Natural sciences museum plans virtual science cafe Thursday with focus on space

Need to get out of your house? How about taking a trip to space — sort of?

Space exploration is the topic of the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences virtual science cafe. At 7 p.m., tonight, Thursday April 2, the museum will host a special presentation featuring Dr. Rachel Smith  of both the museum and Appalachian State University. Smith will take viewers on a live journey from Earth to space and explore the scientific research for life beyond our planet. The downtown Raleigh museum regularly hosts in-person science cafes (when we're not in the middle of a pandemic).

According to the museum,"using new interactive software called OpenSpace as our virtual spaceship, we will travel from our planet to potentially habitable worlds in the solar system -- and then beyond as we consider the search for extraterrestrial intelligence."