Space & Science Fun at Gravity Discovery Centre & Observatory

A simulation of two black holes colliding. Photo: LIGO

Gravity Discovery Centre with Cosmology Gallery and Leaning Tower of Gingin in the background. Image via their Facebook.

When driving to GDC, you’ll find yourself in country settings (and really, Perth is like one big country town), so beware of willdlife crossing the road, such as this cheeky young emu that ran out in front of us. Emu’s have a brain the size of a pea, so don’t expect them to move logically when they see you.

Look out for the entry sign to the Gravity Discovery Centre on Military Road (after you turn off from Wanneroo Road). Yay – we made it!

When driving up the road, you will see the Leaning Tower of Gingin. Oooh, impressive.

There are many fun, interactive exhibits on display outside (as well as inside), such as this time coil that demonstrates the speed of sound.

Pictured here is what is called the MWA (Murchison Widefield Array): low-frequency precursor instrument that communicate with a larger radio telescope. There is more of them at Murchison Radiostronomy Observatory in outback Western Australia.

No, this isn’t a severely broken trampoline – it’s an exhibit that visually demonstrates gravity’s effect on space time. Throw a tennis ball down it (pretend that ball is a heavy space object or planet)!

While walking around outside, you will find a lot of interesting gravity related sculptures, artworks and facts. (He’s actually really interested on the inside)

The Leaning Tower of Gingin is 45 metres high at a 15 degree inclination, made up of 180 tonnes of steel and 222 steps. It’s the only tower worldwide which has a purpose built tower to replicate Galileo’s ancient experiments in gravity.

Ever wanted to drop a waterbomb from a 13 storey building? You can now! Visitors are given water balloons to observe the phenomenon of gravity.

Simply drop the two water balloons (filled with different water masses) from the top of the tower and observe them fall at the same rate and explode into their drop zone at the same time!

Make sure to fill up your balloons prior to ascending the tower. Otherwise you won’t get to drop waterbombs!

The view at the top of the tower is breathtaking and well worth the climb.

You can see just about forever across the vast beauty of the Australian bush. And those cars look like little toy cars!

Birdseye view of Gravity Discovery Centre. HELLO FROM THE OTHERSIDE!!!!! *sings like Adele*

Here, I’m showing off my nice balloons to you all before I watch them explode!

Watch your water balloons free-fall at a very fast speed and hit the ground with a huge “bang” – just like Galileo did about 440 years ago, only he was standing on the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

The GDC is surrounded by pristine Western Australian bushland that is in its original state. There is an amazing variety of fauna and flora here.

Enjoy a relaxing stroll through the pristine bush (and by relaxing I mean watch out for boxing kangaroos & killer koala drop bears – just joking!). Their volunteer tour guides will happily show you around, explaining what plants are used for medicine by the Australian indigenous people.

We caught the sunset – how romantic! – For the single people out there – bring your date (tinder date?) here!

Birdseye view of the Cosmology Gallery is where art meets science, and here you learn everything from the Big Bang to the Australian Indigenous Dream time stories.

A spiral staircase takes you all the way to the top , right under the striking buckyball roof (which is also a projection screen). Along the way you can enjoy the story of creation and evolution of the universe as we know it, told through text, photography and painting.

The Cosmology Gallery is also home to art works from various cultural backgrounds. Pictured: The Matrix by Doc. George Tjapaltjarri (Born: c. 1935 / Tribe: Gurindji / Area: Central & Western Desert). Also, apologises for the lighting glare!

LOOK – Here’s a metorite! FROM SPACE!

GDC has a gift shop and cafe that provides light meals, healthy snacks, coffee and cake as well as a selection of cold drinks and ice creams. BBQ and picnic facilities are also available.

Inside the main gallery area, where you will come across many interesting experiments and interactive displays for all ages to experiment with.

Hey look, a bunch of awesome telescopes behind blue rope! They’re celebrity telescopes!

Want to find out how much you weigh on all the planets in our solar system? You can at GDC! Step on the scales, don’t be shy!

On Mars, I would weigh 28 kilos!

On the sun, if I wasn’t instantly vaporized, I’d weigh 1900 kilos (1.9 tonnes). That’s the same weight as a large car.

Electricity and gravity together are awesome! Examine here the spark of life!

We loved this fluid exhibit – put your hand in, and watch the goo!

How it works? Ferrofluid (fluid containing magnetic suspension) reacts to a hand-held magnet under the glass. The spikes you see are from repulsion whilst the valleys are from retraction. In basic summary – it looks cool, like a scene from a sci-fi horror movie, like Alien.

Magnetic forces levitate this puck. OOOoh, mysterious. I’m in awe!

Is it magic? No! It’s magnetism!

Touch the plasma lamp to get Albert Einstein hair!

Adam is blowing smoke rings through the Vortex canon! Choo choo!

Their volunteer guides will take you through the exhibits to make understanding everything easier.

Make some gravity waves on their giant slinky – cool times!

Here’s an experiment demonstrating the wave form of light! BAZINGA!

Night & day tours are offered to the general public and are guided by WA’s leading astronomy educators. Here’s our fearless astronomy leader, Rick, talking us through everything from quasars to black holes with a great sense of humour!

Using a three dimensional visual aid to demonstrate the principles of gravity’s effect on multi-dimensional space time.

This apparant ‘junk’ is a titanium and carbon fibre composite cap that once protected the oxygen tank on a manned space station. These high strength materials are required to protect the tank from puncture due high volacity particles that are very common in outer space.

These astronomy night tours especially suit school/educational/tourist and corporate groups. If viewing through the scopes is not possible (due to bad weather), a fun and informative session is held in the GDC theatre and the Cosmology Gallery.

Observing through the main telescope at GDC during a night tour. Looking towards the rich, southern night skies. The best in the world.

Orions Belt, a camera ‘piggybacked’ ontop of the “Sagan” telescope at GDC observatory. In this photo, we can see the three, bright stars of Orions belt (from top to bottom – Mintaka, Alnilam, Alnitak). Just off the lower star (Alnitak) we have the Flame Nebula and the famous Horse Head Nebula. Towards the right, we have the beautiful Great Orion Nebula, the closest stellar nursery to our home system.

The mighty Omega Centauri Globular Cluster. Populated by 5 million to 10 million suns, Omega Centauri was considered to be the largest Globular Cluster (huge, spherical swarm of suns) in the sky. Now, through further observations, we see it is the remnant of a Dwarf Galaxy that has been devoured by our Milky Way Galaxy. What remains is the core of the Dwarf Galaxy.

The Great Orion Nebula (M42) – is the closest stellar nursery to our Sun. Observations from the Hubble Space Telescope show us there are ~700 stars forming in this vast cloud of gas and dust, plus 150 of those stars are surrounded by a thick, dust accretion disc that is forming planets. We are observing the birth of Solar Systems.

Walk to the edge of the solar system at GDC – with the stunning winter Milky Way rising over the natural bushland around the Observatory, Different seasons herald different skies. You can keep coming back for more.