphere as sunlight pours in from 81st Street. scribbled in red and blue marker—looks out onto the gray top of Just outside the door, the hall window—marked with equations is claimed by book-lined shelves and neat stacks of papers. Curator Mac Low’s office is bright, and most of the floor space Modeling Cosmic Evolution Another story involves a conundrum that has stumped “The simulations we run are, in their essence, the same as One story that Mac Low likes to tell is how stars form. “I’m a storyteller,” says Mac Low. “I’m verbally oriented, Mac Low also studies the evolution of stars, but his more the same as programs used The simulations we run for weather prediction. are, in their essence, —Mordecai-Mark MacLow

Photo © AMNH/R. Mickens Rotunda / Fall 2011 / AMNH.org / Fall2011 Rotunda/ the Rose Center and beyond. universe—as will his fellow curators, Mac Low and Shara—from Oppenheimer will continue to expand our knowledge of the includes Oppenheimer as a member. Racing against himself, Interestingly enough, one of those teams, Gemini Planet Imager, them to begin observations about a year ahead of other teams. placed to discover new planets, since their readiness will allow planetary science in earnest. The Project team 1640 is well- hundreds of stars to find new planets and to begin comparative the way, like the new star in the Big Dipper, Alcor B.” what does,” says Oppenheimer. “And we’ve had a few finds along don’t move, we’ve made progress in distinguishing them from effect known as speckles. simultaneously collect spectra and images to remove an optical which is roughly one nanometer, or a billionth of a meter—and to to the precision of up to one one-thousandth of a wavelength— California. Improvements allow the team to control the light equipment over the last few years at Palomar Observatory in billions of times fainter than the stars they orbit.” bright spotlight thousands of miles away—because the planets are extremely difficult—like trying to see a firefly an inch from a really says Oppenheimer, who leads Project “This1640. is technically determine the chemical composition of their atmospheres,” system, known as exoplanets. working to image planets that orbit stars outside of our solar built for Project one 1640, of the few teams in the world the star’s, but not the planet’s, light. to see distant planets close to a star by eliminating much of “coronagraph” that mimics an eclipse, allowing astronomers drawing diagrams the test bed for an indispensable tool: the chamber” rest on a table that can float on air. On the wall, a line with sci-fi names like “supercontinuum laser” and “vacuum the equipment built and refined here dust-free. in the drone of pressurized air and purification systems that keep Center is an allergen-plagued person’s dream: a room immersed Associate Curator Oppenheimer’s lab on the sixth floor of the Rose Exploring New “Worlds” This fall, Oppenheimer’s team begins a three-year survey of “Planets are hiding behind the speckles, but, because they Oppenheimer’s team has been testing their Project 1640 “We image and measure the spectra of exoplanets to The clean lab is where delicate, precise instruments are Among power drills, metal cutters, and screwdrivers, items extremely difficult—like trying from a really bright spotlight thousands of miles away. to see a firefly an inch Imaging exoplanets is —Ben Oppenheimer

the universe to the public.” of and science bestsellers the Hayden’s events that sold-out deliver fascination with the can universe into tell adulthood—you by the list they like things that could eat them,” says Tyson. “But there is a features of planet Earth. universe; the nature of galaxies, stars, and planets; and the dynamic of space and time in the cosmos; the 13-billion-year history of the the Museum added engaging exhibits that explore the vast spread With the opening of the Rose Center for Earth and Space in 2000, been able to contemplate the night sky from urban New York City. the Hayden Planetarium. to that appetite,” says astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, of director astrophysical education. and Sandra Priest Rose Center for Earth and Space is a beacon of of the the universe: Hayden Planetarium in the Frederick Phineas annualblockbuster Isaac Asimov Memorial Debates, a digital atlas that make the latest breakthroughs in astrophysics accessible, Space Shows about stars and the search for life, AstroBulletins Bringing Astrophysics to the Public “Kids “Kids like black holes and dinosaurs, which means to me that Since the Hayden Planetarium ﬁrst opened in 1935, people have “The public has an appetite for the universe, and we are servants we are servants to that appetite. The public has an appetite for the universe, and —Neil deGrasse Tyson

11 Pull-Out Pull-Out Poster Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration of See model a the life-sized to ice detect or hydrated minerals underground. of Martian soil and atmosphere, and an instrument of tools to check for organic compounds in samples a set composition, to their reveal samples rock Martian a to laser vaporize including instruments, Curiosity it’s Now the Red Planet. about information Mars rovers have provided scientists with invaluable to Mars in 1997 as part of the Pathfinder mission, Mars whether has life. ever supported with a mission two-year laboratory to find out advanced rover the advanced yet: one-ton this Later year, NASA will launch most its biggest, search for signs of life of signs for search NASA’s A Laboratory on Mars Beginning with ’s turn. The rover will carry ten scientific ten ’sscientific will carry The rover turn. Curiosity Sojourner rover will rover , the 23-lb rover sent Curiosity Curiosity rover in , a mobile

