Visitors watching Cosmic Collisions. © D. Finnin/AMNH

Cosmic Collisions, the breathtaking space show at the American Museum of Natural History's Hayden Planetarium in New York City, is an immersive theater experience that takes visitors on a virtual trip through space and time. Narrated by award-winning actor, director, and producer Robert Redford, Cosmic Collisions depicts the explosive encounters that shaped our universe and explores the effects of those collisions into the present day.

In the violent aftermath of a collision four-and-a-half billion years ago between a young Earth and a Mars-sized wandering body, the remaining debris circling Earth quickly starts to coalesce into our Moon. © American Museum of Natural History

Behind the scenes, the planetarium's creative team relies on NVIDIA® Quadro® solutions to create real-time images for Cosmic Collisions from huge datasets of raw scientific information. Quadro graphics also drive the planetarium's multi-channel projection system, which plays back the "movie" in seven pre-rendered, perfectly synchronized segments, covering the theater's 100-foot dome with a single, seamless image.

Unlike a feature film, a space show is first and foremost a scientific endeavor, requiring the planetarium to weave data from various simulation and visualization processes into an accurate and true-to-life presentation. The planetarium staff previews the rendered content in real time without compression, allowing them to see artifact-free images and make content decisions quickly. These "digital dailies" created with NVIDIA hardware allow for experimentation, validation, and speedy implementation of production decisions.

Streams of charged particles from the fiery surface of the Sun-the solar wind-race toward Earth at over a million miles an hour in this image taken by NASA satellites.

With the NVIDIA solutions, the planetarium staff put together a system that is extremely fast, allowing the crew to experiment and revitalize the planetarium experience—in a much smaller physical space, at a lower cost, lower heat and power loads, and with far better performance.

Benjy Bernhardt, Director of Engineering at the Hayden Planetarium stated, "We wanted a computer system that could immerse the audience in content that has a Hollywood-style look, and can display our imagery driven by real science through simulation and visualization. We also wanted it to play in a theater that supports Broadway-style theatrics. We needed a platform that is stable, modern, and has forward growth. That's what we have with NVIDIA."

For more information visit: American Museum of Natural History

Images courtesy of American Museum of Natural History.

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