Event 3: Meteorite Gallery

This week, I visited the UCLA Meteorite Gallery in our very own Geology building. This experience was eye-opening in a variety of ways. Firstly, I did not even know we had this sort of collection at UCLA and I also found out that it’s actually the 5^th largest collection of meteorites in the country and the second largest at a university. This exhibit was particularly unique in the fact that it was a completely science-based exhibit with a unique form or artistic merit highlighting the overlap of the two.

Me at the gallery

Meteorites are solid pieces of debris that originate in outer space and then survive the drop through the earth’s atmosphere and can vary greatly in size. The UCLA collection has over 1500 meteorites and a little over 100 are on display since many are being utilized for research or are being displayed elsewhere. Most were collected by ordinary people and then acquired by UCLA for study.

Part of UCLA's collection

While at first glance the meteorites seem to be just any other rocks, my fascination with them was very different. Art is meant to be thought-provoking and I think these meteorites provoke the mind in a unique way. Personally, I was astounded to be able to see, and touch, these objects from outer space. Who knows how many light years away the meteorite came from before ending up at UCLA and how many millions, if not billions, of years old it is. I would liken this to reinforcing the concepts from the Eames “Power of Ten” video but in a much more literal sense. This experience of seeing them in person was one of those moments that really puts things into the context of the sheer vastness of the universe.

UCLA's oldest meteorite 

The visit also tied together the class’s last topic exploring the relationship between space and art. It exemplified the most literal form, in my opinion, of space art. In fact, I found out many art collectors are even willing to pay high prices to add meteorites to their collection because of how unique they are. I would recommend everyone visit this gallery during their time at UCLA because it really does capture the concept of science being displayed as art – each meteorite has its own unique story and properties and I think the experience of seeing something from outer space is very powerful.