Illustration © AMNH/5W Infographics to pull gases for analysis. heated or treated with solvents Curiosity SAM in samples powdered by and soil will be delivered to the of organic compounds. Rocks gases, rocks, and soil for traces will analyze Martian atmospheric This toolkit of three instruments Instrument (SAM) Sample Analysis at Mars ’s robotic arm, then

crater named Endeavour. of the 13.7-mile-wide Mars was exploring the rim At press time, as of August testing and ﬁnal assembly. Kennedy Center in June for Curiosity arrived at NASA’s for up to Mars Mileage Planned Landing Planned Launch Curiosity Mars Mileage Landed Launched Opportunity Landed Launched Spirit transmission in September 1997. before Pathﬁnder’s last successful and analyzed 15 Martian rocks Sojourner Mars Mileage Landed Launched Sojourner Mars Mileage transmission in March 2010. 124,000 images before its last Spirit returned more than

January January January January July returned 550 images

660 July June December 1997

Opportunity 2011

feet a day a feet 20.8 Engineered 328 4.8 2003

2003 Late

2004 2004 August miles feet

miles 1996 2011

2012

14 Next at the Museum 15

Programs and Events Strange New Worlds with Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and Van Cortlandt Park Adventures in the Global Fly Me to the Moon Behind the Scenes in Double Discount Days Ray Jayawardhana a Land Ethic for Our Time Walking Tour Kitchen: Beer and Cheese with Carter Emmart and Ornithology Friday, November 18-Sunday, For more programs and to Monday, October 3 Tuesday, October 11 Saturday, October 15 Wednesday, October 19 Andrew Chaikin Thursday, November 10 November 20 purchase tickets, visit amnh.org. 7:30 pm 5:30 pm 10 am–noon or 6:30 pm Tuesday, October 25 6:30–7:30 pm, Get a head start on holiday Member tickets are $13.50 Free 1–3 pm $30 6:30 pm 7–8 pm, or shopping. Members receive For updates and reminders, sign up Astronomer Ray Jayawardhana A screening of the $30 Garrett Oliver of the Brooklyn Member tickets are $13.50 7:30–8:30 pm 20% off all purchases at for monthly eNotes for Members brings news from the front documentary Green Fire, Join geologist Sidney Horenstein Brewery and Aaron Foster of Join Apollo historian $35 Museum stores, including by sending your membership lines of the quest to find highlighting the career of for a walking tour of this park, Murray’s Cheese will discuss Andrew Chaikin on a flight Tour the Department of amnhshop.com. number and request to subscribe planets and life beyond our conservationist Aldo Leopold, which includes some seasonal beers and cheese. simulation led by the Ornithology with Collections to [email protected]. The solar system. A book signing of will be followed by a discussion of the oldest rocks in the city. Museum’s Carter Emmart. Manager Paul Sweet. Museum does not trade, rent, Strange New Worlds will follow. led by Brooke Hecht and Adventures in the Global or sell this information. Dr. Curt Meine of the Center The World’s Largest Dinosaurs Kitchen: Speakeasy for Humans and Nature. Members-Only Highlights Tour Family Tour Halloween Celebration Margaret Mead Film Festival Monday, November 21 Lunchtime Bird Walks Sunday, October 16, Saturday, October 22 Monday, October 31 Thursday, November 10-Sunday, 6:30 pm October in Central Park Saturday, November 12, 10–11 am 4–7 pm November 13 $30 Tuesday, October 4, Behind the Scenes in Sunday, December 4 Free for