The Paper's senior reporter Zhu Yiyi
When was the first portrait of the Milky Way born? Is the earth still the only home for humanity?
On July 5, the Shanghai Planetarium opened its first flow test, a three-body building designed with the concept of "connecting man and the universe". In the morning, the surging news reporter preemptively punched the clock to unveil the mystery of this long-awaited "dialogue between man and the universe".
However, the planetarium also left an "Easter egg". Lin Qing, director of the Astronomical Research Center of the Shanghai Planetarium, revealed that a small but extremely valuable "heavyweight" exhibit is expected to meet the public at the Shanghai Planetarium, waiting for the official opening of the museum on July 17.
Exterior view of Shanghai Planetarium The pictures in this article are all taken by the surging news reporter Zhu Yiyi
Exterior view of Shanghai Planetarium
In the "homeland" there is the Shanghai Changxing meteorite
Outside the venue, the unique architectural design of the Shanghai Planetarium is already a landscape.
Derived from a formal abstraction of orbital motion, the design not only presents astronomical concepts, but also realistically tracks the movement of the sun in the sky, making the entire building a large astronomical instrument that can represent the passage of time. Especially around the summer solstice, the coincidence of light and shadow with ground markings becomes a sign of solar terms.
Huge model of the Earth
Walking into the main entrance, the first exhibition hall is the "Home", where the earth, moon and sun appear in front of you on a huge scale. The outer layer of the 20-meter-diameter celestial hall is projected into the form of the earth, alternating the scene of seeing the earth from space; next to the earth is a huge moon model, the size ratio of the two is consistent with the real earth and the moon, and the surface of the moon model is based on the real data obtained by chang'e lunar exploration and other space explorations, and the details are almost chaotic.
Home park exhibits Galaxy Picture Scroll
Milky Way Scroll
Inside the "giant earth", there is also a traditional planetarium's soul device, the optical planetarium. With an inner diameter of 17 meters, this optical planetarium is equipped with the latest high-grade optical planetarium, projecting an unparalleled starry sky. Visitors can follow the voice of the docent, go to the stars, listen to the stories of the stars, feel the realistic cosmic starry sky, and enjoy the wonderful celestial programs ("Scenery of the Night Sky" and "Starry Sky Picture Scroll") and step into different starry sky beauties.
Exhibits in the Cosmic Zone
Walking along the exhibition hall is a wonderful dynamic theater - "Flying Over the Milky Way", visitors will fly a dynamic spaceship, fly over the supermassive black hole, and explore the alien civilizations on the edge of the Milky Way.
In terms of meteorite collections, the Shanghai Planetarium not only collected rare varieties of lunar meteorites, Martian meteorites, vesta meteorites, but also took fine eye-witness meteorites as important collection targets, including about 70 famous meteorites such as Suizhou meteorite, Juancheng meteorite, Changxing meteorite, East Wuzhu Muqinqi stone iron meteorite, Chelyabinsk meteorite, Alin iron meteorite, etc.
The reporter noted that one of the "Changxing meteorites" with deep roots in Shanghai fell in 1964 at the avant-garde farm on Changxing Island in Shanghai, which was the only meteorite witness in Shanghai.
The planetarium houses the largest of these pieces, amounting to 21.4 kilograms. The meteorite smashed through a farmhouse and knocked the ground beneath the farmhouse out of a large crater half a meter in diameter. The surface of the meteorite is wrapped in a black molten shell with airmarks and molten lines.
From the "home" to the "universe", a transitional promenade features a large multimedia show that constructs a mysterious sense of fluid cosmic magnetic field. As the audience moves forward, the figure dances in the magnetic field, and inadvertently opens a small video, from which the keen audience can peek into the cosmic mysteries contained in the upcoming exhibition area.
At the end of interstellar, a series of scanned beams of light will lead you to the first exhibit of the "Universe" exhibition area, the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMB), which is engraved with the mysterious code of the 13.8 billion-year-old origin mark of the universe.
Experience a moonwalk on the "Journey"
"Astronomy is one of the oldest natural sciences in mankind." With the narrator's narration, the reporter began to review the journey of human exploration of the starry sky.
The "Journey" exhibition area shows the long journey of human beings to explore the mysteries of the universe in a panoramic way, from the thinking of the ancients to the modern astronomical revolution, and then to today's astronomical scientific achievements and research plans.
With the spread of the exhibition line, people's understanding of astronomy is also constantly expanding. In front of a series of restoration scenes, realize the spirit of scientific exploration of Galileo, Newton, Herschel, Hubble and other astronomical science giants.
In the face of the global astronomical science installation model and image display, many tourists lamented the great progress of science.
In this exhibition area, the reporter encountered the "popular traffic" - high-simulation "Chang'e 5", "Zhurong" and "Tianhe" core cabin models.
Experience a moonwalk
Next to the Chang'e-5 model, an experience area was set up, where visitors could put on VR glasses, sit on professional instruments, experience the weightlessness of the moonwalk, and witness the work scene of Chang'e-5.
Model of the core cabin of the Tianhe
Chang'e-5 model
The behemoth opposite Chang'e-5 is a 1:1 simulation model of the Tianhe core module successfully launched on April 29 this year, while the complete overall model of the Tiangong space capsule is hung overhead, demonstrating the rendezvous and docking with the Tianzhou.
Aviation food in the core cabin of the Tianhe
Visitors can also walk into this core cabin and take a real look at the scenes of astronauts living and working in space, their living, fitness, bathing, eating, all kinds of curiosities, waiting to be explored there.
Outside the theme exhibition area, the ultra-high-definition multi-functional dome theater is like a pearl in the museum, which has been highly anticipated. Although the theater was temporarily closed during the stress test phase, reporters witnessed its dazzling appearance.
Dome theater
The dome theater with an outer diameter of 30 meters and an inner diameter of 23 meters is one of the "three bodies" of the main building, and it is a breathtaking "floating planet". Inside, it is the world's most advanced 8K resolution dome projection system, with advanced laser performance system and stage performance system, bringing the audience a variety of heart-shaking cosmic blockbuster experiences, as well as a fantastic "starry sky concert" waiting for you to enjoy.
The first portrait of the Milky Way
In addition, there are special exhibition areas such as "China Asking the Sky", "Curious Planet" and "Sailing to Mars", as well as a series of experiences such as the Xingwen Living Room, The Wangshu Observatory, the Xihe Sun Tower and the Starry Sky Exploration Camp, showing the vast picture of the universe, creating a multi-sensory exploration journey, and helping the audience shape a complete cosmology. According to the museum, among the more than 300 exhibits in the museum, the proportion of originality is as high as 85%, and interactive exhibits account for more than 50%.
Editor-in-charge: Zheng Hao