Could Life Exist Beyond Earth?

The exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London is entitled Space: Could Life Exist Beyond Earth? and it ends on Sunday 22 February 2026.

I took this photo of the outside of the museum before we went in, and I shot it with the Ricoh GRIII at f4.5, 1/160th of a second and ISO 160.

Visitors to the exhibition are invited to snap a selfie with a piece of Mars, touch a fragment of the Moon and lay hands on a meteorite older than our planet Earth.

Tamara and I went yesterday (Tamara’s idea to go) and we did all of that (except the selfie).

And the experience of the exhibition reached us at a basic level – touching almost unbelievable, special things.

Afterwards we agreed that we are really glad we touched the moon – the actual moon!

And pieces of meteorite made of material older than this planet.

The exhibition described the composition of samples brought back to Earth, looking at what is necessary for life to bloom.

Part of the exhibition looked at life here on Earth, especially in hydrothermal vents on the sea floor.

These vents are extremely hot, with temperatures at 400° C (750°F) or more. The extreme hydrostatic pressure means that the heat is contained and the temperature drops off quickly just a little way from the vents. But we saw samples and videos of crabs, tube worms, and shrimps living happily in these incredible environments.

Tube worms are amazing. They have no mouth, no anus, no stomach – instead they feed off the products that microbial matter living inside the tubes give them in return for a place to call home.