Members at Family Insider Visit amnh.org for Member tickets are $10 except for Food writer Andrew F. Smith Tuesday, October 11, and Paleontology 3–4:30 level and above (registration more information opening and closing night and Colin Spoelman of Meet the Scientist Tuesday, October 18 Wednesday, October 12 Free (registration required) required) Trick or treat in the The Margaret Mead Film the Kings County Distillery Saturday, October 1 Noon–1:30 pm 6:30–7:30 pm Join a Museum tour guide for Bring the little ones to meet Museum’s iconic halls. Festival celebrates 35 years of lead tastings. Free $40 7–8 pm an insider’s introduction to all The World’s Largest Dinosaurs innovative filmmaking with Visitors 7 and older can chat Join Paul Sweet of the 7:30–8:30 pm that the Museum has to offer. on this special tour. November exceptional programs and with a scientist and learn Museum’s Department of $35 intimate discussions with The Grand Tour of the Universe how she or he became Ornithology on lunchtime Tour the Division of filmmakers and film subjects. Tuesday, November 29 interested in a chosen field. walks to identify birds Paleontology’s collections The Mind’s Eye with A Night at the Museum Explore Lower Manhattan For a full schedule and details, 6:30 pm Call 212-313-7105 for details. in Central Park. with Collections Manager Carl Oliver Sacks Sleepover: Mythic Madness Saturday, November 5 visit amnh.org/mead. Member tickets are $13.50 Mehling to learn how fossils Monday, October 17 Halloween Celebration 10 am–noon or Explore extrasolar planets are prepared and maintained. 7 pm Saturday, October 22 1–3 pm and myriad galaxies on this Live Bat Encounter SciCafe Member tickets $13.50 Friday, October 28 $30 The New Universe and The flight with Brian Abbott and Saturday, October 1 Wednesday, October 5 Physician and author Member tickets $119 per person Peel back the layers of Human Future With Joel Jackie Faherty. 11 am, Wednesday, November 2 One Step Beyond Oliver Sacks will discuss Come dressed as your Manhattan’s downtown with R. Primack and Nancy Ellen 12:15 pm, or Wednesday, December 7 Friday, October 14 his book The Mind’s Eye, best fairy, wizard, dragon, geologist Sidney Horenstein. Abrams 1:30 pm 7 pm Friday, November 4 a chronicle of resilience or other mythical character Monday, November 14 The Human Genome and Member tickets are $12 Free (space is limited) 9 pm–1 am and adaptation. Learn how for these popular 7:30 pm Human HealthWednesday, Join Rob Mies, director 21+ with ID $25 people navigate the world costumed sleepovers. Stories of the Night Sky: Members’ tickets are $13.50 November 30 of the Organization for Enjoy cocktails, cutting-edge 21+ with ID despite losing what many Fall Skies Join physicist Joel Primack and 7 pm Bat Conservation, for a live science, and conversation Enjoy a night of drinks and consider to be indispensable Sunday, November 6 philosopher Nancy Ellen Abrams $15 bat presentation. at this popular after-hours dancing in the Rose Center senses and abilities. 5:30–6:30 pm for a discussion of the modern Genetics experts discuss series, now held in the Wallach for Earth and Space and a $12 vision of the universe. triumphs and disappointments Orientation Center on the complimentary screening of a Practice identifying stars since the completion of fourth floor. Space Show. in this program for young the Human Genome Project astronomers. 10 years ago.

