New full-dome show at Nehru Planetarium will explore comets

Arvind Paranjpye

As Mumbai's iconic planetarium enters its 40th year, a new show will be introduced to visitors, starting today. "Edge of Darkness will explore the dark world of comets and minor planets. These objects usually reside at the outer, dark regions of our solar system.

A visual of a comet from the full dome show, Edge of Darkness. Pics Courtesy/Nehru Planetarium

They can only be studied by sending precisely programmed spacecrafts to collect data. The show has inputs from the NASA mission, where after many years of travel, three spacecrafts returned with amazing discoveries in the outermost boundaries of our solar system," shares Arvind Paranjpye, director, Nehru Planetarium.

The show includes footage from three spacecrafts. Pic/Bipin Kokate

The shows at the planetarium change every six months. This particular one, touted as one of the latest even internationally, will feature amazing scenes of Comet 67P, the minor planets Ceres and the binary dwarf planets Pluto and Charon.

Asteroid collisions

It ends with a note on the possibilities in the future of asteroid mining that could lead to a new ‘Space Age Industrial Revolution.'

Pluto (foreground) and Charon

"The audience will be treated to an amazing experience of space travel including actual images of never-seen-before mountains on comets," adds Paranjpye. The 30-minute-long full dome show was produced by US-based Evans and Sutherland.

Arvind Paranjpye

First show: 12 noon,
Last show: 4.30 pm
Cost: Rs 60 (adult), Rs 40 (child)
At: Nehru Planetarium, Dr Annie Besant Road, Worli. Mondays shut
Call: 24924133
Log on to: www.nehru-centre.org/planetarium