Tyrannosaurus rex stared at the starry sky and could see the night sky 67 million years ago.

67 million years ago, what would the night sky of the fierce Tyrannosaurus Rex look like? Even a top carnivore who is extremely dead deserves to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the night sky-especially the night sky that reminds them of home.

Sue is the most complete skeleton of Tyrannosaurus rex in the world. She lives in the recently renovated gallery of the Field Museum in Chicago. There, the fossils named after their discoverers enjoy a new immersive display, which requires not only the expertise of paleontologists in this field, but also astronomers from the nearby Adler Planetarium, which may be unexpected.

This rare cooperation is because Su's handlers hope that the fossils of beloved people (Twitter is also famous) can watch the night sky as close as possible and properly for a period of time. So scientists put the clock back to 67 million years ago. Look, after a lot of digital and mental work, the research team created Cretaceous astrology for Sue. This means, among other things, that there is no Big Dipper, because its structure has not been arranged yet. "The life of Tyrannosaurus Rex", said Hilary Hansen, exhibition project manager of the Field Museum.

"We know that the sky and stars are not our real professional fields." [So] Why not contact our neighbors, outspoken neighbors and ask if they can help us? The two institutions share the campus of the Chicago Museum with the Shedd Aquarium. )

Su's stellar astronomical assistance is necessary, because as Adler and other experts told you, stars will not be static. All the planets we see revolve around the Milky Way, and they move at different speeds and directions. Therefore, with the passage of time, their relative positions will change.

Given enough time, these changes can dissolve the zodiac. In the tens of millions of years after Sue, great changes will take place in the sky. [15 amazing pictures of stars]

In Su Xin's immersive exhibition, which debuted in February 20 18, the night sky appeared on a group of six screens. Between the animations showing Su's behavior and environmental science knowledge, the exhibition refocused the audience's attention on Su's bones, and the lights highlighted specific bones. During that time, the animated screen turned into the night sky.

In order to simulate the Cretaceous sky and create this ancient sky, the museum turned to astronomer and visual director of Adler Mark Ballau and Nick Lake, manager of Adler Theatre Experience and Display. Lake uses Adler's night sky modeling software DigitStar 6, which uses data from various satellite missions, including Gaia, the nearest observatory of the European Space Agency.

Sue showed off their new belly in front of Adler's starlight field. Lake said that the software used these data to construct the latest three-dimensional model of the stars in the Milky Way. But the software can also simulate the movement of stars in the Milky Way over time. In a blog post, Lake shared a digital animation that can be rewound to the sky10.5 million years ago. He said that even in a relatively short time, the Sagittarius teapot (looking for bright patterns in the sky) and the Big Dipper could not be recognized. Lake said that it is necessary to add a little art to Digistar's science to set the clock of the Milky Way back to the Su Yue about 67 million years ago. He said that with the passage of time, the limitations of measuring the position and speed of stars are getting stronger and stronger. In addition, the software does not consider the gravitational effect between two passing stars. "In a few million years, this will have a huge impact on the position of the star," he told Life Science.

In addition, stars orbit the Milky Way in a circular orbit, and this curve will become obvious after more than 5 million years. Lake said: "this has brought a whole new set of motivation, which is difficult to predict." . In his reply, he said that among these factors, no one can tell exactly what the sky in Suzhou will be like. But modelers like the small island in the lake can project the motion of the stars backward, looking for enough changes to get close to the familiar sky and thus to the Cretaceous interstellar space. Lake said that "KD SPE" KD SPS "hopes not only to guess what they (stars) may look like, but also to be an insightful point of view." This is exactly what he provided by combining digital modeling with accurate observation. "

This lake pays special attention to familiar star structures that have been stuck together for a long time. For example, five stars in the Big Dipper travel together, so Lake walks back along the track enough to see the familiar pattern disintegrate. "I want to do more than that, so anyone who knows the star pattern ... will not give up the idea that this is the Cretaceous sky.

He is still looking for interesting patterns so that human observers (or clever dinosaurs) can pick out the Cretaceous constellations. Lake said in his article: "The final star field includes a group of quite bright stars on the horizon." Light gathering and gathering like this brings a lot of visual interest to the scene.

Su Su, an immersive home, tries to recreate the environment of ancient carnivores in a way that transcends the background of stars. After the skeleton was moved, the new gallery provided an accurate view of Su's world in the daytime animation, which was after the Tyrone named Miximo was located in the center of the museum in Stanley Hall. [Photo album: dinosaur fossils]

Sue's new suite is full of animations and renderings of the environment where Tyrannosaurus Rex once roamed. (? Field Museum (photo taken by Martin Baumgaertner) "KDSP" Experts from the Field Museum even cooperated with animators to ensure that Sue depicted in the works left enough mud footprints. Susan Goldland, the main exhibition developer in Suzhou, said: "As this is a semi-frequent flood area, we know that the soil may be quite soft." Since the fossil was installed in 2000, the skeleton display itself includes scientific updates. Golan said that Zoe's moving abdominal ribs are called the stomach, and those (relatively) small forelimbs are now positioned more accurately.

Generally speaking, moving to the new gallery has given Zoe a suitable environment, Golan said. Tyrannosaurus rex now lives with other dinosaurs in the Griffin Pavilion on the evolutionary planet. "So Sue finally found the right background," Golan said.

And thanks to my colleagues in the opposite museum, this background has been extended to the stars.

Dinosaur Cemetery: Dinosaur National Monument Photo Titan Photo: Meet the largest dinosaur photo ever recorded: The carnivorous dinosaur found in the Italian Alps was first published in Life Science. "