Exhibitions

Explore Planetarium's exhibitions before or after your visit to the Planetarium Dome

NEW EXHIBITION

TO SPACE AND BACK

To Space and Back is a reflective story about humanity’s deep relationship with space and with Earth.

Throughout history, human curiosity has driven us towards new horizons, from the first seafaring explorers to today’s astronauts orbiting the Earth. We are capable of
visionary thinking, collaboration, gathering knowledge, and passing it on to future generations. We learn from the past and dream about the future. With this exhibition, we
aim to push your limits and open your mind to the possibilities space holds for the future. We also hope to give you the knowledge to better understand the world and what it means to be human.

The Overview Effect

Seen from space, our planet appears as a fragile blue sphere, floating silently in the vastness of space. This experience, known as The Overview Effect, has transformed the perspective of nearly everyone who has had the privilege of seeing Earth from afar. It’s a moment when national borders vanish, war and conflict seem nonexistent, and humanity appears as one unity.

This perspective has inspired the entire exhibition’s narrative about the human ability to explore, be curious, and create. You’ll encounter technology developed
for the extreme conditions of space that now benefits us here on Earth.

In the exhibition, you’ll experience everything from the dizzying dimensions of time and space to the fundamental conditions of human life, the technological wonders
of everyday life, going to the toilet in space, testing your abilities as an astronaut, and not least, the largest moon rock outside the United States, generously on loan from NASA.

The dilemmas of space exploration

You also have the opportunity to face important dilemmas. At ten different places in the exhibition, you can scan a chip to dive deeper into the ethical and practical challenges of space exploration. If you wish to do so, simply answer “yes” when purchasing your ticket.

Natural science, Art, and Technology United

We live on a planet filled with different cultures, worldviews, and values, yet we share far more than what sets us apart. Even as we search for life elsewhere in
the universe, we have only found one planet with conscious, intelligent life so far Earth, our home.

To Space and Back unfolds across four main themes

– Reflection and Existence
– Sustainable Development of Earth and Space
– Rights in Space
– Astronauts and Space Technology

To Space and Back was created in close collaboration with Danish universities, the space industry, experts, and the world-renowned artist Tomás Saraceno. His spectacular work, Cosmic Threads, is a 25-meter-high, 42-meter-long installation that floats in Planetarium’s Stair Gallery, uniting science, art, and technology in one poetic gesture.

Many perceive space as distant and inaccessible. This is where art has something unique to offer, it opens our senses. When we are amazed, we listen. When we are
surprised, we learn. When we are fascinated, we grow curious.

With To Space and Back and Cosmic Threads, our dream of uniting science, art, and technology under one celestial sky has come true. 

We look forward to taking you on a journey To Space and Back. We promise you will land safely again.

With special thanks to

Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond

Augustinus Fonden

A.P. Møller Fonden

Otto Mønsteds Fond

Thomas B. Thriges Fond

William Demant Fonden

Louis Petersens Legat

 

Danish space technology kindly on loan from

GomSpace A/S

Danish Aerospace Company A/S

Terma A/S

Aquaporin A/S

Copenhagen Suborbitals

new exhibition

Tomás Saraceno / Cosmic Threads

Planetarium presents permanent mega-installation by the world renowned artist Tomás Saraceno

Our guests can now experience a new, transgressive fusion of art, science and technology when Tomás Saraceno presents COSMIC THREADS in Knud Munk's iconic Planetarium at Skt. Jørgens Sø.

The installation marks Saraceno's first permanent work in Denmark and his first collaboration with a planetarium worldwide. In Planetarium's newly renovated Stair Gallery, aesthetics and technology are combined in a unique experience that provokes reflection and curiosity.

Argentine Tomás Saraceno, world-renowned for his spectacular works, has created a complex mega-installation - unique to Planetarium. With COSMIC THREADS, he invites the audience to reflect on the mysteries of the universe and human responsibility for the future of our shared planet. The installation stretches the full height of the Stair Gallery at 25 metres and the full length of 42 metres. The mega installation captures light in a complex network of threads where planets and air pockets float like galaxies - a visual metaphor for the connections between cosmic and earthly structures.

Mette Broksø Thygesen, CEO of Planetarium, says about the collaboration:

‘We are deeply grateful and excited about Tomás Saraceno's unique work. As you move through the installation, which stretches to an impressive height and width, you constantly discover new details and perspectives, thanks to the many levels of the Stair Gallery. Three years ago, we set out to find an artist who could unite science and art and create a work that would put the Copenhagen Planetarium on the world map. With COSMIC THREADS, Saraceno has created a masterpiece that not only unites science, art and technology, but also inspires us to reflect on our own role in the universe and the future of the planet.’

For Saraceno, the opportunity to create a piece for a planetarium has been a lifelong dream:

‘Since my childhood, planetariums all over the world have fascinated me. Their job is to arouse curiosity and wonder about the great cosmic questions. It has been a dream to create a work that not only reinforces this fascination, but also opens up new ways of understanding our place in the universe. COSMIC THREADS is one of my most complex works, inviting the audience to explore the connections between science, art, and our shared future - a future that must be rethought in light of the climate crisis. In the iconic space of Planetarium, the dream has become reality.’

With COSMIC THREADS, Planetarium is not only a place where children, young people and adults learn about astronomy and space travel, but also a place for reflection on our common future on Earth. The work creates a ‘space’ for reflection and invites the audience to explore the challenges we face at a time when the climate crisis requires us to rethink our relationship with nature, energy consumption and the countless species we share the planet with.

COSMIC THREADS is the first phase of Planetarium's ambitious permanent exhibition on space travel and space technology; To Space and back. The second phase is expected to open in the first quarter of 2025.

