New Planetarium Show: The Sun, Our Living Star

ESO is proud to announce a brand new addition to its collection of free high-quality planetarium materials produced by world-renowned astrophotographers, artists, technicians and musicians. The Sun, Our Living Star tells the story of our nearest star — our planet’s powerhouse, the source of energy that drives Earth’s winds and weather, and the ball of light that allows the very existence of life. The Sun, Our Living Star will be shown in the planetarium of the ESO Supernova from 7 September and is also available to download for free from the ESO website.

The Sun, Our Living Star reveals the impact our star has on every aspect of our lives here on Earth. Explore the Sun’s role in allowing and maintaining life, from photosynthesis to humanity. Discover how the Sun dictates our days, seasons and years. Delve into the history of the Sun’s impact on human religion and culture. Learn about the Sun’s dynamic nature — what appears as a flat disk in the sky is in fact a violent and evolving celestial body, burning 600 million tons of hydrogen every second. The Sun, Our Living Star allows viewers to experience the Sun in a new way, with never-before-seen images of its turbulent surface in immersive fulldome format, revealing its power and variability in breathtaking detail.

This brand new planetarium film was jointly produced by ESO and talented Greek film-maker Theofanis Matsopoulos, who also directed the film. It will be shown regularly in the planetarium of the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre from Friday 7 September 2018. The performances, some of which will be in German and some in English, are free of charge in 2018 and are aimed at the general public and school groups, including children over 10 years old. More information about the show as well as the link to book tickets for performances, can be found here. It is recommend to reserve seats in advance, and tickets can then be printed on site.

The show is also offered for free to the planetarium community in ESO’s Member States and beyond as part of the ESO Supernova mission as the world’s first open source planetarium. Anyone interested can download the show from the dedicated webpage in 4k resolution. English and German narrations are available and further languages are planned.

The full range of free material for planetariums is available on the ESO Supernova website. This includes 20 full planetarium shows, almost 500 fulldome clips from the ESO and ESA/Hubble archives, 360-degree panoramas, a new music archive with almost 500 free music tracks, 3D models and much more. This collection contributes to the continued success of the planetarium community worldwide, and ESO is proud and excited to add The Sun, Our Living Star.

More information

The ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre

The ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre is a cutting-edge astronomy centre for the public and an educational facility, located at the site of the ESO Headquarters in Garching bei München. The centre hosts the largest tilted planetarium in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and an interactive exhibition, sharing the fascinating world of astronomy and ESO to inspire coming generations to appreciate and understand the Universe around us. All content is provided in English and German and entrance is free, but requires prior booking. For more details visit: supernova.eso.org

The ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre is a cooperation between the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS). The building is a donation from the Klaus Tschira Stiftung (KTS), a German foundation, and ESO runs the facility.

ESO Supernova is proudly supported by: LOR Foundation, Evans & Sutherland, Sky-Skan and Energie-Wende-Garching.

KTS

The Klaus Tschira Stiftung (KTS) was created in 1995 by the physicist and SAP co-founder Klaus Tschira (1940-2015). It is one of Europe’s largest privately funded non-profit foundations. The Foundation promotes the advancement of the natural sciences, mathematics, and computer science, and strives to raise appreciation for these fields. The Foundation’s commitment begins in kindergarten and continue in schools, universities, and research facilities. The Foundation champions new methods of scientific knowledge transfer, and supports both development and intelligible presentation of research findings.

HITS

The Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS gGmbH) was established in 2010 by the physicist and SAP co-founder Klaus Tschira (1940-2015) and the Klaus Tschira Foundation as a private, non-profit research institute. HITS conducts basic research in the natural sciences, mathematics, and computer science, with a focus on the processing, structuring, and analyzing large amounts of data. The research fields range from molecular biology to astrophysics. The shareholders of HITS are the HITS Stiftung, which is a subsidiary of the Klaus Tschira Foundation, Heidelberg University and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). HITS also cooperates with other universities and research institutes and with industrial partners. The base funding of HITS is provided by the HITS Stiftung with funds received from the Klaus Tschira Foundation. The primary external funding agencies are the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the German Research Foundation (DFG), and the European Union.

ESO

ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It has 15 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile and with Australia as a strategic partner. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world’s most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world’s largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is a major partner in ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre European Extremely Large Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.

Courtesy of European Southern Observatory