Probe New Horizons waltzed to less than 13 000 km of distance of Pluto, last Tuesday, to send us pictures and unpublished data on it. The Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium takes advantage of these days to launch a new doubleheader, which tells the particular scientific adventure behind the name, the interpretation and the different definitions given to this star at the frontier of our solar system.
In full vertiginous journey into space, a cheerful jazz starts echoing. It leads immediately into his rhythm skipping the show. A collage lines suddenly broke the dome of icons of the golden age of Hollywood and the Great Depression. And is planted with the frenzy of a hat, the beginning of the year 1930, when the American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh made the discovery of Pluto. Maxime Pivin-Lapointe, the Planetarium astronomer and director of the show Pluto : chronically an ex-planet , chose this rate when found in his research that the piece jazz I’m Sailing Sunbeam was (“I sail on a sunbeam”) then sat in the charts. “ I had already imagined as the opening shot of the film continuing the sunshine that had led to the discovery of Pluto says -t it. I just thought it was interesting to give a tone to the show. I wanted it to be accessible, there is rhythm, it swings and it does not get bored. “
In constant contrast, the projection 360 degrees is punctuated with quiet and contemplative images, filmed by Space team for life in California, but also the legendary Lowell Observatory in Arizona, where Tombaugh had spotted Pluto for the first time. On such a calm tempo, to mention poetic recreation of the revolution Charon, Pluto discovered natural satellite in 1978. The duo of Pluto and Charon revolves on itself, giving the appearance of a phenomenon intoxicating romantic waltz.
Push Science
But the dance that we are seeing, it is mostly the very human, knowledge. The scientific community has made progress, lost his footing before the new data before changing sides, you are mistaken! In August 2006, just seven months after takeoff probe New Horizons , the members of the International Astronomical Union voted to downgrade Pluto to the status of dwarf planet. This star of the Kuiper belt did not meet a criterion in the new definition of a planet, is to have “ cleaned “ the vicinity of celestial bodies in orbit.
Sébastien Gauthier, head of programming at the Planetarium, considers it relevant to consider Pluto. “ Small objects play a major role in the formation of the solar system. The study elucidates some mysteries to uncover missing links “, he said. The latest images sent to earth by New Horizons should be projected in the theater of the Milky Way at the end of the different representations. Facilitators, narrating live this show, at the same time add new information provided by the probe in the coming months.
Universe mysteries
If Pluto reveals some of his secrets, those of dark matter and dark energy remains for the moment impenetrable. In the first part, the Planetarium presents in Chaos Theatre the show Dark Universe : the dark side of the cosmos . This shorter production of the American Museum of Natural History focuses on the expansion of the universe, but mostly invisible matter that composes and that astronomers still can not decipher. An empty, seemingly, yet which one observes the influence. To evoke that which escapes our senses, the show features a swirling sensory experience, the red light of the expansion of the universe and the twinkling of some supernovae pack fairyland.
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