Downing Planetarium

Upcoming Shows

Forward: To the Moon

Project Artemis is NASA's boldnew plan to send astronauts back to the Moon for the first time in over fifty years. The discovery of water ice at the lunar south pole will provide a valuable resource which will help sustain a planned lunar base by providing water to drink, grow food, oxygen to breathe, and even rocket fuel! Join us for this exciting adventure as the first woman and the next man take that giant leap for all.

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Drifting North: Into the Polar Night

Step out onto an ice floe in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, where scientists race the fading light to set up one of the most ambitious international climate collaborations ever, MOSAiC. The Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate launched in September 2019. Led by the Alfred Wegener Institute from Germany, the mission intentionally froze an instrument laden icebreaker Polarstern into the ice on the Central Arctic Ocean where it drifted in the polar ice through the long, dark winter. Join this effort to better understand this remote region and the role it plays in both global climate and weather patterns.

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Einstein's Gravity Playlist

What are gravitational waves? How are these ripples in space-time created? Albert Einstein predicted their existance in 1916, and a century later, physicists detected these waves using incredibly precise laser technology here on Earth. See the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) and meet Lucia, a PhD student in physics, on an exploration of gravitational waves and their importance in helping us to understand the Universe.

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