Tickets Exhibitions and The World’s Largest Dinosaurs The Butterfly Conservatory: Frogs: A Chorus of Colors Picturing Science: IMAX Movie Hayden Planetarium Attractions Through Monday, January 2 Tropical Butterflies Alive in Through Sunday, January 8 Museum Scientists and Tornado Alley Space Show Tickets are available by phone Free for Members Winter! This exhibition introduces visitors Imaging Technologies Through Sunday, January 8 Journey to the Stars at 212-769-5200, Monday–Friday, Admission is by timed entry only. This exciting exhibition features Opens Saturday, October 8 the colorful and richly diverse More than 20 sets of spectacular This thrilling film documents Journey to the Stars launches 9 am–5 pm, or by visiting cutting-edge research about This annual favorite returns world of frogs, with more than 200 large-format images showcase two unprecedented missions viewers through time and space amnh.org. Please have your Beyond Planet Earth: The super-sized sauropods and offers with up to 500 live, free-flying live frogs in re-created habitats. the wide range of research being to encounter one of Earth’s to experience the life and death Membership number ready. Future of Space Exploration new insights into how their tropical butterflies housed conducted at the Museum using most awe-inspiring events: the of the stars in our night sky. Opens Saturday, November 19 colossal bodies functioned. in a vivarium that approximates various optical tools. birth of a tornado. Please be aware that ticket Free for Members their natural habitat. sales are final for all Member Find out about robotic missions to programs. All programs go ahead explore our universe and what it rain or shine. There are no refunds will take to build a lunar elevator, unless the program is cancelled deflect deadly asteroids, travel to by the Museum. Mars, and more.

