Rose Center for Earth and Space (Hayden Planetarium)

Upcoming Events

Journey to the Stars

A spectacular new Space Show, Journey to the Stars, narrated by Academy Award-winning actress Whoopi Goldberg, premiered on Saturday, July 4, 2009, in the Hayden Planetarium at the Frederick Phineas and Sandra Priest Rose Center for Earth and Space.

Featuring extraordinary images from telescopes ... [ + ]on the ground and in space and stunning, never-before-seen visualizations of physics-based simulations, the dazzling new Journey to the Stars launches visitors through space and time to experience the life and death of the stars in our night sky, including our own nurturing Sun. Tour familiar stellar formations, explore new celestial mysteries, and discover the fascinating, unfolding story that connects us all to the stars. Those who come along for the journey may never see the night sky in the same way again.

Journey to the Stars is an engrossing, immersive theater experience created by the Museum’s astrophysicists, scientific visualization, and media production experts with the cooperation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and more than 40 leading scientists from the United States and abroad

Hall of the Universe

The Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Hall of the Universe presents the discoveries and explorations of modern astrophysics. This 7,000-square-foot hall is divided into four zones featuring exhibit islands rich with astronomical imagery, rotating video displays, computer interactives, and more.

The Un... [ + ]iverse Zone probes the limits of our powers of observation, while exploring the ways in which our universe is expanding. The Galaxies Zone celebrates the exquisite beauty and diversity of galaxies, while providing information on their formation and evolution. The Stars Zone links supernovae to the elements created by them, the chemical building blocks of our own human bodies, reinforcing the notion that we are made of "star stuff." The Planets Zone illustrates the formation and evolution of planets, with an examination of major collisions that have occurred on Earth, as well as possible future impacts.

Scales of the Universe

A major feature of the Rose Center is the Scales of the Universe exhibit along the 400-foot-long walkway that hugs the glass wall of the cube. This unique exhibit, which employs the facility's architectural features by using the Hayden Sphere as a basis for comparison, explores the vast range of siz... [ + ]es in the cosmos—from the observable universe to our planet to a tiny electron. Along the walkway, stations introduce visitors, by increments of the power of ten, to the relative sizes of atoms, planets, stars, and galaxies, by using text panels, interactive terminals, and both large, overhead and small, rail-mounted models. Enormous, realistically rendered planets, stars, and galaxies-including a nine-foot-diameter model of Jupiter and a model of Saturn with 17-foot-diameter rings-are suspended from the ceiling of the building.

Cosmic Pathway

Following the explosive Big Bang experience, visitors exit onto the Harriet and Robert Heilbrunn Cosmic Pathway, a dramatic, spiraling ramp that ushers them through 13 billion years of cosmic evolution. At the start of the walkway, visitors can measure the length of their stride and determine how ma... [ + ]ny millions of years pass with each step. Thirteen markers along the way denote the passage of each billion years and, at eight landings, computer interactives help visitors understand the nature and size of the universe at that point in time. Artifacts are also on display, including evidence of the earliest bacterial life on Earth and the fossilized tooth of a giant carnivorous dinosaur. At the end of the 360-foot circular pathway, the thickness of a human hair illustrates the relative duration of human history, from cave paintings to the present day. The Heilbrunn Cosmic Pathway was specially designed to allow for adjustments and updates to the exhibitry, as research in astrophysics reveals new information about the age and nature of the universe.

Hayden Planetarium

Dominating the Rose Center is the magnificent Hayden Sphere, which features the world's largest virtual reality simulator. Weighing four million pounds and measuring 87 feet in diameter, the Hayden Sphere houses the Space Theater in its upper half and the Big Bang Theater in its lower hemisphere.
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With the custom-made Zeiss Mark IX Star Projector and a Digital Dome Projection System, the 429-seat Space Theater displays a hyperrealistic view of the planets, star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies in an exhilarating journey from Earth to the edge of the observable universe. To create this virtual universe, a team of Museum scientists and visualization experts, along with colleagues from such organizations as NASA, worked in a remarkable collaboration of science, artistry, and advanced computing to "stitch together" images of our universe, based on astronomical observations and computer models. The Digital Galaxy Project has created the most accurate and complete picture of our Milky Way Galaxy, a portrait that provides the foundation for the Hayden Planetarium Space Show.

In the Big Bang Theater, visual and audio effects dramatically re-create how, according to scientists, the universe began with a burst of radiant energy from a point smaller than a grain of sand.