On April 25, 2018, a contemporary Big Bang occurred in the world of astrophysics.
On that day, the European Space Agency (ESA) released a three-dimensional map of the Milky Way that detailed nearly 2 billion stars. That was 50 times more stars than ever mapped before.
The breakthrough was the first public output of Gaia, a pair of optical telescopes launched into space in 2014.
Though Gaia is now retired—it’s circling the sun but no longer returning new images—the extraordinary and voluminous amounts of data collected are reshaping humanity’s understanding of the cosmos.
The story of that mission, and the story of planet Earth’s journey through the Milky Way, are the mind-bending subjects of the new space show at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
Called Encounters in the Milky Way and narrated by actor Pedro Pascal, the show opens Monday, June 9, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and will soon be available at other planetariums worldwide.
The show, assembled over 18 months, looks back through billions of years of space history and ahead millions of years into the future. It treats space like an ecosystem, exploring how matter, including living matter, may be shared when galaxies collide; why young planets travel in packs; the existence of bubbles of gasses and dust surrounding stars that are a thousand light years across; the orbital age of our home planet; and so much more.
“This [show] is a love letter to Gaia,” Jackie Faherty, senior research scientist in the Museum’s Astrophysics Department, and the show’s script writer, said at the press preview I attended. “All humans should be proud of the map that’s been created as it’s going to be foundational to astrophysics going forward. It has revolutionized our understanding of the solar system’s journey through the galaxy.”
Interestingly, the creators of this show also added to the science coming from the Gaia mission. While creating visual renderings of Oort clouds (the vast expanse of icy material left over from the birth of the sun), they noticed floating spiral shapes that weren’t mentioned in any of the scientific literature.
These were, according to Encounters in the Milky Way‘s press release, “a structure made of billions of comets with a shape akin to a spiral-armed galaxy.” The show team reached out to major scientists working on the Gaia material, who all admitted they had missed these features, but that the data supported their existence.
The spirals are now both part of the show and science’s understanding about what structures exist in the galaxy.
If this all sounds heady and dull, think again.
The show is not only a dazzling spectacle and an illuminating science lesson, but it’s also a viscerally moving experience. Part of that has to do with its audio components. Pascal is an understated but effective narrator; and the visuals are supported by sweeping orchestral music, adding greatly to the experience. Director of Science Visualization Vivian Trakinski told me afterwards that the newly updated and spatialized sound system at the American Museum of Natural History allowed designers to project the music and sound effects from different parts of the dome and move sounds with the visuals across the space, making for a highly immersive experience. (The deep bass sometimes makes the seats vibrate, which was fun.) I found myself tearing up several times in the course of it, grateful for the perspective it gave me not only on the universe but on my own place in it, and for the worlds contained in my DNA.
In that way, I was reacting as the Museum’s creators hoped I would. “I hope people walk away wanting to be scientists,” the museum’s Director of Astrovisualization, Carter Emmart, said at the press preview. “This museum is a testament to wonder. I think wonder is a gateway to inspiration, which is itself a gateway to motivation.”
Amen.
How to See Encounters in the Milky Way
The show plays every half hour at the American Museum of Natural History, but it requires an additional $5 to see on top of the museum’s entry fee ($25-$30 for adults, discounts available for locals). At this stage, there is no end date for the show.
It’s expected that in the autumn, Encounters in the Milky Way will also start playing at other planetariums worldwide. In the 25 years since the Rose Center for Earth and Space debuted at the Museum of Natural History, its planetarium shows have played in over 60 countries and at dozens of science museums worldwide.
If you see that the show is playing in a place you’re vacationing in (or live), I hope you’ll go. Encounters in the Milky Way will entrance and inspire adults as much as children. It’s a genuinely wondrous experience.