Rotunda / Fall 2011 / AMNH.org 16 Next at the Museum 17

December Don’t Miss Credits October Double Discount Days The Museum’s Youth Initiatives Friday, December 9-Sunday, are generously supported by 1 8 15 22 Behind the Scenes in December 11 Young Naturalist Awards the leadership contribution of the Saturday Saturday Saturday Saturday Meet the Scientist The Butterfly Conservatory Van Cortlandt Park Walking Tour Mythic Madness Halloween Entomology Get a head start on holiday Submissions due Friday, March 9 New York Life Foundation. Live Bat Encounter Opens Celebration Sleepover Thursday, December 1 shopping. Members receive This annual research-based 20% off all purchases at science competition recognizes Public programs are made 16 6:30–7:30 pm (families), 3 11 Sunday The World’s Largest Dinosaurs 7–8 pm, or Museum stores, including students in grades 7 through possible, in part, by the Rita and Monday Tuesday Members-only Highlights Tour Family Tour 7:30–8:30 pm amnhshop.com. 12 who carry out scientific Frits Markus Fund for the Public Strange New Worlds with Ray Green Fire: Aldo Leopold $35 investigations in biology, Understanding of Science. Jayawardhana and a Land Ethic for Our Time 17 25 Visit the Department of Earth science, ecology, and Monday Tuesday The Mind’s Eye with Oliver Sacks Fly Me to the Moon Entomology’s world-class astronomy. Submissions are MetLife Foundation is the 4 12 Holiday Party for Young Tuesday Wednesday insect collections with Members reviewed by a panel that Presenting Sponsor of the Lunchtime Bird Walks Behind-the-Scenes 18 28 paleoentomologist Paul Wednesday, December 14 includes environmentalists, Museum’s multicultural public in Central Park begin in Paleontology Tuesday Friday Nascimbene and Collections 6–8 pm science teachers, and Museum programming. Seventeenth Annual Family Mythic Madness Halloween Manager Christine Johnson. Free for Members at the scientists, and two winners 5 14 Party Celebration Sleepover Wednesday Friday Family Adventurer level and are chosen from each grade Popular Science is the media SciCafe One Step Beyond above (Registration required: level. For more information, partner for Hayden Planetarium 19 31 Wednesday Monday Origami-Fest for Members Call 212-769-5200) visit amnh.org/yna. monthly astronomy programs Adventures in the Global Halloween Celebration Sunday, December 4 Celebrate the holidays with and lectures. Kitchen: Beer and Cheese 10am–2pm the dinos! Enjoy an evening Free (registration required) of family activities and Whale Watch Weekend SciCafe is proudly sponsored Fold, crease, and create an entertainment in the Museum’s Friday, May 18–Sunday, May 20 by Judy and Josh Weston. November assortment of ornaments dinosaur halls and visit $800 per person, double with a team of volunteers The World’s Largest Dinosaurs occupancy SciCafe is made possible by 2 10 14 20 from Origami USA. Drop before it closes in January. $900 single occupancy a Science Education Partnership Wednesday Thursday Monday Sunday by to make one or a few to Please register before May 1 Award (SEPA) grant from SciCafe Behind the Scenes The New Universe and Double Discount Day at in Ornithology the Human Future Museum shops ring in the holidays. Join this weekend excursion the National Center for to Provincetown with Research Resources (NCRR), 4 Kwanzaa Celebration Friday Museum Gala 16 21 Saturday, December 31 Museum educator Jay Holmes a component of the National One Step Beyond Wednesday Monday Special Viewing: Noon to enjoy two private whale Institutes of Health (NIH). Margaret Mead Film Festival Member Preview of Beyond Adventures in the Global IMAX film Tornado Alley Free watch excursions, explore Opens Planet Earth: The Future of Kitchen: Speakeasy 5 Space Exploration Wednesday, December 7 The annual celebration the dunes, take a guided bird The Young Naturalist Awards Saturday Explore Lower Manhattan Origami Holiday Tree returns 6:30–7:30 pm features live performances, walk, and more. Cost includes are proudly supported by Alcoa 11 Friday traditional crafts, and transportation by private Foundation. 18 Member tickets are $8 adults, 6 Margaret Mead Film Festival Friday 29 $5 children a bustling Kwanzaa coach, meals at the hotel, two Sunday Double Discount Day at Tuesday Don’t miss this last-chance Marketplace in the Milstein boat excursions, dune tour, Stories of the Night Sky 12 Museum shops Grand Tour of the Universe viewing of the IMAX film Hall of Ocean Life. admissions, and lodging for Saturday Tornado Alley, starring Sean two nights. The program is Margaret Mead Film Festival 19 Saturday 30 Casey of “Storm Chasers.” limited to 42 Members. Wednesday Member-Only Highlights Tour Beyond Planet Earth: The Future The Human Genome of Space Exploration Opens and Human Health 13 Sunday Double Discount Day Margaret Mead Film Festival at Museum shops Credits Frogs: A Chorus of Colors is presented Journey to the Stars was developed Made possible through the generous Closes The World’s Largest Dinosaurs is with appreciation to Clyde Peeling’s by the American Museum of Natural sponsorship of Lockheed Martin. organized by the American Museum Reptiland. History, New York in collaboration of Natural History, New York (www. with the California Academy of And proudly sponsored by Accenture. December amnh.org) in collaboration with Picturing Science is made possible Sciences, San Francisco; GOTO INC, Sístole, S.A., Bogotá, Colombia. by the generosity of the Arthur Ross Tokyo, Japan; Papalote Museo del Supercomputing resources provided 1 7 10 14 Foundation. Niño, Mexico City, Mexico and by the Texas Advanced Computing Thursday Wednesday Saturday Wednesday Behind the Scenes in SciCafe Double Discount Day at Holiday Party for Young The World’s Largest Dinosaurs is Smithsonian National Air and Space Center (TACC) at The University Entomology Museum shops Members proudly supported by Bank of America. Journey to the Stars was produced Museum, Washington, D.C. of Texas at Austin, through the Special Viewing: Tornado Alley by the American Museum of Natural TeraGrid, a project of the National 4 11 31 Additional support is generously History, the Rose Center for Earth and Journey to the Stars was created by Science Foundation. Sunday 9 Sunday Saturday provided by Marshall P. and Space, and the Hayden Planetarium. the American Museum of Natural Origami-Fest for Members Friday Double Discount Day at Kwanzaa Celebration Rachael C. Levine, and Drs. Harlan B. History, with the major support and Double Discount Day at Museum shops and Natasha Levine. partnership of NASA, Science Mission Members-only Highlights Tour Museum shops Directorate, Heliophysics Division. Rotunda / Fall 2011 / AMNH.org 18 Explore at the Museum 19

