The University of Colorado at Boulder in early 2007 will open a $180,000 exhibit featuring a floating sphere that can display animated images of Earth's atmosphere, oceans and continents, as well as other planets.
Known as "Science on a Sphere," the exhibit will be located in CU-Boulder's Fiske Planetarium and will be open to the public, according to Douglas Duncan, director of the planetarium and the Sommers-Bausch Observatory.
"Every museum person dreams of creating an icon, something so compelling that visitors insist that all their friends must see it," Duncan said. "Science on a Sphere is so beautiful and interesting that I think it may become our icon and a Boulder classic --something that people make a special trip to see."
CU-Boulder will be the second institution in Colorado to install the sphere exhibit. The other sphere is located in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's David Skaggs Research Center in Boulder. Researchers in NOAA's Earth Systems Research Laboratory in Boulder developed the original exhibit.
The sphere is six feet in diameter and is suspended off the floor, appearing to float in space. Computers and video projectors present an astronaut's view of hurricanes gliding across Earth's oceans one moment and the fiery surface of Mars or other planets the next.
"The effect is really stunning," Duncan said. "You feel like you are an astronaut floating in space."
An elaborate system of five computers and four projectors is used to show some of Earth's complex environmental processes visually on the sphere. CU-Boulder faculty members also plan to use data sets showing cosmic microwave background, solar oscillation and atmospheric data, according to Duncan.
Funds from NOAA, private donations and CU-Boulder will pay for the exhibit and its installation. It will be set up in the planetarium's lobby.
For more information about Fiske Planetarium and other shows and programs it offers call (303) 492-5001 or visit the Web site at fiske.colorado.edu.