Cosmic Questions features four main areas:

	Cosmic Questions: Welcome Home Photo by Kevin Burke/SAO

Observing the Universe
This area allows visitors to explore the universe using the tools of some of the world's foremost ground-based and space-borne observatories. In this exhibit, visitors can move infrared cameras over objects to see phenomena usually invisible, learn how cultures around the world observed a supernova explosion in 1054 A.D., and visit the Mauna Kea observatory, where they can send a telescopic photograph of a specific night-sky object to their home e-mail address.

Our Place in Time
Astronomer Carl Sagan once observed, "In order to bake an apple pie from scratch, first you have to invent the universe." In this area visitors are invited to reflect on the human story as it relates to the unfolding story of the cosmos. Visitors can look back in time and examine the expanding, evolving universe to find their own connections to the Big Bang. This exhibit is anchored by the Cosmic Kitchen Theatre, where a short theatrical production explores the 14-billion-year history of the universe and the "recipe" for our own existence.

Great Cosmic Mysteries
While other sections of this exhibition encourage visitors to explore what we currently know and understand about space and time, this area acknowledges that there are deep mysteries yet to be understood. A series of interconnected rooms introduce a gallery of mysteries—dark matter and energy, black holes, and the possibility of life elsewhere in our universe. A fourth room invites visitors to reflect on their own connections to the cosmos.

Rich program materials developed by the Museum of Science, Boston, travel with the exhibition; these include a theater piece, demonstration carts, and materials for students and teachers. A staff training workshop will also be offered to host museums.

Cosmic Questions: Our Place in Space and Time was developed by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Jeff Kennedy Associates, Inc., with generous support from the National Science Foundation and NASA.