Galaxies far, far away, and years long gone felt a bit closer at KU today (and yesterday). NASA brought their traveling exhibit "Driven to Explore", made up of a semi-trailer and inflatable dome awning, to campus. The main draw of the event was to "feel" a 3.75 billion year old moonrock brought back to Earth by Captain Ron Evans, KU's first astronaut. When Pete and I stopped by, crowds were gathering, lines were forming, and children were bustling about all anxious to feel this piece of history.But, much like me, I suspect that many left feeling a bit disappointed. The little black shiny thing which the finger of this 8 year-old is touching is the moonrock. It's size, rather than about the size of my wrist as I expected, is really about the size of a piece of chewing gum. And while the pictures lining the traveling exhibit show pourus and rough looking rocks, the one on display is very, very smooth. The more accurate description of the event should be more like "touch a rock from outer space whose texture isn't accurate because thousands upon thousands of people have touched it, and it's so small, you'll only really touch a finger to it."
Okay, so I'm a skeptic. Still, it is cool that it is one of seven moonrocks in the world people can touch. And it is cool that it was brought back by a KU alum. And it is cool that I've now touched something that is actually older than dirt.
At one time I thought that being an astronaut would be really cool, but then I realized that involved more math than I ever wanted or needed to know. But some of the training stuff still looks cool.... It looks like a trip to the Hutchinson Cosmosphere is in order this summer!
