Welcome to english.eastday.com.Today is
Follow us @
Contribute to us!

Latest

Shanghai

Business

Culture

China

World

Pictures

Topics

Life

Services

Home >> Latest >> Article
World’s largest planetarium in Shanghai to enable rare universe exploration
By:Zheng Qian  |  From:english.eastday.com  |  2021-07-05 17:59

The Shanghai Planetarium, the world's largest of its kind, will open to the public on July 18 after six years’ construction.

The main exhibition area of the planetarium consists ofthree zones: the "Home" area, the "Universe"and the "Journey" area.

The journey area displays a couple of simulated Chinese spacecraft, like the Chang'e-2 lunar rover, the Chang'e-5 lunar rover, and the Zhurong mars rover as well as the most eye-catching Chinese space station model.

In the life-size model of the Tianhe Core Capsule, people can experience making a phone call, bicycle riding, and space plants watching.

“When experiencing space life in the core capsule, don't forget to take a look out of the window. Through the window, you can see the blue Earth in the “Home” area. This is the most surprising part of this exhibit," reminded Shao Zhengyi, a researcher from the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Regarding the “Home” area, the most important exhibition item is named "Earth Evolution" located in the middle of the hall. Via high-definition projection, it visually shows the evolution of a hot lava fireball into a blue planet. In less than 4 minutes, starting from 4.5 billion years ago, the Earth goes through the most important geological, climate and biological life events in the six major evolutionary periods.

“This complete evolution of the Earth can hardly be seen anywhere else,” said Li Ligang, an astronomy and geodynamics expert. Li added that there are still many unsolved mysteries in the evolution of the Earth. The Shanghai Planetarium has tried its best to gather professional resources from all parties and presented the latest research results to the public through this exhibition item.

The “Universe” area prepares the audience with a film where some of the parameters of the universe, such as the speed of light, gravity, and dark matter content, are adjusted to create a completely different form of the universe, so as to inspire viewers to think about its mysteries.

Deep space exploration has become a key part of global scientific and technological competition in the 21st century, while building a planetarium in Shanghai has been the common dream of many scientists and astronomy enthusiasts for nearly half a century. The building of the planetarium shows the city’s determination in science popularization and is expected to enhance its soft power.

Photos/ Cao Lei& Wang Weiqiu

Share