Earth & Planets Laboratory Open House
Plan Your Adventure
1:30 PM | From Nebula to Atoms: What We Investigate at EPL | Dr. Michael Walter, Director
Greenewalt Lecture Hall
2:30 PM | Science Time Travelers | Shaun Hardy, Librarian Emeritus
Atom Smasher
3:30 PM | Meteorites: Rocks from Space | Dr. Conel Alexander, Carnegie Cosmochemist
Greenewalt Lecture Hall
Head to the back of the Research Building to take a sneak peek at the Large Press Lab, where scientists recreate the intense heat and pressure found deep within planets! Using piston-cylinder presses, our researchers can squeeze and heat samples to 3 gigapascals of pressure and 1,700°C—conditions similar to those hundreds of kilometers below Earth’s surface.
Here, scientists make new materials, explore how rocks melt and change, and study how elements behave inside planetary interiors. Thanks to the lab’s precise and powerful equipment, they can run experiments for long periods, heat and cool samples quickly, and study materials large enough to reveal exciting details about how our world (and others) are built.
Stop by our Ask a Scientist table to chat with real Carnegie researchers who study Earth’s deep interior, far-off exoplanets, and everything in between.
No question is too big, too small, or too weird—curiosity is always welcome!
Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream
Dr. Mike Walter | Patio
This demo is super cool! Watch as we use liquid nitrogen at a chilly –320°F to freeze ice cream in mere seconds.
Available from 2 - 3:45 PM
Cotton Candy Creations
Carnegie Science | Patio
Watch chemistry and physics in action as sugar crystals transform into wispy candy threads.
Available from
1 - 1:45 PM
2 - 2:45 PM
3 - 3:45 PM
Sun S'mores
Dr. Nicole Wallak | Outdoor Exhibits
Let’s toast some marshmallows using solar power—direct from the source.
Science Stamp Stations
Discover how researchers recreate the extreme conditions of Earth’s interior with a device small enough to fit in your hand.
Using a diamond anvil cell, scientists squeeze tiny samples between two diamonds to reach pressures up to 400 gigapascals—that’s roughly 4 million times the atmospheric pressure at sea level. These pressures match what materials experience deep inside our planet.
Learn how astronomers use light to learn about faraway planets, stars, and galaxies.
Build a pocket-sized Solar System to explore our cosmic neighborhood, make your own spectrometer to break light into its rainbow of colors, and see how infrared light reveals what our eyes can’t see.
Did you know? These same techniques help scientists find distant exoplanets and study their atmospheres from millions of miles away.
Resources
How to Build a Spectrograph: https://weinberger.dtm.carnegiescience.edu/for-the-public/make-a-spectrograph
Pocket Solar System: https://www.nisenet.org/sites/default/files/catalog/uploads/ExSci_Space_PocketSolarSystem_folding.pdf
About Infrared: https://weinberger.dtm.carnegiescience.edu/infrared, https://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/
Step back in time to meet Vera Rubin, the Carnegie astronomer who discovered dark matter!
Check out the real scientific tools she used, dive into photos from her decades of discovery, and learn how she championed women in science. Bonus: You’ll even spot her on a U.S. quarter!
Let’s toast some marshmallows using solar power—direct from the source.
Watch plant-like towers grow before your eyes as simple salts and “water glass” spark a reaction that builds its own shimmering crystal garden.
These delicate mineral structures mimic the volcanic vents you can find at the bottom of the ocean. They demonstrate how simple chemistry can build complex structures—whether on Earth, Mars, or icy moons. Some people think the chemistry of life started in a crystal garden similar to the one you’ll build today!
Let’s shake things up!
Head behind the Greenewalt Building to the Seismology Lab, where you will discover how scientists “see” inside Earth by studying the vibrations that travel through our planet. Jump, stomp, or tap and watch a real seismometer record your every move.
Did you know? Seismometers are so sensitive that they can detect earthquakes on the other side of the world!
Step right up and sink your hands into oobleck—a gooey mixture that acts like a liquid when you move slowly and a solid when you move fast. Watch how speed changes everything in this lesson on material science.
Oobleck is a non-Newtonian fluid. Its behavior depends on how quickly you deform it. Rocks that are solid on short timescales, but flow over long periods of time, show the same kind of behavior deep inside our planet!
