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Ed Yeates ReportingClark Planetarium's "Star Dome" is about to shake up conventional thinking about a lot of things we've never thought possible.
And it's based on the latest discoveries of 200 new planets circling around stars other than our sun. Billions more are most likely out there.
The same process that made our world is making worlds right now in the Milky Way Galaxy.
Michael Murray/ Clark Planetarium Programs Manager: "The implication that life may be a natural process that begins on any planet with the right kind of conditions. And if that's true, then the possibilities are just staggering."
And the project, "Search for Life," is just that! It's a mind boggling joint venture involving New York's Hayden Planetarium, the American Museum of Natural History, and NASA.
The Search for Life. This Star Dome show is different than most in that it lets the audience sort of begin its journey in total darkness.
Listen and watch for life itself - not always as we've known it, but as it may exist in ways we've never conceived before. A new theory!
Michael Murray: "Almost every star could have planets around it. And if that's true, there are many more planets in the Milky Way Galaxy than stars."
The search is on now as NASA makes plans to locate new telescopic arrays in space that could find not just big Jupiter-sized planets, but planets the size of our own.
"Search for Life" makes you think outside the box. While factual, it's also philosophical.
Michael Murray: "Within the next few decades, we may start finding Earth-like planets. And if we do, we may in our lifetime see whether life is out there on Earth-like worlds."
The beginning of an exciting, perhaps even unnerving exploration.
"Search for Life" unfolds under the Star Dome three times per day. For more information, call Clark Planetarium.
