From NASA research centers to United States Air Force museums, you can keep budding scientists happy with tours around the most famous museums and research centers around the world.
NASA: Langley Research Center, Virginia, USA
NASA's Langley Research Center comprises nearly 200 facilities on 764 acres in Hampton, Virginia, and employs about 3,400 civil servants and contractors. Langley works to make revolutionary improvements to aviation, expand understanding of Earth’s atmosphere, and develop technology for space exploration.
You can now look inside the gates of NASA’s Langley Research Center by taking the Virtual Tour.
NASA: Glenn Research Center, Ohio, USA
The NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, designs and develops innovative technology to advance NASA’s missions in aeronautics and space exploration.
You can now take a look inside NASA Glenn Research Center’s facilities by choosing from a number of virtual tours such as NASA Glenn Hangar, the 8 x 6 Supersonic Wind Tunnel, the 9 x 15 Low Speed Wind Tunnel, Zero-gravity, and much more. Click here to explore.
The National Museum of the United States Air Force, Ohio, USA
Source: Thomas Dwyer/Flickr
Being the official museum of the USAF, this museum is the place to go if you live and breathe aircraft. The tour centers around the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, which houses a wide array of military planes and weapons. It also includes presidential airplanes of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Richard Nixon.
The virtual tour allows users to take a virtual, 360-degree, self-guided tour of the entire museum by navigating from gallery to gallery either by using a drop-down map or by following navigational arrows. Icons will provide additional information such as videos, audio, and links to online resources. Click here to explore the tour.
Oxford University's History of Science Museum, Oxford, UK
Source: John Kannenberg/Flickr
Another famous museum that offers virtual tours is Oxford University's History of Science Museum. The tour lets you explore their magnificent exhibits in ultimate comfort — your own home and sofa.
You'll get to explore their fantastic exhibits and artifacts of some of the most important scientific discoveries in science history. The museum has been offering virtual tours since 1995, so you can trust the quality of the tours today. Click here to explore all things science.
The Museo Galileo, Florence, Italy
Source: Leon Reed/Flickr
A virtual tour you might want to check out is the one offered by the Museo Galileo. Located in the city of Florence, the museum houses some of the most important instruments in scientific history.
Museo Galileo is unique in that it is the only museum that has original instruments of Galileo Galilei, who was an Italian astronomer, physicist, mathematician, philosopher, and one of the pioneers of the scientific method.
Virtual tours of the museum might actually be the best way to see the museum, as it is a pretty small building and it can see an influx of visitors during the summer months. Check out the virtual tour here.