NASA Explorations Series - short films
Ep 1 - Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment
NASA satellites measure the changing levels of groundwater. Educator guide
Ep 2 - Big Science, Small Packages
A new wave of tiny, inexpensive satellites conducts amazing science. Educator guide
Ep 3 - MU69
New Horizons tells us about Pluto and sets its sight on a new target. Educator guide
Ep 4 - Parker Solar Probe
Humans have sent a spacecraft into the Sun’s atmosphere to study the corona and solar wind. Educator guide
Ep 5 - Rocks from the Moon
Join us as we explore the legacy of NASA's Apollo Lunar Missions: Rocks from the Moon. Educator guide
Ep 6 - The Dawn of Orion
The Orion spacecraft follows in Apollo’s footsteps, but with technology upgrades that will allow it to support up to six crew members for three weeks. Educator Guide
Ep 7 - TESS Discovering Distant Worlds
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite - Join us as we investigate how researchers are discovering thousands of new worlds throughout our galaxy, using the faintest of signals. Educator Guide
Ep 8 - SOFIA: Learning From the Invisible
By looking at the universe in infrared light, astronomers are able to see objects that are otherwise invisible. The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is a modified Boeing 747 designed to carry an infrared telescope high above the surface to fly above the water vapor low in the Earth's atmosphere.
Full Length Full Dome films
Climate Change in Our Backyard: VR Experience
As we develop a much larger picture about our Earth as a whole, we are coming to see it as a complex, interconnected, remarkable world, and one that humans have impacted directly. Explore the role of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, the natural temperature variations that the Earth has experienced over millions of years, and how humans are affecting our planet today.
Cosmic Origins Spectrograph
The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph instrument aboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) helps us understand what the universe was like billions of years ago and how it has changed over time. By following the path taken by light from a quasar, this film journeys across the cosmic web, touching on concepts such as spectra, formation of the elements, the electromagnetic spectrum, the distribution of gas around galaxies, and many of HST's showcase images.
Drifting North: Into the Polar Night
Step out onto an ice floe in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, and watch and listen as scientists race the fading light to set up one of the most ambitious international climate collaborations ever, MOSAiC. The Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate launched in September 2019. Led by the German Alfred Wegener Institute, the mission froze an icebreaker into the Central Arctic Ocean, to better understand the remote region and the role it plays in global climate and weather patterns.
Available in a VR Experience too!
Max Goes to the Moon
Max (the dog) and a young girl named Tori take the first trip to the Moon since the Apollo era. Watch a trailer.
Trailers and Extras
Forward! To the Moon
NASA’s 21st century program to take humans forward to the Moon is called Artemis, after the Greek moon Goddess and twin of Apollo. Artemis is not an end in itself, but just the first step towards a sustainable future in space.
Fiske Planetarium and NASA will premiere a full length fulldome film about this grand venture in late 2021.
The fulldome and VR version of the 5-minute preview are available now.
MOSAiC - Drifting North
More than two dozen scientists, engineers, educators, and others from the University of Colorado Boulder and NOAA will join scientists from sixteen other nations for the international Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) mission in 2019-2020.
Follow the journey!
Moon Dome
Transform your dome into an 8K moon phase.
MUSCLES
How can we use the light from distant stars to search for potentially habitable exoplanets? In this short film, we explore how researchers are using the Hubble Space Telescope's Measurements of the Ultraviolet Spectral Characteristics of Low-mass Exoplanetary Systems (MUSCLES) Survey to study properties of red dwarf stars and how their intense x-ray and ultraviolet flares may affect the chemistry of planets' atmospheres. Differentiating the stars that may lead to false positive detections of biomarkers will help future space telescopes such as the James Webb Telescope to know which stars are more promising to search for habitable worlds.