The Universe Comes to O'Hare Airport

Bored while waiting for a plane at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport? Want to see more than blank walls and ads for life insurance? Take a stroll to the tunnel connecting Terminals 2 and 3 and the Chicago Transit Authority bus stop to experience ... the universe.

It's true: The universe has come to O'Hare in the form of a new exhibit, "From Earth to the Universe," created by the Alder Planetarium and Department of Aviation. Boasting 56 astronomical images, it presents space from earth — and the universe through the eyes of the most powerful space-based telescopes ever created.

If you visit, you'll see images of telescopes, star clusters, planets, moons and galaxies. But there's more! Each image in the 1,000 square foot exhibit contains a Microsoft Tag. Using your cell phone, you can retrieve online information about each image. According the website: "Behind each Microsoft Tag a specially created mobile website has been created with the help of the Kavli Institute of Cosmological Physics to take this universal experience to a deeper level."

"From the Earth to the Universe" has already traveled to venues around the world in celebration of the International Year of Astronomy.

Photo courtesy of Saturn and Family, NASA.