Horizon

Immersive film at the Planétarium Rio Tinto Alcan

• Audience: 12 and up
• Experience: 360° fulldome
• Length: 29 min

Scanning the horizon in search of answers

Since time immemorial, humankind has sought to learn what lies in the hidden part of our vast universe. Little by little, scientific discoveries are revealing its secrets and pushing back the frontiers of the observable universe. Horizon explores the question of the expansion of the universe established by the astronomer Georges Lemaître and demonstrated by the discovery of cosmic background radiation—the first light in the universe.

In a fulldome screening at the Planétarium Rio Tinto Alcan, the film tells the story of the great astronomers of the 20th century and their roles in the evolution of cosmology, from an Earth-centred static universe to a potentially infinite one that has been evolving ever since the Big Bang.

Horizon was directed by Hiromitsu Kohsaka under the supervision of Eiichiro Komatsu, director of the department of physical cosmology at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany. The French version of the film was produced with the help of the team at the Planétarium Rio Tinto Alcan.

Featured in Horizon

• Henrietta Leavitt
  In 1912, she set out a new method of calculating astronomical distances that would forever change the way we see the universe.
• Edwin Hubble
  Using the Leavitt method, Hubble observed for the first time in 1923 that other galaxies exist beyond the Milky Way, thus pushing back the frontiers of the universe.
• George Lemaître
  In 1928, the Belgian priest and astronomer was the first to interpret the receding galaxies observed by Hubble as an indication that the entire universe was expanding.
• Arno Penzias et Robert Wilson
  While trying to solve an interference problem with their new radio telescope, the duo discovered in 1964 the most convincing evidence of the expansion of the universe: cosmic background radiation.
• Eiichiro Komatsu
  His current observations of cosmic background radiation show that invisible components determine the evolution of the cosmos, whereas the matter we are aware of represents just 5% of the universe.

Informations techniques

Awards and distinctions

• Best film
  Fulldome Festival Brno 2018 (Czech Republic)
• Honourable mention
  Jena Fulldome
  Festival 2018 (Germany)
• Best documentary
  Minsk
  International Fulldome Festival 2018 (Belarus)
• Excellent Technology Award
  JAAP
  International Short-Film Festival 2018 (Japan)

Schedule of shows