BOSTON - Mount Vesuvius' eruption in 79 AD lasted 24 hours and killed thousands of people in the Roman vacation resort city of Pompeii. The city was buried under the volcano's ash, which allowed for the most minute details of Roman life to be preserved and unearthed two millennia in the future.

The destruction of Pompeii and the surrounding cities is the subject of a new exhibit at the Museum of Science in Boston. It opened to the media on Thursday, Sept. 29, and to the public on Sunday, Oct. 2.