This is a space story with a difference — where the space tourist gets lost in the Cosmos, enters the dangerous Asteroid Belt, but returns with the help of a Pulsar.

But this is not before experiencing the unknown. The 40-minute space show at the BM Birla Planetarium takes one through an exciting journey.

It all starts with a fantastic Voyage of the Universe on October 19, 2017 when the first object from outside the solar system crashes close to the Earth. The voyage begins at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazhakhistan.

The show

BG Sidharth, Director of BM Birla Science Centre, said: “The Spacecraft, after sighting the famous Kepler telescope, crosses the Moon and later Mars (Mangal). After spotting the Mangalyaan, India’s spacecraft, and the Rovers on Mars, the viewers in the Planetarium plunge into the Asteroid belt, known for its dangerous collection of thousands of rocks like objects or Asteroids.”

Disaster strikes when an asteroid hits the spacecraft and knocks it into the unknown Cosmos. The spacecraft is completely lost.

Luckily, the spacecraft finds a Pulsar, which is like a lighthouse useful for navigation. Through the Pulsar radiations, the spacecraft manages to steer back to the Solar System.

On the role of Pulsar, Sidharth said, “The spacecraft, after encountering Jupiter (Brihastpathi) and Saturn (Sani) and their moons, which are known to contain many secrets, experiences a space eclipse.”

Finding a nest

The Planet Saturn, rising on the horizon of one of its satellites, Enceladus, takes through the breathtaking Solar System.

The spacecraft crossing these planets and later the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud, home of comets, it proceeds towards the far- away stars, where it encounters the Voyager Spacecraft, which was launched in 1977.

Tuning into some of the Earth Sounds, which were sent in the Voyager, before approaching the wonderous Orion Nebula, a conglomeration of Stars and where a huge churning of clouds takes place. It is also a place where Stars were born. Sidharth said it is like a nest in which, Solar System is being hatched.

Referring to it as a showroom of Stars, he said the spacecraft passes through Pleides (Krittika) and detects radio pulses from the Crab Nebula Pulsar. The spacecraft then hurtles off and tries to land on some distant planets and the Alien world before exiting the Milky Way Galaxy. “Over the years, we would have done about 35 space shows and typically one such show runs for six months to one year. And this, developed by us, will be exclusive here at the Planetarium,” Siddarth told BusinessLine .

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