The Rieskrater Museum, sometimes known in English as the Ries Crater Museum, focuses on

meteors A meteoroid () is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space. Meteoroids are defined as objects significantly smaller than asteroids, ranging in size from grains to objects up to a meter wide. Objects smaller than this are classified as mic ...

and their collisions with Earth. The museum is housed in a 16th-century barn in

Nördlingen Nördlingen (; Swabian: ''Nearle'' or ''Nearleng'') is a town in the Donau-Ries district, in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, with a population of approximately 20,674. It is located approximately east of Stuttgart, and northwest of Munich. It was bui ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

which was part of the medieval city's center. The area (

Nördlinger Ries The Nördlinger Ries is an impact crater and large circular depression in western Bavaria and eastern Baden-Württemberg. It is located north of the Danube in the district of Donau-Ries. The city of Nördlingen is located within the depression, a ...

) is the location of a meteor's impact with Earth c. 15 million years ago. This might have been a double impact, as the

Steinheim crater The Steinheim crater is a meteorite crater in Steinheim am Albuch, Heidenheim County, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The crater is located at the north-eastern end of the Swabian Alb, 40km west of the much larger (24-km-diameter) Nördlinger R ...

is nearby and has the same estimated age. The Ries Crater has been recognized as an impact crater since the early 1960s. The museum's collection includes a genuine

moon rock Moon rock or lunar rock is rock originating from Earth's Moon. This includes lunar material collected during the course of human exploration of the Moon, and rock that has been ejected naturally from the Moon's surface and landed on Earth as ...

from

Apollo 16 Apollo 16 (April 1627, 1972) was the tenth crewed mission in the United States Apollo space program, administered by NASA, and the fifth and penultimate to land on the Moon. It was the second of Apollo's " J missions", with an extended sta ...

on loan from

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

in return for using the Nördlingen crater for training the

Apollo 14 Apollo 14 (January 31, 1971February 9, 1971) was the eighth crewed mission in the United States Apollo program, the third to land on the Moon, and the first to land in the lunar highlands. It was the last of the " H missions", landings at s ...

astronauts due to its similarities to a moon crater. The museum is affiliated with the nearby

Geopark Ries A geopark is a protected area with internationally significant geology within which sustainable development is sought and which includes tourism, conservation, education and research concerning not just geology but other relevant sciences. In 200 ...

( UNESCO - International Network of Geoparks), whose mission is to protect the crater. The museum opened in May 1990 and received its millionth visitor on 15 December 2012. File:NeuschwansteinMeteorite1-1.jpg, Meteoritenfragment ''Neuschwanstein I'' - 1705 Gram File:NoerdlingerRies topo.jpg, Nördlinger Ries, Steinheim crater,

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

and

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

File:RiesSteinheimMarkings.JPG, Nördlinger Ries and Steinheimer crater

References

External links

Rieskrater-Museum

Description of museum

Geopark Ries
Natural history museums in Germany Meteorite organizations Meteorites in culture Geology museums in Germany Museums in Bavaria Buildings and structures in Donau-Ries Nördlingen {{Germany-museum-stub

Further reading

References

External links