A stunning new exhibit at the Natural History Museum in London is a magnificent blue whale skeleton, now a focal point of the institution.

In January 2017, London’s Natural History Museum bid farewell to Dippy, the famous Diplodocus dinosaur skeleton that had stood proudly in the entrance hall since 1979. Dippy was set to tour the UK from early 2018 to late 2020, and in his place at Hintze Hall, The Guardian reports, is Hope, an awe-inspiring 82-foot blue whale skeleton.

Hope was unveiled to the public on July 14, with its gigantic form suspended from the ceiling of Hintze Hall. This positioning grants visitors a unique 360-degree perspective of the largest animal to ever exist on Earth.

While Hope might seem like a new arrival at the Natural History Museum, which has stood since 1881, the skeleton actually originates from a whale that stranded in Ireland's Wexford Harbor in 1891. After being struck by a whaler, the whale's skeleton was purchased by a local merchant and sold to the museum for a few hundred pounds. In 1934, the bones were displayed in the Mammal Hall above a life-sized blue whale model.

The whale skeleton remained on display in the Mammal Hall until 2015, when the museum team began preparing it for its grand installation in Hintze Hall. According to Lorraine Cornish, the museum's head of conservation, 'Whilst working on the 221 bones we uncovered past conservation treatments, such as the use of newspaper in the 1930s to fill the gaps between the vertebrae.' She added, 'And we were able to use new methods for the first time, including 3D printing a small number of bones missing from the right flipper.'

After restoration, Hope was placed in Hintze Hall in a dynamic diving pose. It now serves as one of the museum’s primary attractions, symbolizing humanity's ability to protect and conserve endangered species.

'The Blue Whale as a centerpiece tells a hopeful story about our ability to create a sustainable future for ourselves and other species,' the museum stated in a press release. 'Humans were responsible for both pushing the Blue Whale to the brink of extinction but also responsible for its protection and recovery. We hope that this remarkable story about the Blue Whale will be told by parents and grandparents to their children for many years to come, inspiring people to think differently about the natural world.'

Take a look at some photos of Hope below.