Week of the Earth | Planetarium 2.0

Wed, Jul 10, 2024 at 4:45PM

2.0
By Katie Wedderstrand, Planetarium Educator

Planetarium 2.0 | Week of the Earth: A look at our pale blue dot.

Since February 2, 2024, the museum has been exhibiting Megalodon: Largest Shark that Ever Lived, which will stay up until July 21, 2024. This exhibit speaks mostly on the diet, evolution, and size of megalodon, including mentions of its relatives – prehistoric and modern – as well as the shark’s ultimate extinction two million years ago.

Meg Jaws Astronaut in the Ocean

A common misconception about megalodons is that they coexisted with dinosaurs, but they actually lived much more recently: 17 million years ago to 2 million years ago. For context, dinosaurs went extinct about 65 mya. The lineage of sharks, however, is much older than megalodon’s reign, first popping up – if you include the shark-like chondrichthyans – in the Late Ordovician (458-444 mya).

By this definition, sharks are older than trees! The Devonian (419-359 mya) has fossil records of the first tree-like plants. “But how does this relate to space?” I hear you cry. Many objects in space, while they feel as if they’ve been there longer than we can comprehend, are younger than we may think.

A good example of this is Polaris, our North Star. While we may think of Polaris and many objects in our nighttime sky as constants, the Earth has shifted over time. For example, Vega held the title of North Star several thousand years ago, and in about 12,000 years, it will return as the North Star.

It is also important to note that Polaris is made up of three – yes, three! – different stars: Polaris Aa, Polaris Ab, and Polaris B. We only see Polaris as a single star, because Polaris Aa is significantly brighter than the other two. Most studies can agree that Polaris Aa is between 45 and 67 million years old, much younger than the 450-million-year-old sharks, while Polaris Ab is at least 500 million years old. Polaris B is older than them both, aged around 1.5 billion years old.

Determining the age of objects in space is difficult and always up for debate, as is the lineage of fossils. There’s no particular academic benefit from comparing their ages to one another, but it can be a lot of fun to explore. So now, next time you look up into the northern sky and spot Polaris, you can know that the sharks along our shores come from a lineage older than the North Star.. or at least, Polaris Aa.

To learn more about our place here on Earth, I invite you to visit the museum this week (July 8-12). Every day at 2:00pm, we will be presenting our brand-new live show: Pale Blue Dot – Our Earth from Space, which focuses on the beauty and exploration of our own planet.

At 3:00pm, we will be showing Birth of Planet Earth, a show which explains what the title says, exploring questions such as: How did Earth become a living planet in the wake of our solar system’s violent birth? What does its history tell us about our chances of finding other worlds that are truly Earth-like?

If you’ve been to the Lohman Planetarium before, our 1:00pm and 4:00pm shows will likely sound familiar. We have the classic Little Star That Could at 1:00pm, and Expedition Reef – a show focusing on coral reef systems – at 4:00pm.

This is only the second week of our nine-week campaign, and every week will have brand new shows, tabling, activities, and more. We hope to see you there!

Location: Lohman Planetarium at the Museum of Arts & Sciences
352 S. Nova Rd. Daytona Beach, FL 32114
Admission: For Ticket Pricing Click Here.

*General museum admission must be purchased to add-on the purchase of a Lohman Planetarium show.

Single Planetarium Shows:
Adults: $7.00
Children 0-17: $5.00

MOAS members receive UNLIMITED planetarium shows. Become a member today to unlock the secrets of the universe. Read More about MOAS Membership.