Special Exhibition "Rocky Roads to Life"

The exhibition explores the close relationship between rocks and life. The exhibits open up various paths that lead to the origins, relationships, and characteristics of the living world.

To the Special Exhibition

Fireball over Bavaria

Social media and newspapers reported a bright trail in the night sky that was visible on June 26th 2023 in the evening and shone brighter than the moon. The event was also captured on camera by the Ries Crater Museum at 10:45 p.m. It is not yet clear whether any remnants of the rock that burned up in the atmosphere reached the ground.

See images

New article on ESA geological training

In recent years, astronauts have visited the Ries crater and the RiesKraterMuseum as part of an ESA geological training program. A scientific publication about the training was released at the beginning of the year, and a summary of the article has now been translated into five languages.

To the article

Nördlingen Ries

About 15 million years ago, an asteroid approximately 1 km in diameter collided with Earth. The result of this cosmic encounter is the Nördlinger Ries, a striking landform sunk into the Swabian-Franconian Alb. The nearly circular impact crater, approximately 25 km in diameter, is one of the best-preserved craters of this size. The ejecta blanket of the Ries crater, with its two most important rock formations, suevite and colorful breccia, is excellently exposed and was used by the Apollo astronauts as a training area for their moon missions. Follow in the footsteps of the astronauts!

Ries Crater Museum for over 35 years

On May 6, 1990, the Ries Crater Museum Nördlingen opened its doors in an architecturally groundbreaking renovated barn building over 500 years old, the old “Holzhofstadel.” Since its opening, the museum has welcomed well over 1,000,000 visitors.

History of the museum

greetings from the Moon

On July 20, 1969, Apollo astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon. The RiesKraterMuseum has a special connection to this event, which remains fascinating to this day: in mid-1970, Apollo astronauts trained in the Nördlinger Ries for upcoming missions to the lunar highlands. In 1972, Charles Duke (Apollo 16) collected the lunar “suevite,” which has been on display at the RiesKraterMuseum since 1990. To this day, the museum maintains close contact with NASA and ESA.

Moon rock

RiesCraterMuseum Nördlingen

The RiesCraterMuseum is a natural history museum focusing on the formation and significance of impact craters, particularly the Nördlingen Ries. Housed in a lavishly renovated medieval barn dating from 1503, the museum’s six rooms showcase the Ries event, its planetary origins, and its earthly effects, which continue to be felt to this day.

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News

05 01

Day of the talking stone

5. January 2026 | Blog

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05 11

Icebreaker in the museum

5. November 2025 | Blog

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02 08

From streaming to projecting: RKM adapts Stream Deck technology for museums

2. August 2025 | Blog

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11 07

Mourning for Dr. Michael Schieber

11. July 2025 | Blog

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04 07

A royal visit to the RiesCraterMuseum

4. July 2025 | Blog

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17 03

Opening of the new special exhibition: “Rocky Roads to Life”

17. March 2025 | Blog

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to the blog

Sky over Nördlingen

Our 360° camera regularly photographs the sky above Nördlingen. The current image shows what the weather is like in Nördlingen right now, no matter where you are. But that’s not its only purpose: the images from the previous night are used to create a time-lapse film, allowing us to see what happened during the night.
Click here to watch last night’s time-lapse film.

(aktualisiert einmal pro Minute)