Nagoya City Science Museum

Purpose of Exhibition

Come into this gallery from the north entrance and walk clockwise around the perimeter, looking at the displays, you will travel from our earth to the end of the Universe. The outer ring is lined with various astronomical objects and cosmic events in order. This exhibit is based on the idea of Powers of Ten, where the scale increases tenfold each time.

Additional Knowledge

[Powers of Ten]
Powers of Ten: 1, 10, 100, 1,000 .... The idea of seeing the world in ten-fold scale at each step was first visualized in 1977 in a nine-minute short film, called “Powers of Ten” by Charles and Ray Eames. The film was also published as a book and is available in Japanese.
In the 21st century, science knows far more about the Universe than it did when Eames made their film. We figured out in 2006, for example, that our Universe began “13.8 billion years ago.” This gallery illustrates a new view of the Universe with the latest findings.
Your journey to the end of the Universe begins at the north entrance. On your left, you will find 10⁸m on the wall, the size of our earth. Scales of powers of ten are marked all around the wall. As you walk along the perimeter, you will see photos and data of various celestial bodies in order of their distance from the earth, as well as touch panels and display boards showing classification of objects and events in the Universe. The density of displays is also the distribution of our knowledge of the world; where we know a lot, exhibits are crowded, and where we know less, exhibits are limited. So, you will be traveling through the modern view of the Universe as it is, as best as we can currently tell. Open areas will have new display boards and other materials as we uncover new knowledge in the future. The gallery will lead you not only to faraway places, but also to past and future views of the Universe.


This page was last edited on 19 June 2022.

Article by Astronomy Section