The exhibition has been realised with support from Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond, A.P. Møller Fonden, Augustinus Fonden, Thomas B. Thriges Fond, William Demant Fonden, Otto Mønsteds Fond and Louis Petersens Legat.

exhibition

Cosmos

Cosmos

Planetarium's award-winning exhibition Cosmos answers one of life's big questions: ‘Where do we come from?’

We take a closer look at the recipe for life and to find the cosmic ingredients, we focus on the Big Bang, stars and black holes.

Everything you are comes from the universe.

The building blocks of your body - the atoms - come from space, and on a cosmic journey we find out exactly where the different elements are formed.

The hydrogen in the water in your cells comes from the beginning of it all - from the Big Bang. Life is made up of DNA, which is made up of the element carbon, which is formed in stars. The stars in the universe act as large element factories, and this is also where the iron in your blood is formed. The element zinc is important for your immune system and comes from large stellar explosions - supernovae.

The exhibition is an explosion of visual impressions. It was created in collaboration with London-based exhibition and design company ‘59 Productions’ with the idea of putting the viewer at the centre. We use the latest technology, and the entire exhibition is designed from the ground up based on professionalism.

In 2018, the exhibition, ‘Cosmos’, won an Ecsite Award in the ‘Sustainable Success’ category for its inclusive and engaging exhibition on astrophysics.

The organisation Ecsite is a European network of science centres and museums that has existed since 1990. Ecsite's mission is to inspire and empower science centres, museums and all organisations that engage people with science and to promote knowledge about it.

The exhibition has been realised with support from A. P. Møller and wife Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller's Foundation for charitable purposes.

exhibition

The Agpalilik iron meteorite

The Agpalilik iron meteorite

Agpalilik is named after its location, a peninsula in Northwest Greenland of the same name, which means 'The rock where the sea king lives'.

The meteorite was probably hidden among pieces of rock for a few thousand years before it was found in 1963 by the Danish researcher Vagn Fabritius Buchwald. Buchwald was on an expedition to north-west Greenland, and it is said that by chance he spotted a large, brownish piece of rock. The piece of rock turned out to be a piece of an iron meteorite, which is also one of the world's largest, weighing just over 20 tons.

However, the meteorite was not easy to bring home to Denmark, as it had to be lifted free by hand and then onto a steel sled, which could then be used to transport the ton-heavy iron meteorite down towards the coast. It wasn't until four years after it was found that Agpalilik was shipped all the way to Denmark.

Today, the majority of the iron meteorite stands on its steel sled in front of the Geological Museum, but here in Planetarium you can also experience a 650 kg piece of the famous meteorite.

Agpalilik has been studied very thoroughly and by several different researchers. Iron meteorites are one of the closest we come to being able to examine the material we find both in the Earth's core, but also in the early solar system. The material that makes up the meteorite probably floated around the solar system almost untouched for several billion years before crashing to Earth.

Some researchers wonder if Agpalilik could be a fragment from the same meteorite that caused the newly discovered Hiawatha Crater in Northwest Greenland.

Agpalilik is a piece of the famous iron meteorite Cape York, which crashed several thousand years ago in Baffin Bay, which is also located in northwestern Greenland.

The first parts of the Cape York meteorite were found in 1894, when the polar explorer Robert E. Peary succeeded in finding as many as three fragments, with the help of a number of locals. The pieces were recovered and then transported to New York by ship, where they can still be found today at the American Museum of Natural History.
The three iron meteorites were named Ahnighito, Woman and Dog, and weigh respectively 31 tons, 3 tons and 407 kg.

Later, in 1913 and 1955, two more meteorites were found in the same area, they were named Savik and Thule. Both meteorites were then shipped to Copenhagen, and together with the three other Cape York meteorites, they inspired Vagn Fabritius Buchwald to look for more pieces of the large iron meteorite.

Around 58 tons of meteorites have been found around Cape York, and it is expected that there is even more material from the Cape York meteorite hidden under the Greenland ice sheet.

Moon Rock

For thousands of years, humans have looked up at the stars, especially at our closest neighbor in space, the Moon. It is both near and unimaginably distant. Its glow has guided us through darkness, and its phases laid the foundation for our calendar and concept of time.

The Moon is part of our shared origin, shaped by the same cosmic chaos in the early history of the solar system. Its untouched surface holds remnants from billions of years
ago, traces that wind and weather have erased from Earth. That’s why the Moon may offer new insight into Earth’s past and the origins of life.
Perhaps you, too, have gazed at the night sky and wondered what is out there, and where it all comes from. The first time humans set foot on another celestial body, it was on the Moon. And it’s not unthinkable that the Moon will become the launchpad for our continued
journey into deep space.
This Moon rock is valued at approximately 85 million DKK and is kindly on loan from NASA.

The Largest Moon Rock Outside the USA

Planetarium’s Moon rock came to Earth with Apollo 17 in 1972, the sixth and final crewed lunar landing of NASA’s Apollo programme. The Moon rock weighs 206.6 grams and consists primarily of basalt and ilmenite, evidence of volcanic activity on the Moon some 3.7 billion years ago.
The rock originates from the Camelot crater in the Taurus-Littrow Valley. The combination of highland terrain and basaltic lava plains makes this area ideal for collecting samples from different eras of the Moon’s geological history.

Apollo 17 was launched on December 7, 1972. Four days later, astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt landed on the Moon’s surface in the lunar module Challenger. They spent 75 hours on the Moon and completed three moonwalks lasting a total of 22 hours
and 4 minutes. During the mission, they collected 110.5 kilograms of lunar samples. The Moon rock on display at Planetarium is the largest Moon rock outside the United States. Since Apollo 17 returned to Earth on December 19, 1972, no human has visited the Moon.

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