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New Shanghai Museum Looks to the Heavens

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New Shanghai Museum Looks to the Heavens 2 | Monday, July 26, 2021 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY PAGE TWO New Shanghai museum looks to the heavens A visitor learns about the cosmos at the Shanghai Astronomy Museum, which opened on July 18 and attracted nearly 6,000 visitors. LONG WEI / FOR CHINA DAILY By XING YI in Shanghai and forward-looking while at same time pre- Inside “Earth” is a planetarium decorated still unknown, even among scientists. generator creates a whirlpool to imitate a [email protected] senting a link to the past, mirroring both the as a lawn on a summer night, visitors lie “After numerous discussions and brain- black hole, while rays of projected light, rich history of Chinese astronomy and the down to enjoy views of the starry night sky storming sessions, we decided to explain the which bend when visitors approach them, For thousands of years, people have been future ambitions of China’s space exploration projected on the dome. basic concept of time and space and the fun- show the effects of gravity. gazing at the stars, awed by the vastness of the program.” Exhibits near “Earth” inform visitors about damental theories about the universe to visi- Odyssey, the third exhibition, features a universe. other planets in the solar system. The mete- tors, and also tell them that one day a visitor historical narrative to guide visitors through There has always been the desire to observe Three displays orite section deserves special mention, as it could have the answers to unsolved ques- the advancement of knowledge about the and explore the cosmos, and the recent open- Touring the main building, visitors can features 70 meteorites collected from around tions,” Lin said. universe and efforts in space exploration. The ing of a new astronomy museum in Shanghai gain a thorough understanding of the uni- the world, including a 21.4-kilogram speci- Instead of highlighting straight facts, this exhibits include publications by Claudius has triggered even more curiosity among verse through three main exhibitions — men of the only one witnessed in Shanghai’s exhibition poses a number of questions, such Ptolemy, the Egyptian astronomer, mathe- enthusiastic visitors about the unknown. Home, Cosmos and Odyssey. They can learn history, which fell on Changxing Island in as What is the universe? How big is it? What matician and geographer of Greek descent, On July 18, when it opened to the public, about ancient Chinese astronomy at a 1964. is the essence of gravity? How is distance Johannes Kepler, the German astronomer, nearly 6,000 people crowded into the 38,000- themed display, theories about the heavens, The Cosmos exhibition is reached by leav- between stars measured? What is dark mat- mathematician and astrologer, and Newton. square-meter Shanghai Astronomy Museum, reports of comets being sighted, and observa- ing the Home display and walking through a ter? The answers are presented through The exhibition culminates in a section on located beside Dishui Lake in the city’s east- tion instruments. long “interstellar” passage featuring an interactive exhibits to make it easier for peo- China’s most recent space projects, featuring ern coastal area of Lingang. A 17-meter-diameter model of Earth beam- immersive and interactive art projection of a ple to understand them. full-scale models of the Yutu (Jade Rabbit) Housing exhibits and interactive displays ing out a pale blue light attracts visitors enter- river of stars that flows with people’s move- A short time travel drama featuring British lunar rover, Tianhe (Harmony of the Heav- from the history of the creation of the uni- ing the Home exhibition through a dark tunnel. ments. astronomer Isaac Newton meeting Albert ens) core module and the Chang’e-5 space- verse to China’s latest efforts in space explora- Alongside this, a model of the moon floats in the Lin Qing, director of the museum’s Einstein, the German-born theoretical physi- craft, along with a 9-milligram lunar sample tion, the new branch of the Shanghai Science air. The dim light in the exhibition hall also research center and the main curator of the cist, is performed live by actors to tell visitors brought back by the Chang’e-5 mission. and Technology Museum is the largest of its gives visitors the impression that they are view- exhibitions, said the Cosmos display was the about the differing views of classical physics Xin Ge, deputy director of the museum, kind in the world dedicated solely to the study ing Earth from space. hardest to present, as much in the universe is and the theory of relativity on the universe. A said: “We don’t want our exhibitions to be of astronomy. like dull textbooks. We