Planetarium shows are included with Daytime Admission, but capacity is limited for the safety of our guests and staff. Reservations are required and are available on a first-come, first-served basis: Please scan the QR code posted in the lobby as soon as you arrive for the greatest selection of available showtimes. If available, additional tickets will be released later in the day an hour before each showtime. We regret that we can’t guarantee the availability of reservations during periods of high demand, especially weekends and holidays. For more information, please view our planetarium FAQ.
Planetarium Show
Spark: The Universe in Us
Spark: The Universe in Us
Monday-Friday: 11:30 am, 1:30 pm, 3:30 pm
Saturday: 10:30 am, 12:00 pm, 1:30 pm, 3:00 pm
Sunday: 12:00 pm, 1:30 pm, 3:00 pm
Capacity limited, reservations required
Where did the building blocks of life come from? The answer lies in the hearts of distant stars and incredibly powerful explosions such as supernovae, which help spread fundamental elements to galaxies far and wide where they can spark new life.
Narrated by Diego Luna, the California Academy of Sciences’ all new, original planetarium film 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. Travel deep inside a giant star nearing the end of its life, witness the collision of stellar corpses, and experience the quiet demise of a star like the Sun. From the oxygen we breathe to the iron in our blood, the silicon in Earth’s mantle to the uranium that warms our planet’s core and helps give our planet its protective magnetic field, we owe it all to the stars! Journey across space and time as we explore the remnants of stellar explosions, tracing the movements of elements through our galaxy to understand how stars live, die, and seed the Universe with the elements to build new generations of stars, planets, and life.
Please note: Planetarium shows may not be appropriate for children under 7, and we regret that we cannot admit any child under 4.