Margaret Mead Film Festival at 35: Museum Scientist Named to Celebrating a Legacy and Looking Forward NASA’s 2016 Mission to Asteroid

“One of the many unique things about the Mead is the robust distribution for study. As mission sample An Expedition conversations after the screening with not only the filmmaker but scientist, Connolly will prepare the plan that to Hawaii’s the film subjects and people who are researching the topics of our specifies which researchers will receive Observatories films,” says Ariella Ben-Dov, artistic and festival director. “People material for analysis. In advance of the launch, enter into a dialogue about the regions, the topics, the human Connolly will be helping to coordinate and beings, the cultures, the traditions.” integrate studies of the asteroid’s spectroscopy This year’s festival will include conversations with Anne and geology, which will draw on data from Makepeace and Jessie Little Doe Baird, filmmaker and subject, ground-based observations of 1999 RQ36 and respectively, of We S t i l l Li v e H e r e , the story of an extraordinary reference meteorites, including specimens in In late January, astrophysicist effort to restore the Wampanoag language to a corner of Cape Cod. the Museum’s collection. Michael Shara, curator of Baird, who dreamed of reviving her people’s language, studied Asteroids, which contain original material the new exhibition Beyond linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and from the solar nebula that gave rise to our solar Planet Earth: The Future of produced a dictionary and resources for students and historians, system more than 4.5 million years ago, yield Space Exploration, will lead in addition to training her daughter to become the first native important clues about the formation of the solar a nine-day expedition to Wampanoag speaker in seven generations. Last year Baird received system and planets. OSIRIS-REx aims to bring Hawaii that combines an a MacArthur Fellowship, more commonly known as the “genius” back pristine samples for study. exploration of the islands’ grant, for her role in reclaiming a long-silent indigenous language. “Sample return sets the highest standard for unique natural history with Allie Humenuk and Anne Makepeace film We Still Live Here, featured at this year’s festival. “The Mead was an innovator in utilizing film and ethnography unmanned missions beyond Earth, because tours of some of the world’s to showcase the diversity of culture across the globe for American samples ‘keep on giving’ as we develop top astronomical facilities. Much has changed in ethnographic filmmaking since Margaret audiences,” says Ruth Cohen, director of the Museum’s Center better instrumentation in our laboratories,” Highlights will include Mead, her husband Gregory Bateson, and cinematographer for Lifelong Learning. “Today, with features such as We Still Live says Denton Ebel, associate curator in the visits to Project Pan-STARRS Jane Belo first recorded religious dances and other aspects of Here, the festival provides a uniquely deep and expansive cultural Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences (Panoramic Survey Telescope Balinese culture in the 1930s. And much has changed since the experience for modern audiences.” at the Museum. “Samples can be returned to and Rapid Response System), Museum organized the first Margaret Mead Film Festival in 1977 We Still Live Here exemplifies another important aspect of the over and over again as new questions are raised which surveys the skies for as a celebration of the pioneering anthropologist and longtime Mead Film Festival: an emphasis on native voices. “The Mead OSIRIS-REx will seek samples from asteroid 1999 RQ36. and new ideas are proposed. For example, the objects on a path to impact Museum curator. really champions work about cultures,” says Ben-Dov. “These Museum houses a large collection of asteroid the Earth, and to the Mauna Against this wave of change—driven in part by technological films transport audiences. They are the vehicles through which Geologist Harold C. Connolly, a research samples, the meteorites. In this case we will Kea Observatory Complex. advances and in part by shifting views of acceptable levels communities speak for themselves.” associate in the Museum’s Department know the exact source, and the samples will be Home to the twin 10-meter of intervention by filmmakers—the one constant has been the of Earth and Planetary Sciences, will oversee unaffected by entry into Earth’s atmosphere.” W. M. Keck telescopes, the Mead Festival’s enduring distinction for bringing to the public The Margaret Mead Film Festival runs from November 10 through sample analysis on the first U.S. mission complex also houses the innovative nonfiction films, a legacy that will be celebrated November 13. Visit amnh.org/mead for additional details. to collect material from an asteroid and bring world’s largest infrared and at this year’s 35th-anniversary program held from November it to Earth for study. “Sample return sets the highest optical-infrared telescopes, 10 through November 13. MetLife Foundation is the Presenting Sponsor of the Museum’s NASA announced the new mission—which is standard for unmanned which give this facility the most “Since I first began working in film, the Mead Festival had a multicultural public programming. called Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource light-gathering power of any legendary place among film festivals,” says Black Swan director Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer, or missions beyond Earth.” location on Earth. Darren Aronofsky, who is leading the jury selection for this OSIRIS-REx—in May as the third mission in —Denton Ebel, “Many astronomers feel year’s Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award. “The films are always its New Frontiers Program. An unmanned Associate Curator, that Hawaii is as close to amazing, and I am so excited that this year I will be able to see all spacecraft will be launched in 2016 to the near- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences heaven as you can get,” says the films that are in competition.” Earth asteroid 1999 RQ36 and will travel for Shara. “The night skies at Next month, the Mead Festival will present some 30 films culled four years to its destination. After OSIRIS-REx the summits of Haleakala from more than 1,000 submissions as well as a selection of iconic performs surface mapping of the asteroid—a In addition to collecting samples, OSIRIS- and Mauna Kea draw us back films from past festivals, a retrospective that will illustrate the arc process that may take up to 505 days—Connolly REx will gather data to help scientists better again and again.” of ethnographic filmmaking over the last 35 years. A special roster will be responsible for recommending locations understand 1999 RQ36’s orbit, information that The expedition, from of space-themed films, screened in conjunction with the major most suitable for sampling. can help develop strategies to deflect asteroids January 21 through January exhibition Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration, “We will narrow it down to several choices to that approach the Earth. 29, will also include visits will include a presentation of sci-fi films by Curator Michael Shara select the best location based on low risk to the Connolly is a co-investigator on the mission to Kilauea Volcano National as well as the U.S. premiere of Marion Kiss’s Space Sailors, which spacecraft and on chemical signatures” found with Principal Investigator Michael Drake of Park, a whale-watching traces the fate of the elite team of cosmonauts chosen for the Soviet during surface mapping, says Connolly, who is the University of Arizona in Tucson. cruise, and an excursion Intercosmos Program, and Christian Frei’s Space Tourists about the also professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at to the Kohala countryside. burgeoning space tourism industry. (For the full festival lineup, the City University of New York. Near-Earth asteroids, as well as previous sample visit amnh.org/mead.) The spacecraft will use a robotic arm to return missions and deflection strategies, are For details, visit In an age of computer downloads and viral videos, what collect at least 60 grams of material, which featured in the exhibition Beyond Planet Earth: amnhexpeditions.org