have focused on creat- Zhouyang Songdan, a teacher in her 20s ing an exciting experience for visitors so that who got up at 3 am a week ago to book an they’ll leave the museum with more curious opening-day ticket to visit the museum, was minds about space and a love for astronomy.” among the first to arrive. “I was so excited when I got the ticket, as they were all snapped Summit staged up in just a few minutes,” she said. On July 17, the day before it opened to the Like many people eager to learn about the public, the museum held a summit titled stars, her love of astronomy was cultivated in “Flying into the infinity of the universe”. childhood when her father read her bedtime The event included talks by a Chinese aca- stories about the heavenly bodies. demician, the director of the Shanghai “Back then in Shanghai, there were no Astronomical Observatory, the chief scien- astronomy museums and few resources to tist of China’s Hard X-ray Modulation Tele- acquire such knowledge. I think the populari- scope, and the chief scientist for the zation of astronomy is very important, and nation’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture this new museum is definitely a good start,” Spherical Radio Telescope, or FAST. There she said. were also speeches by two Nobel laureates Wang Lianhua, who is in charge of the delivered via video link. Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, During a roundtable discussion, Shen Zhi- said the opening of the new institution marks qiang, director of the Shanghai Astronomical a milestone for the efforts to promote science, Observatory, said: “I am very impressed by as Shanghai now has museums for nature, the overall exhibitions at the museum, espe- modern technology and astronomy. cially the presentation of the country’s space Built on a 56,800-square-meter site, the projects. Modern astronomy in China is still a museum’s main building has no straight lines young discipline, and this museum will fuel or right angles, a concept inspired by the interest in studying the universe among the orbits of celestial bodies and the geometry of younger generation.” the cosmos. Instead, it features three circles Two towers, one housing a 1-meter tele- — an oculus hole, a spherical theater and an scope and the other a 65-centimeter solar inverted dome, which also function as astro- telescope, stand next to the museum. Both nomical instruments, tracking the sun, moon will be open to the public for star-gazing and stars. activities and scientific research projects for The oculus, suspended above the main students. entrance to the museum, marks the passage Li Di, chief scientist for FAST, said: “The of time by tracking a circle of sunlight on the universe has never let us down. We have nev- ground across the entry plaza and a reflect- er been able to imagine what we could dis- ing pool. At noon during the summer solstice, cover if we look just a little deeper into the a full circle of sunlight aligns with a circular universe. It’s always full of surprises.” platform in the entry plaza. For 94-year-old Ye Shuhua, astronomer The half-sunken theater is located in one and academician at the Chinese Academy of wing of the museum with minimal visible Sciences, the opening of the museum is a support, giving an impression of weightless- dream come true, as for a long time there ness or zero-gravity when visitors approach it. was only one museum dedicated to astrono- The inverted glass dome, situated in the my in China — the Beijing Planetarium, central atrium of the other wing, is accessed which was built in 1957 and expanded in through a spiral ramp. When visitors reach Top: Dong Shuchang, a photographer, performs a somersault under the theater dome on July 17 after one of his astronomy photos 2004. the center of the glass dish, they have an was displayed at the museum. GAO ERQIANG / CHINA DAILY Left: Models of the moon and Earth attract visitors. LONG WEI / FOR CHINA DAILY “A long time ago, I suggested that a new unimpeded view of the sky. Right: Visitors take photographs of the “sun”. LONG WEI / FOR CHINA DAILY astronomy museum should be built in Thomas Wong, lead designer for the Shanghai,” said Ye, who started her career in museum and a partner with Ennead Archi- 1951 at the Shanghai Xujiahui Observatory, tects, a United States company, said in an one of the earliest modern observatories in interview with CNN that the design was China. also influenced by the “three-body prob- “Seeing things in person is far different lem” — the unsolved question of how to cal- from reading about them in books, and as culate the motion of three celestial entities sciences advance, the public is not content based on their gravitational relationships to with solely knowing things about Earth,” one another.
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