Liberty Scientific Facility is an interactive science museum and learning center in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was the Western Hemisphere’s and the world’s fourth-biggest planetarium at the time of its debut.
The center opened in 1993 as New Jersey’s first primary state science museum, has science displays, several educational tools, and Chuck Hoberman’s original Hoberman sphere, a silver, computer-driven engineering artwork.
On July 19, 2007, the Liberty Science Center finished a $209 million expansion and refurbishment project that took 22 months to complete. The addition brought the facility’s total square footage to approximately 300,000 square feet (9,300 m2) (28,000 m2).
The Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium, a 400-seat facility with a dome 100 feet (30 m) in diameter and an 89-foot (27 m) diameter screen, opened in December 2017 at the Science Center. It was named after a $5 million donor who contributed to the building. It was the biggest planetarium in the Western Hemisphere and the fourth largest when it opened, outstripping New York City’s Hayden Planetarium.
The permanent installations of the Liberty Science Center include:
- Achievement and Impact – Skyscraper! The exhibit features enormous models of some of the world’s tallest buildings, explanations of many parts of their construction, such as elevator mechanics, and a test chamber that confirms the materials used in the structures’ construction.
- Eat and Be Eaten – Vipers, pufferfish, cotton-top tamarins, poison dart frogs, eusocial naked mole rats, and fungus-growing leaf cutter ants are among the live animals included in this show.
- At the launch of the Beyond Rubik’s Cube museum exhibition on April 25, 2014, Liberty Science Center CEO Paul Hoffman, speedcuber Anthony Brooks, Budapest creator Erno Rubik, NJ Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, US Senator Robert Menendez, and Hungarian President Janos Ader were present.
- Communication is a 7,000-square-foot exhibit that investigates human communication via voice, writing, and symbols. Visitors may experience it through mobile devices, multimedia, and touch. The exhibition also discusses the significance of technology in current forms of communication.
- Displays on the go – a variety of temporary exhibits.
- To learn more about the ancient animals, “Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age” uses film installations, hands-on interactive exhibits, life-sized models, and fossils. Lyuba, the world’s best-preserved woolly mammoth specimen, was on display.
- Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition included over 100 authentic Titanic items displayed in tiny cabins and other areas of the ship. Visitors may even touch an “iceberg” to feel how cold the water was when the ship sank.
- Beyond Rubik’s Cube, a Rubik’s Cube exhibition debuted on April 26, 2014, and has since traveled to various museums around the globe. The show marks the 40th anniversary of the Cube. It includes artifacts and displays that outline the Cube’s history and the tremendous cultural effect it continues to have today. Learn more about Jersey City here.
Call (201) 200-1000 for additional information.