continues to set the Mead Festival apart is the human connection. This still from We Still Live Here shows one of Jessie Little Doe’s daughters. Photos by J. Reed Image © NASA will be brought to Earth in 2023 for worldwide The Future of Space Exploration. or call 800-462-8687.

Rotunda / Fall 2011 / AMNH.org 20 Members at the Museum 21

Building The Butterfly Conservatory Big Cat Scat: Grant Boosts Critical Research Now in its fourteenth season at the Museum, The Butterfly Conservatory: Tropical Butterflies Alive For the past five years, Museum scientists, in collaboration with in Winter! draws thousands of visitors each year, transporting them to a tropical ecosystem lush the Panthera Foundation—a nonprofit organization dedicated with vivid, live flowers and filled with hundreds of spectacular butterflies and moths. But while to protecting big cats in the wild—have been tracking tigers, the flora and fauna are quite real, the conservatory is the product of careful planning and design by lions, jaguars, and snow leopards through DNA in scat, or fecal the Museum’s Exhibition Department, which creates a “natural” garden using artificial lighting, specimens, gathered in the field. Now, through a generous grant precipitation, and climate control. from the Leslie and Daniel Ziff Foundation, the Global Felid Manager of Living Exhibits Hazel Davies, who has been involved with the conservatory for Conservation Genetics Program can accelerate the pace of this more than a decade, and her team start from scratch each year by determining what species to important work by expanding the program’s laboratory component. include and where to get the plants and live specimens. “We’re very excited about it,” says George Amato, director of Choosing the plants is an art in itself. Following U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations, the the Museum’s Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics and Museum prevents the butterflies from breeding by avoiding any plants that serve as their natural the Center for Conservation Genetics, which is responsible for Five Facts About hosts; butterflies are particular about where they lay eggs because the host plant will also provide sequencing the big cats’ DNA and analyzing the results. “In terms Moths And Butterflies food to the caterpillars that hatch. Suitability to different light levels, variations in texture and of scale, it is now the largest project of its kind in the world.” structures, and other factors are also considered in plant selection. Collecting more than 3,000 fecal samples so far and sharing Butterflies use a strawlike As for the fauna, the butterflies and moths that inhabit the exhibition—usually 550 to 600 the resulting data free of charge to researchers around the world, proboscis to drink nectar and individual butterflies, representing about 130 species—come from farms all over the world: Florida, the Global Felid Conservation Genetics Program follows animals other liquids. Costa Rica, Ecuador, Kenya, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Australia. subject to a variety of threats, from diminished habitat to hunting When selecting species, Davies looks for ones that flutter or, if sedentary, are especially showy, by traders in body parts. For example, compared to more than such as the huge and spectacular Atlas moth. She aims to include species that are active at different 100,000 over a century ago, there are fewer than 3,200 tigers in times of day to ensure a lively experience for all visitors. Asia today, occupying only seven percent of their historic range. Since many species live only a few days or weeks, new supplies of butterflies and moths arrive The research has yielded some good news—a newly identified every week to maintain the exhibition’s population. Butterflies are shipped in the chrysalis stage, population of tigers in Laos; more genetic diversity than expected a period of days or weeks when they are enclosed in a hard natural shell and can be wrapped in some areas—but researchers also found that, in a supposedly in tissue or foam and safely sent by courier. About two weeks before the exhibition opens to the protected area in Cambodia, one population of tigers had died out. public, the earliest butterfly arrivals are released into their new home, bringing a burst of color and Like all animals, big cats must breed with unrelated Butterflies taste with special activity to the conservatory. individuals or suffer a loss of genetic variation and the consequent receptors on their feet and Caring for the butterflies and maintaining the conservatory requires trained staff onsite seven effects of inbreeding, which weaken and eventually decimate a smell with their antennae. days a week. In addition, more than 120 trained volunteers work in groups of four for two-hour particular population. Large carnivores, like big cats, require the Big cats are shy, nocturnal, and difficult to observe. shifts each day to answer questions, interpret the exhibition, and point out interesting facts most space of any species to survive and thrive in the wild, a factor Butterflies don’t eat only to visitors, which can number as many as 350 an hour. A key job requirement is the ability to that not only puts them at greater risk from human encroachment With the rare exception of lion prides that have become nectar. Various species also withstand the high temperature and humidity—80 degrees Fahrenheit and 80 percent humidity—for but also has implications for the potential cascading effects of habituated to tourists and filmmakers, big cats are shy, nocturnal, dine on sap, fruit, and bird hours at a stretch. Those who can take the heat get front-row seats to see the effect exotic butterflies their disappearance from their respective ecosystems. and extremely difficult to observe. Genetic monitoring is a huge droppings. Some are even have on human visitors—awe, delight, and occasionally marriage proposals, which occur with By way of example, Amato cites the consequences of the leap forward in tracking them compared to trip cameras and partial to the sweat on bald some frequency, especially on Valentine’s Day. absence of wolves—before they were restored—in Yellowstone satellite tags. For one thing, the collection of fecal samples by human heads. National Park. “The whole ecosystem changed,” Amato explains. field biologists, wildlife officials, and others is non-invasive, with The Butterfly Conservatory: Tropical Butterflies Alive in Winter! opens October 8. “There were too many elk. There wasn’t habitat for certain birds. no potential for harming the animals. And the results are much Vegetation changed.” more comprehensive, allowing researchers to identify specific Sustainable habitats for big cats require safe corridors through individuals and the relationships within populations—the family which unrelated cats within a species can come into contact with members, parents, siblings, and most important for assessing each other, says Amato, “because even the largest protected areas healthy breeding habits, the new offspring of particular pairs. are too small to have a genetically healthy population.” Reliable “We’re learning a lot about the natural history of these information about the breeding range of the various big cat animals,” says Amato, adding a cautionary note, despite the populations will help conservationists determine which initiatives program’s goal to maximize big cats’ chances of survival: “If they are likely to succeed. don’t persist in the future, how tragic not to learn all we could.”

