The American Museum of Natural History has recently launched a new space show in the Hayden Planetarium Space Theater entitled Encounters in the Milky Way. Narrated by Pedro Pascal, Encounters in the Milky Way takes guests on an immersive time-traveling journey through cosmic movements that have impacted our galaxies.

This space show marks the seventh of Hayden Planetarium’s shows, and is the first to center around cosmic motion. The premiere of Encounters in the Milky Way also marks the 25th anniversary of the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the museum.

For the first time in the history of Hayden Planetarium Space Shows, a discovery was made during the production process. The production team noticed that our solar system’s Oort cloud, a vast collection of icy material left behind from the sun, may display a small spiral structure, resembling a little galaxy. After further investigation, this turned out to be a new discovery and has since been published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Oort cloud spiral discovery, photo courtesy AMNH.

Encounters in the Milky Way is open to the public now. It is 24 minutes in length, showing every thirty minutes beginning at 10:30 AM and concluding at 4:30 PM. Members of the museum see the show for free, and the general public can purchase tickets via their website: https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/space-show.