Dr. Strangerock or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Asteroids

Presentation themes: fulldome, future sustainability and worldviews

Since the planetarium’s invention, we have been able to share the universe with our visitors. First, it was the objects that could easily be seen in the real sky—stars, planets, the Moon, and Sun. With the introduction of digital projection, the vastness of space was opened to presenters and audiences alike, and no corner of the cosmos was too remote to explore. Taking our guests to other planets, stars, and galaxies might help them feel more connected to the universe they are a part of, but the wealth of options has made it easy to overlook the most important objects in the universe: asteroids. Wrongly blamed for the demise of the dinosaurs and often featured in threatening headlines, asteroids play a critical role in the development of planetary systems and are coming under increased scientific scrutiny. The ongoing missions of Hayabusa2, OSIRIS-APEX (née -REx), Lucy, and Psyche are reason enough to share the stories of asteroids in planetariums, but our motivation goes beyond current events. It has been said that we are made of star-stuff, but that connection is not a straight line—after leaving its stellar source, some of the stuff we’re made of likely spent time in an asteroid. We are a way for asteroids to know themselves.