Hold stardust in your hands! Examine meteorites up close with a hand lens and discover how these ancient space rocks reveal the story of our Solar System’s birth.
Did you know? Some meteorites contain tiny grains of stardust that are older than the Solar System itself—real pieces of stars that existed before the Sun was born.
Discover how scientists visualize Earth’s surface using an augmented-reality sandbox.
Shape the sand to build mountains, volcanos, and islands, then watch the map change in real time. You can even “make it rain” and see virtual water flow across your landscape. This hands-on model helps researchers and students understand how elevation, gravity, and water interact to shape our planet and others.
How do scientists tell time when there are no calendars for the early Earth? They read the rocks!
Discover how geochemists use isotopes—tiny atomic variations—as natural clocks to measure the age of minerals and trace the story of our planet. Learn how these “rock clocks” reveal when mountains formed, volcanos erupted, and even when the first oceans appeared.
This demo is super cool! Watch as we use liquid nitrogen at a chilly –320°F to freeze ice cream in mere seconds.
Watch colorful currents swirl in a LEGO-built rotating tank! This model shows how heat and motion inside planets and oceans create looping flows and shifting patterns.
Did you know? Experiments with rotating tanks like this one help scientists test and improve the computer models they use to study weather, oceans, and planetary interiors.
Get up close with a real meteorite from Mars—a rock so special that a twin sample rides aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover!
Look through the microscope to see its surface in detail and discover what Martian rocks can reveal about the search for life.
Stand back and get ready for a blast! Watch as liquid nitrogen meets water in a dramatic eruption that launches Ping-Pong balls sky-high. This mini “volcano” shows how pressure builds inside real volcanos until—BOOM!—they erupt.
When liquid nitrogen warms up, it expands into a gas about 700 times its liquid volume—just like magma turning into steam and gas deep inside a volcano. That rapid expansion drives the explosion!
Demo Times:
1:15 PM
2:15 PM
3:15 PM
Examine real prehistoric shark teeth and learn how fossils tell the story of ancient oceans. While you’re here, grab a sticker, chat with our team, and sign up to hear about upcoming Carnegie Science events and news.
Did you know? Sharks shed thousands of teeth in a lifetime—that’s why they’re some of the most common fossils on Earth!
Ask A Scientist
Ever wonder what happens to matter deep inside a planet? Sally June Tracy studies materials at extreme pressures and temperatures—conditions hotter and denser than Earth’s core! Using diamond-anvil cells, lasers, and X-rays, she explores how minerals transform under immense stress to reveal clues about how planets form and evolve.
Full BioAlexander Goncharov recreates the crushing conditions found inside planets to study how materials behave at the limits of physics. His work helps reveal the chemistry of deep planetary interiors—and might even lead to the discovery of metallic hydrogen, the long-sought “Holy Grail” of materials science.
Full BioAlan Boss models how stars and planets form from vast clouds of gas and dust. His simulations explore how giant planets like Jupiter come to be and how planetary systems—including our own—take shape. He also searches the skies for new worlds with Carnegie’s telescopes in Chile.
Full BioGeorge Cody digs into the molecular mysteries of both Earth and space. Using powerful tools like synchrotrons and NMR spectroscopy, he studies the chemical fingerprints of organic materials in rocks and meteorites to understand how life’s building blocks form and change across the cosmos.
Full BioHow do planets come together—and what makes each one unique? Anat Shahar uses chemistry, physics, and isotope analysis to trace the origins and evolution of worlds. Her experiments mimic the processes that shaped Earth, Mars, and distant exoplanets, helping us understand how planetary systems are born.
Full BioDionysis Foustoukos is an experimental geochemist who follows water wherever it flows—from the deepest parts of Earth’s crust to the farthest reaches of space.
Dionysis recreates the extreme chemistry found at deep-sea hydrothermal vents, where super-hot water and rock interact to create energy-rich environments that can support life. By studying these reactions in the lab, he uncovers how water shapes planets, drives geology, and might even spark life on worlds beyond Earth.
Meet the Experts
Take a Sneak Peek
Make a spectrometer with an astronomer and experience light in a whole new way.
Taste liquid nitrogen ice cream and other science-based treats!
Dive in to more than a century of science history (including behind the scenes tours of the historic Atomic Physics Observatory.)
Dive into science with activities and crafts for all ages.
See and touch a meteorite that came from Mars.
Explore the world through hands on stations like the topography sandbox.
