Planetarium Shows
All fulldome films and the live show are presented in German. However, all fulldome films are also available in English; most of them are also available in various other languages (see matrix). Visitors who purchase planetarium tickets can also rent audioguides, which allow to listen to the respective shows in one of the available languages by using headphones. Please inquire at the information counter for availabilities. We regret that live shows are only available in German.In addition, groups can rent the whole planetarium for foreign-language fulldome shows; please contact anmeldung@nhm-wien.ac.at for details.
Tickets for the planetarium are available at the information desk or online.
Every fulldome show (except „Dinosaurs“) is preceeded by the short 6 minute film „Loosing the Dark“.
Live Show
Duration ca. 40 minutesAstronomers show the current night sky and take you on a trip to various extraordinary places in universe, such as the rings of Saturn and Jupiter’s moons. Leave our solar system and pass the stars of the Milky Way at the speed of light or even faster!
You will learn what is are actually visible on the night sky above Vienna, you will visit some selected objects and you will learn about actual space missions to some of these objects.
(In German; for groups by special reservation also in possible in English.)
Phantom of the Universe
Duration: 25 minutesPhantom of the Universe shows the exciting exploration of dark matter, from the Big Bang to its anticipated discovery. It reveals the first hints of its existence in the 1930s through the eyes of Fritz Zwicky, the scientist who coined the term "dark matter." It plummets deep underground to see the most sensitive dark matter detector on Earth, housed in a former gold mine in South Dakota. From there, it journeys to the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator at CERN (Switzerland), where scientists from all over the world are collaborating to track down the constituents of dark matter, a type of matter that has not been directly observed yet but the existence of which is not called into question by cosmologists nowadays.
From Earth to the Universe
Duration: 32 minutesFrom Earth to the Universe takes the audience on a fascinating journey into the unimaginable vastness of space, beyond the edge of the Milky Way to myriads of far-away galaxies. Besides showing the ferocity of the scorching sun and the colorful birthplaces and burial grounds of stars, the film strikingly demonstrates how far humanity’s ambition has taken us in terms of observing and understanding the universe: The audience will learn about the history of astronomy, the theories of the ancient Greek astronomers, the invention of the telescope, and today’s giant telescopes that allow us continue to probe ever deeper into the universe.
Life: A Cosmic Story
Duration: 26 minutesHow did life originate on Earth?
To answer this basic question the show begins in a redwood forest, with the sounds of wind and life. One redwood looms large, until we approach its branches and enter one of its leaves, adjusting our perspective to microscopic scales inside a cell. We see a pared-down version of its inner workings, learning about the process of photosynthesis and the role of DNA. This scene sets the stage for the story of life.
We then leap backward billions of years to the origin of elements themselves. The early Universe contained mostly dark matter, which drew hydrogen and helium together to form the first stars. The carbon and heavier elements required by living organisms came from generations of stars.
Origins of Life
Duration: 23 minutesORIGINS OF LIFE deals with some of the most profound questions of life science: the origins of life and the human search for life beyond Earth. Starting with the Big Bang, in chronological order, the show deals with the prebiotic chemistry in the Universe, the formation of stars, formation of solar systems, and the first life on Earth. Furthermore ORIGINS OF LIFE covers the great extinctions as well as our search for (primitive) life beyond planet Earth.
This show is a inspirational journey through time and a celebration of life on Earth. It features many recent discoveries related to life science, demonstrating that if there was ever a time that science made its greatest advances, it’s right now!
Dynamic Earth
Duration: 24 minutesNow in more than 70 planetariums worldwide, DYNAMIC EARTH explores the inner workings of Earth’s great life support system: the global climate. With visualizations based on satellite monitoring data and advanced supercomputer simulations, this cutting-edge production follows a trail of energy that flows from the Sun into the interlocking systems that shape our climate: the atmosphere, oceans, and the biosphere.
Audiences will ride along on swirling ocean and wind currents, dive into the heart of a monster hurricane, come face-to-face with sharks and gigantic whales, and fly into roiling volcanoes.
