Kutztown University Planetarium

Where did the building blocks of life come from? The answer lies far from home. Travel inside a giant star nearing the end of its life, witness stellar corpses colliding, and experience the quiet demise of a Sun-like star. From the oxygen we breathe to the iron in our blood, the silicon in Earth’s mantle to the uranium that warms our planet, we owe it all to the stars. Narrated by Diego Luna, ”Spark: The Universe in Us” explores how hundreds of millions of celestial events have forged the elements that make up the Solar System, Earth—and us!

Journey to the icy outskirts of our solar system in Planet Nine, a planetarium show that follows the search for a hidden giant beyond Neptune. From the discoveries of Pluto, Eris, and other distant worlds to the tantalizing orbital clues that suggest an unseen planet, Caltech astronomer Mike Brown and his team take us to mountaintop observatories in their quest to find the elusive “Planet Nine.”  The program at KU's planetarium includes a short introduction to the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory, whose sweeping sky survey may soon reveal this mysterious world.

One small step was just the beginning. Now, we take one step beyond - driven by curiosity, bound for Mars, and ready to write the boldest chapter in human exploration.

Experience the thrill of launch, the challenges of life in space, the cutting-edge technology of NASA’s Artemis program, and the search for life that could transform how we see our planet, our past, and our place in the cosmos - as we prepare for humanity’s biggest step yet: setting foot on Mars.