BEYOND, A SPECTACULAR PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION,
ON VIEW APRIL 14, 2007-APRIL 6, 2008

IMAGES FROM SPACE PORTRAY EXOTIC EXTRATERRESTRIAL LANDSCAPES

Jupiter's moon Io has no impact craters, an indication that the moon's surface is very young. Most of the features visible in this image are volcanoes. Io's surface is consistently being reshaped by volcanic activity.
Galileo, July 3, 1999 Image type: Visible light; multiframe mosaic

Beyond, an exhibition of over 30 spectacular photographs—alien and exquisite images from space captured by unmanned interplanetary probes—opens Saturday, April 14, at the American Museum of Natural History. On view in the IMAX Gallery through April 6, 2008, the exhibition features dramatic photographs of four equally stunning but radically different extraterrestrial landscapes.

Combining scientific detail and striking artistry, Beyond is the result of Michael Benson's years of searching the archives of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency to find images that he then processed and combined to create large-format composite views of the planets Mars and Venus as well as Jupiter's moons Europa and Io. Planetary scientist Paul Geissler helped Benson produce some of these color images, many of which had never before been rendered in full color.

Late northern summer on Mars. The northern hemisphere of Mars is home to the Arabia region (light red area on the left) and the Hellas impact basin, shown here covered by carbon dioxide frost (white area on the right). Viking Orbiter 1, 1980
Image type: Visible light; multiframe orthographic projection

The exhibition is divided into four sections: "Venus," "Europa," "Io," and "Mars." Highlights include images of Europa's frozen plains, chaotic terrain, and curved ridges; a global dust storm on Mars; craters, volcanoes, and the lava flows of Venus; and an 80-mile-high volcanic plume on Io. Visitors can safely tour the strange and intensely hot topographies of the Venusian plains and a canyon large enough to span the continental United States on frigid Mars.

The intention of juxtaposing these four worlds is to highlight both their differences and their similarities. Io and Europa, Jovian moons that orbit close to one another exhibit a "fire-and-ice" contrast; and the same contrast characterizes Earth's two closest neighbors, Venus and Mars. Bringing together science and art, Benson asks us to consider questions of life in the universe, the past and future of our own planet, and simply, the beauty of alien landscapes.

The faults and ridges of Europa's icy terrain most likely cover an ocean of water—possibly with more salt water than is found in all of Earth's oceans.
Galileo, March 29, 1998
Image type: Visible light; multiframe mosaic

Michael Benson is a widely published writer, photographer, and award-winning filmmaker. He lives in Ljubljana, Slovenia, with his wife and son. The exhibition is accompanied by Benson's award-winning book Beyond: Visions of the Interplanetary Probes (Abrams, 2003), which includes a forward by Arthur C. Clarke and an afterword by Lawrence Weschler. The 319-page book is available in the Museum Shop in a hardcover edition for $55.00.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Frederick P. Rose Director of the Museum's Hayden Planetarium, is curating the installation of Beyond at the Museum.

The presentation of Beyond at the American Museum of Natural History is made possible by the generosity of the Arthur Ross Foundation.

Send this page to a friend

Photography Exhibitions Archive