Moths have a strong sense of smell. Males can detect Following Cats Around the World the pheromones of potential mates a mile away. The Global Felid Conservation Genetics new Program tracks jaguars in Argentina, Belize, Butterﬂies are the second member Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, French Guiana, most important pollinator benefit Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, and Peru; after bees, and some night- tigers in Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Use live-animal blooming plants are pollinated exhibition tickets and Thailand; snow leopards in Afghanistan, only by moths. for The Butterﬂy China, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, and Tajikistan; Conservatory Photo © AMNH/R. Mickens Photo © istockphoto.com/Ammit and lions in Gabon and Nigeria.

Rotunda / Fall 2011 / AMNH.org 22 Seen at the Museum 23

Save the Date! 1 1 Upcoming Events at the Museum

January 1/4 On Wednesday mornings from January through March, Walk on the Wild Side with 2 Members-only ﬁtness walks followed by breakfast in the Akeley Hall of African Mammals before the Museum opens to the public. Call 212-769-5606 for information.

1/15 Explore the Rose Center for Earth and 2 Space, enjoy live performances, and more at Space Fest from 11 am to 4 pm.

February 2/16 Discover the Museum after hours at Explorer’s Night. Free for Members.

March 3/1 The annual Star Party will include a reception in the Rose Center for Earth and Space, star-gazing on the Arthur Ross Terrace, activities for families, and more. Free for Members at the Voyager and 6 3 Family Voyager levels and above.

3/8 Dance the night away at the annual Museum 5 Dance, the social event of the season.

3/29 Members will have the ﬁrst chance to see the exciting new exhibition Creatures of Light: Nature’s Bioluminescence at this exclusive preview. Free for Members.

3/31 Creatures of Light opens to the public.

April 4/19 Go behind the scenes to learn about the latest Museum research at the Member Open House. Free for Members at the Adventurer and 4 3 Family Adventurer levels and above.

1. Renowned paleoanthropologists Richard Leakey and 3. Museum President Ellen Futter spoke to students families, and teachers gathered in Milstein Hall of 1. Museum Trustee Ted Mathas, pictured with 2. Junior Council Co-Chairs Ross and Heather Donald Johanson shared the stage at the Museum at the 2011 Urban Advantage Science Expo, which was Ocean Life for the Urban Advantage Science Expo. MetLife, Inc. Chairman and fellow Trustee C. Robert Schulman celebrated the season ﬁnale on June 23. on May 5 to discuss the overwhelming evidence for held in the Museum on June 12 and featured research 5. Ornithologist Paul Sweet helped identify specimens Henrikson, gave the welcoming remarks at the 3, 4. Junior Council revelers: Ari and Danielle Lerner, evolution in the hominid fossil record. projects by 800 middle school students. during Identiﬁcation Day on June 4. Nineteenth Annual Corporate Dinner, at which Brad and Robin Roberts, Sachi Shah and Rushabh 4/25 Join us for the 22nd Annual Environmental 2. Dr. Johanson, speaking at the May 5 event, 4. Chancellor of the New York City Department of 6. Visitors explored Museum collections during Henrikson was honored with the Distinguished Vora, and Lori and Zachary Pomerantz (3) and Valerie

discovered the early hominid skeleton known as Lucy. Education Dennis M. Walcott spoke to students, Identiﬁcation Day. Photos © AMNH/R. Mickens Photo 1 © AMNH/D. Finnin, photos 2, 3, and 4 © AMNH/R. Mickens Service to Science and Education Award. Evering and Julie Marchesi (4). Lecture and Luncheon.

Rotunda / Fall 2011 / AMNH.org Membership

Central Park West at 79th Street New York, New York 10024-5192 amnh.org © AMNH/M. Garlick AMNH/M. © Hours Museum: Open daily, 10 am–5:45 pm; closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Entrances During Museum hours, Members may enter at Central Park West at 79th Street (second ﬂoor), the Rose Center/81st Street, and through the subway (lower level).

Restaurants Museum Food Court, Café on One, Starlight Café, and Café on 4 offer Members a 15% discount.

Museum shops The Museum Shop, DinoStore, The Shop for Earth & Space, Cosmic Shop, Brain Shop, Sauropod Shop, and Online Shop (amnhshop.com) offer Members a 10% discount.

Transportation and parking Dr. Mark Garlick—an illustrator and General Information Subway: B (weekdays) or C to 81st Street; astrophysicist—created this moonscape 1 to 79th Street, walk east to Museum Bus: M7, M10, depicting a lunar elevator, a liquid mirror telescope, and a bulldozer Phone numbers M11, or M104 to 79th Street; M79 to Central Park West mining for helium-3, some of Central Reservations 212-769-5200 Parking Garage: Open daily, 8 am–11 pm; enter from the exciting technologies featured Membership Ofﬁce 212-769-5606 West 81st Street. Members can park for a ﬂat fee of in the new exhibition Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration, Museum Information 212-769-5100 $10 if entering after 4 pm. To receive this rate, show your which opens November 19. Development 212-769-5151 membership card or event ticket when exiting the garage.