Mars art installation on display at cathedral

The artwork was first presented at Kensington and Chelsea Festival in 2023

A seven-metre-wide sculpture of Mars is on display at a cathedral in Kent.

Luke Jerram's Mars: War and Peace, which features detailed NASA images of the planet, will be at Rochester Cathedral until 8 March.

The artwork follows his previous astronomical displays, Museum of the Moon and Gaia, which the cathedral said drew record visitor numbers in 2020 and 2022.

At an approximate scale of 1:1 million, each centimetre of the internally lit Mars sculpture represents 10km (6.2 miles) of the surface of the planet.

Accompanying the sculpture is a newly-created sound composition by composer Dan Jones.

Featuring the sounds of seas and deserts, and also clips from NASA missions to Mars, it also incorporates the sounds of distant bombing and people marching, as if to war.

Jerram says the art "provides an opportunity for the public to consider the history of human conflict around the world".

"I hope that visitors will feel transported to the inhospitable desert wasteland of Mars, whilst also reflecting on the realities of war for ordinary communities of people on our planet," he added.

A programme of events inspired by Mars will be held at the cathedral, including concerts and family activities.