Rieskrater Museum, Meteor impact museum in Nördlingen, Germany
Rieskrater Museum occupies a restored 16th-century barn and displays meteorites, fossils, and rock formations from the Nördlinger Ries impact crater. The exhibitions show the evidence of the impact and the geological materials that resulted from this ancient event.
The crater formed around 15 million years ago when an asteroid roughly 1 kilometer (3,300 feet) across struck Earth at this location. The museum was established in 1990 to document this cosmic event and its lasting impact on the region.
The name Rieskrater comes from the crater and region itself, reflecting how this natural event shaped local identity. Today, visitors can see how the community embraced its geological heritage and made this extraordinary feature central to understanding who they are.
The museum is fully accessible for wheelchair users throughout the exhibition spaces. Visitors should allow enough time to explore the geological displays and explanatory materials at a comfortable pace.
NASA astronauts trained at this location during Apollo missions and left actual lunar rock samples in the collection. This connection between space exploration and an ancient Earth impact site makes the museum truly distinctive.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 60,000 contributors worldwide.
