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Narrated by Robert Redford

Cosmic Collisions

Cosmic Collisions

From subatomic particles to the largest galaxies, cosmic collisions are a universal force of nature. Creative and also destructive, dynamic and dazzling, collisions have resulted in many things we take for granted – the luminescent Moon, the Sun’s warmth and light, our changing seasons, waves washing up on a sandy shore, They’ve ended the Age of Dinosaurs and changed the very map of the cosmos, reforming galaxies and giving birth to new stars and new worlds. Cosmic Collisions, the third Space Show produced by the American Museum of Natural History, provides an unprecedented and extraordinary view of these events – both catastrophic and constructive – that have shaped out world and our universe.

Cosmic Collisions was developed by the American Museum of Natural History, New York, in collaboration with the Denver Museum of Nature & Science; GOTO, Inc., Tokyo, Japan; and the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, China.

Cosmic Collisions was developed by the American Museum of Natural History with the major support and partnership of National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Science Missions Directorate, Heliophysics Division.

March 6, 2015

Select a Date to View

Yellowstone

Friday, March 6, 2015
10:00 am

From an exhilarating running of river rapids in canoes and face-to-face encounters with grizzly bears, to an exploration of the interior of Old Faithful, YELLOWSTONE showcases the wonder of one of the strangest and most interesting places on the planet.

Mysteries of the Unseen World

Friday, March 6, 2015
11:00 am

MYSTERIES OF THE UNSEEN WORLD will transport audiences to places on this planet that they have never been before, to see things that are beyond their normal vision, yet literally right in front of their eyes.

Mysteries of the Unseen World will reveal phenomena that can't be seen with the naked eye, taking audiences into earthly worlds secreted away in different dimensions of time and scale.

Viewers will experience events that unfold too slowly for human perception; they will "see" the beauty, drama, and even humor of phenomena of that occur in the flash of a microsecond; they will enter the microscopic world that was once reserved only for scientists, but that Mysteries of the Unseen World makes accessible to the rest of us; they will begin to understand that what we actually see is only a fraction of what there is TO see on this Earth.

High-speed and time-lapse photography, electron microscopy, and nanotechnology are just a few of the advancements in science that now allow us to see a whole new universe of things, events, creatures, and processes we never even knew existed and now give us new "super powers" to see beyond what is in front of us.

Visually stunning and rooted in cutting-edge research, Mysteries of the Unseen World will leave audiences in complete thrall as they begin to understand the enormity of the world they can't see, a world that exists in the air they breathe, on their own bodies, and in all of the events that occur around them minute-by-minute, and nanosecond-by-nanosecond. And with this understanding comes a new appreciation of the wonder and possibilities of science.

Back to the Moon for Good

Friday, March 6, 2015
12:00 pm

Back To The Moon For Good

In case you haven’t heard, the Moon is trending again… and in a big way. Like in the glory days of the 1960s and 1970s, our big white space neighbor is enjoying the attention of lunar explorers. Only this time, they’re going back to the moon for good.

The Google Lunar XPRIZE full-dome planetarium show Back To The Moon For Good chronicles teams around the world competing for the largest incentivized prize in history, by landing a robotic spacecraft on the Moon for the first time in more than 40 years.

To win the Google Lunar XPRIZE, a team must land a robotic spacecraft on the Moon, navigate 500 meters over the lunar surface, and send video, images and data back to Earth. This global competition is designed to spark imagination and inspire a renewed commitment to space exploration, not by governments or countries – but by the citizens of the world.

The show opens with the first era of space exploration in the late 1960s and early 1970s. We see what that era of landers and orbiters taught us about our nearest neighbor including the discovery of the Moon’s origin, composition, structure and the accessibility of raw materials on its surface.

The Google Lunar XPRIZE is introduced as the largest incentivized competition to date, designed to democratize space and create new opportunities for eventual human and robotic presence on the Moon. We see the engineering and innovation steps taken by the internationally distributed teams competing to land a spacecraft on the Moon and vie for additional prizes. We highlight the human spirit of competition and collaboration as teams take on this audacious challenge.

Who will win the $30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE? The audience is taken through a successful launch, landing and lunar surface travel. The show ends with a stunning glimpse of a plausible scenario for our future on the Moon.

Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure

Friday, March 6, 2015
1:00 pm

Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure is a giant-screen film that tells the extraordinary true story of polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton's now-legendary 1914-1916 British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. While never accomplishing its goal of the first crossing of the Antarctic continent, this expedition has become a larger-than-life testament to heroism and human endurance, with all 28 men surviving nearly two years in the barren, frigid Antarctic when their ship, Endurance, was caught in pack ice and eventually crushed.

In October-November 1999 and April 2000, the Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure production team undertook two expeditions to the Antarctic, capturing stunning images as they retraced and re-created the journey of Shackleton and the crew of the Endurance.

In addition to re-creating the experiences of Shackleton and his men, Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure features three of the world's most-accomplished mountaineers—Reinhold Messner, Stephen Venables, and Conrad Anker. These three climbers retraced the historic steps of Shackleton, Frank Worsley and Tom Crean across the mountains and glaciers of South Georgia Island, providing perspective on what the three explorers accomplished during this seemingly impossible traverse, the last leg of their 17-month-long quest for civilization and rescue.

Beyond including the super-sized, crystal-clear, "you-are-there" images for which giant-screen films are best known, Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure features the original still photography and 35mm motion-picture footage of Frank Hurley, the official photographer for the Endurance expedition. These images provide viewers of Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure with an intimate look at the experiences of these 28 men as they struggled to survive and save themselves.

Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure recounts a true story of epic proportions that is ideally captured in the giant-screen format, where viewers will feel as if they have been transported back in time to experience what is considered to be the greatest survival story of all time.

Narrated by Kevin Spacey.

Space Junk

Friday, March 6, 2015
2:00 pm

"After half a century of space exploration we're now suddenly faced with what has long been a staple of science fiction -- an orbiting junkyard of cast-off space debris."

With media headlines repeatedly warning us of debris falling from the skies, orbital debris, or "space junk," has finally risen to the forefront of social consciousness. But what is space junk? How did it get there? Just how big (and serious) is the problem?

"Space Junk," narrated by Academy Award® Nominee Tom Wilkinson, is the first movie to explore the exponentially expanding ring of debris that threatens the safety of our planet's orbits. Harnessing the magical imagery the Full Dome Digital Theater, Director Melissa Butts takes us soaring -- from the stunning depths of Meteor Crater to an unprecedented view of our increasingly crowded orbits, 22,000 miles above earth.

On-screen, Don Kessler, (ret.) Head of NASA's Orbital Debris Office and the "Father of Space Junk," reaches back to the beginning of our solar system for understanding and guides us through the challenges we face in protecting our orbits for the future. At risk is the future of space exploration and the safety of the extensive satellite network that powers our modern day communication systems. This visually explosive journey of discovery weighs the solutions aimed at restoring Earth's orbits.

Stunning images transport the viewers by wrapping us in star fields and allowing us to witness massive collisions in space -- both natural and man-made -- as though we were in the center of the action.