Life of Trees
Duration: 33 minutesEspecially for children age 4 to 8
This show is an entertaining and educational fulldome experience for the whole family that tells the fascinating world of trees. THE LIFE OF TREES shows the importance of plants for life on earth, how trees grow, how they transport water against gravity to the top of the crown, and enabled diverse life on earth by producing oxygen.
The story is presented by two quirky animated characters: a ladybug called Dolores and a firefly called Mike.
Fragile Planet
Duration: 26 minutesFRAGILE PLANET gives audiences an astronaut’s view of Earth, highlighting Earths unique regions. The journey then continues to the Moon, Mars, and beyond the Milky Way to search for habitats that might host extraterrestrial life. The show’s theme — that Earth is the only known haven for life, and thus is important to protect — echoes the themes of biodiversity and sustainability.
The visual foundation of the show lies in scientific visualization. From the high-resolution satellite imagery of Earth, the positions of galaxies more than 50 million light years distant, the three-dimensional terrain of Valles Marineris on Mars to the locations of extrasolar planetary systems in interstellar space, everything audiences will see in FRAGILE PLANET has a basis in astronomers’ best understanding of the Universe.
Dinosaurs at Dusk
Duration: 45 minutesA learning adventure of a father and his teenage daughter Lucy, who share a fascination for all things that fly. You’ll travel back in time to meet the pterosaurs and the ancestors of modern-day birds: the feathered dinosaurs. Lucy and her father navigate from continent to continent, looking for clues about the origins of flight. When time runs out they experience first-hand the cataclysmic “last day” of the dinosaurs. Science content includes topics such as continental drift, proper motion of stars, asteroids and impacts, extinctions and the convergent development of flight among species.
Supervolcanoes
Duration: 24 minutesThe scene was 74,000 years ago, on the island of Sumatra. A volcanic eruption triggered the sudden and violent collapse of a vast regional plateau. Toba, as the volcano is known today, was the largest volcanic eruption in the last 25 million years. But Earth has seen far larger. 250 million years ago, an eruption in what’s now Siberia lasted a million years and was probably responsible for the greatest episode of mass extinction in Earth’s history.
SUPERVOLCANOES is an immersive planetarium show that looks back at rare classes of eruptions that have marshaled the energy that lurks, like a sleeping dragon, beneath the surface of planet Earth. The program moves beyond Earth to explore the impact of giant volcanic eruptions around our solar system. Audiences will fly down to Neptune’s frigid moon Triton, and onto the ultimate volcanic world: Jupiter’s moon Io. On a visit to a legendary North American hot spot, Yellowstone National Park, the film asks: can a supervolcano erupt in our time?
Violent Universe
Duration: 25 minutesWatch comets, asteroids, and meteors hurtling through space. Stars collapsing under their own gravity. Infernos of nuclear energy releasing their deadly radiation across the universe. Witness the raw power of the cosmos in this thrilling show that gives you a front-row seat to watch as worlds collide!
Realm of Light
Duration: 25 minutesOnly for groups to rent: +43 1 52177-335
From the Big Bang to the onset of modern man.
A journey to the origins of space and our life. The show tells in breathtaking pictures the story of the genesis and the evolution of the universe and our world – from the big bang until today. A philosophical approach to the origins of space and our life, this animated full dome production is designed in any aspect for the immersive theater – a completely new dimension of filmed visualisation.
Journey to a Billion Suns
Duration: 32 minutesOnly for groups to rent: +43 1 52177-335
The spectacular full-dome film Journey to a Billion Suns was produced in cooperation with ESA and planetariums across Europe on occasion of ESA’s Gaia mission. It tells the fascinating story of mapping the Milky Way, from ancient times to the 21st century. During its five-year mission Gaia is going to measure the positions, motion, and physical characteristics of a billion stars to create the most accurate 3D map of our galaxy, the Milky Way, ever made. The mission follows a long tradition of star mapping, dating back to the ancient Greek astronomer Hipparchus who, in 129 BC and using only naked eye observations and simple geometry, catalogued the relative positions of around one thousand stars and thus laid the foundations for investigations of the Solar System’s place among the stars for the next two thousand years. Now, Gaia will take our understanding to a whole new level.