Peter Schultz, left, a planetary geologist at Brown University, discusses a point with Ralf Jaumann, a German Aerospace Center scientist, at the Mars 3-D photo exhibit at the Museum of Natural History and Planetarium at Roger Williams Park in Providence. It’s the only stop for the exhibit in this country.

THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL / Sandor Bodo

PROVIDENCE Wear the goofy glasses. Only then, with your left eye looking through a red lens, and your right eye through a blue one, will you see what you’ve been missing: Mars, in all its craterous and mountainous topography.

A new exhibit, “A New Perspective on Mars: Detailed Views of Mars in 3-D,” opens at the Museum of Natural History and Planetarium today.

Perhaps you’ve seen pictures of the planet, but not like this, three-dimensionally textured; or so it seems. A pair of paper-and-plastic glasses makes the exhibit’s 20 large-scale black-and-white photographs suddenly appear textural, like relief sculptures depicting craters, volcanoes and suspiciously empty river beds.

“You have this feeling of hovering above the surface and flying over Mars itself,” says Peter Schultz, a Brown University geology professor and director of the NASA/Brown Northeast Planetary Data Center and the NASA Rhode Island Space Grant Consortium.

The Consortium and Data Center are sponsors of this exhibit in collaboration with the Museum of Natural History and Planetarium. Except for a visit at the United Nations, Providence is the exhibit’s only U.S. stop.

The exhibit was produced by the German Aerospace Center.

“We are focused on science,” says Ralf Jaumann, head of planetary geology at the German Aerospace Center. “But scientists are focused on visuals.”

The visuals are dramatic, the results of a high-resolution stereo camera aboard the European Space Agency’s mission, Mars Express, which reached its destination in December 2003 and shortly thereafter began sending back pictures.

“It was less of an optical challenge,” says Uhlrich Kohler, the German Aerospace Center’s exhibit coordinator. “More critical was to get the amount of data organized.”

The camera, which is circling 150 to 300 miles above Mars at a speed of 3 miles a second, takes nine photographs of a set spot within 2 milliseconds. Those nine pictures are then compiled into one photograph. About half the image in a photograph is seen through one colored lens of a pair of 3-D glasses; the other half through the other lens.

This is the first time the Museum of Natural History has had an exhibit involving 3-D photography, if you don’t count the time two years ago it had 3-D pictures of Mars in its lobby. But then there were only two pictures, and they were each just 5 inches by 7 inches.

These photos are 7 feet by 9 feet.

“It’s much more dramatic,” says Renee Gamba, the Museum’s acting director. “The imagery is massive and I think it will have a great impact on people.”

Discovering depth on a two-dimensional image is entertaining, but, scientists say, it’s also enlightening.

“When you have topography, you can say how deep a canyon or a crater is,” Schultz says. “3-D provides that perspective. It’s more than just aesthetic. It really provides you with a lot of data about the planet.”

Consider the Grand Canyon, which is tiny by Mars’ standards, Schultz points out.

“You look at the beauty,” he says. “Then you gaze in amazement when you realize you’re looking back in time when you look down into the canyon. The same thing is happening here.”

The difference is in degree. The surface of Mars is about 4 billion years old, according to Jaumann, whereas Earth’s surface, because of its plate movements, is only about 1.5 billion years.

“On Earth, the geological record is deleted,” he says.

Something happened there on Mars, scientists say. Clearly the climate changed.

“You can see there were dynamic rivers flowing,” Kohler says. “Where did they go?”

Earthlings have a vested interest in the answer.

“If we produce too much CO2 and create greenhouse gases, we’ll get too hot,” Jaumann says. “If we don’t produce enough, we’ll freeze.”

Having three-dimensional models of Mars, which can be made from 3-D photographs, can help determine the depth and flow of former river beds on Mars, according to scientists, and the amount of energy involved in creating the planet’s craters.

The camera aboard the Mars Express was created by 48 scientists, one-third of whom were Americans. Understanding Mars is of interest to everyone.

“Mars is not so far from what we’re used to on Earth,” Kohler says.

The 3-D Mars camera was developed for scientific use, according to Schultz, but its photos were made available to the public “to show people in European countries what they got for their money.”

The technology used for the Mars camera, according to Jaumann, has already been commercialized, with precise topographical maps made of the Earth that, among other things, let farmers know how to optimize the use of fertilizers with the varying slope of the land.

“Mars is sitting out there as this sort of witness to what has happened in the solar system. It is a planet that has many of the same characteristics as Earth. And it may have been a place where life could have emerged in its history. Why study Mars? It’s the same reason we look at stars in a telescope and bugs in a microscope. It’s part of the curiosity that makes us human.”

It’s essential exploration.

“When people went to the New World, they sent back drawings and plants. In a way, this mission is doing the same thing.”

However, the technology has improved greatly.

“You can’t help but be blown away by the feeling of being there,” Schultz says. “I think when kids put on the glasses, their mouths will drop.”

“A New Perspective on Mars” runs through Oct. 28 at the Museum of Natural History and Planetarium, located in Roger Williams Park, 1000 Elmwood Ave., Providence. Today, the opening day of the exhibit, the museum is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Normal hours are daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. On weekends, museum staff and students at Brown studying Mars will answer questions and conduct activities for visitors. Admission is $2, $1 for children younger than 8. Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m., there’s a 35-minute planetarium show about the night sky. Admission to that is $1. For more information, call (401) 785-9457 ext. 221 or visit www.providenceri.com/ museum.

brourke@projo.com