Free Pretlow Planetarium Movies Explore Biodiversity, Black Holes and Dark Matter
Throughout the rest of February, Pretlow Planetarium will screen "Nanocam: A Trip into Biodiversity," one of three films it will showcase throughout the semester.
In March, the planetarium will switch to "Black Holes: Journey into the Unknown," and then wrap up the season with "Dark: Understanding Dark Matter."
Shows are on Tuesday and Thursday from 6-6:30 p.m. All shows are free and open to the public, and families are welcome. No tickets or reservations are required. The doors to the planetarium will open approximately 15 minutes early.
For more information about each movie, including trailers, visit www.odu.edu/planetarium.
"Nanocam: A Trip into Biodiversity" (ages 10 and up)
"Nanocam" explores the kingdoms of bacteria, protists and their stunning mechanism of motility, the amazing structure of fungi, the specializations of plants and the incredible complexity of the animal kingdom, seen through an electron microscope - a breathtaking trip into the five kingdoms of living things.
This unique program, based on a scientific approach and featuring images that have never been seen before, offers another dimension of reality, a reality that is measured in micrometers. "Nanocam" is a fascinating journey exploring life forms that are invisible to the human eye and contribute to a better understanding of the world we live in.
"Black Holes: Journey into the Unknown" (ages 9 and up)
Imagine a place where time stands still, where the universal order breaks down, where the unimaginable becomes reality. It's no longer the stuff of science fiction - this planetarium show brings to life all that is fascinating and extreme in the world of black holes.
Witness what would happen if you got too close to one. See how a black hole is able to warp time and space. Discover what science has taught us about these phenomena ... and what we must still learn.
"Dark: Understanding Dark Matter" (ages 10 and up)
"Dark" is a full-dome movie that explains and explores the nature of dark matter, the missing 80 percent of the mass of the universe.
The search for dark matter is the most pressing astrophysical problem of our time - the solution to which will help us understand why the universe is as it is, where it came from and how it has evolved over billions of years - the unimaginable depths of deep time, of which a human life is but a flickering instant. But in that instant, we can grasp its immensity and, through science, we can attempt to understand it.