In addition to the 24-hour grand opening of the new wing at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences, there are a slew of other events going on surrounding it. For example, the weekend will start off with a big gala on Thursday for the VIPs (as well as an after-party that is easier on the wallet).

Here are a few celebrities we would like to see show up for the festivities. What about you? Who would you add to this list?:

1 Steven Hawking, arguably the most well-known scientific figure of our day.

2 Coming in second, Bill Nye, the Science Guy;

3 Coming in third, Jack Hanna; he's like a scientist;

4 The Duggar family (there are practically 24 of them, aren't there?)

5 Keifer Sutherland, coz hey, that number is tattooed on his forehead for the rest of his life;

6 Kobe Bryant (number 24 for the Los Angeles Lakers); it'd be good to have an out-of-towner plus we'd be able to see him above the crowd;

7 Clint Howard (April 20th is his birthday) and he always has to play those cheesy bit parts in big brother Ron's movies;

8 Speaking of Ron Howard, we should invite him since he was Opie, who visited Raleigh back in the day;

9 Carl Sagan, if he wasn't dead;

10 Jane Goodall; it seems like the kind of thing she would enjoy;

11 Peter Segal and Carl Castle from "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" on NPR; maybe we would make this week's limerick;

12 David Letterman; because Raleigh never makes Top Ten lists (<:

13 Jason Wu; we can find out if there is anything left after that Target thing;

14 and 15 Any living astronaut, like Buzz Aldrin or Neil Armstrong; since they have seen the real thing they could tell us how realistic our globe is;

16 The entire cast of Big Bang Theory;

17 Speaking of TV, Michael C. Hall so we can see if he still talks to us little people;

18 Speaking of cable TV, Jon Hamm, just because;

19 John Tesh, an alumnus of N.C. State; we're sure he'd be happy to make a return visit to Raleigh;

20 and 21 Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin; Tina would be great and so would Alec as long as he didn't crack on us on Twitter;

22 Lupo, William and Kate's dog. We'll just watch to make sure he doesn't lift his leg on Antarctica.

23 Musician Thomas Dolby who became famous for recording the classic tune, "She Blinded me with Science”; we have a feeling he's not doing anything right now;

24 Mike Myers; the globe would make a great location shoot for “Wayne’s World: The Comeback”

Make your own list, then fire off those Twitter invitations. In the meantime, go to visitRaleigh.com/newworld for information, then bring your star power to Raleigh!