Born from dying stars, it was sculpted by violent collisions in space. Yet, in an epic journey, this hostile ball of molten rock transformed itself into a nurturing environment. From it emerged forms of life, none of which have been found anywhere else in the universe.
That planet is not millions of light years away either. You are standing on it right now. It is Earth.
Using pioneering visual effects based on simulations grounded in the latest real science data The Story of Earth presents ground-breaking giant screen images that takes you as close as you may ever come to witnessing the dawn of our planet.
Fast-forward 4 billion years to the world as we know it today, and follow a team of acclaimed geologists as they search for clues to help explain how the conditions arose that make our planet so unique, unlike any other we know of in the universe.
Part space film, part science detective story, The Story of Earth is a big science story about our small world. It centers on how contemporary geology has potentially led to a new understanding of how life on Earth came to be.
The Story of Earth is an Australian documentary for Giant Screen and IMAX, narrated by Rachel ward, directed by Russell Scott, and written by Scott and Wain Fimeri.
The Subaru Giant Screen Experience is included with paid admission and free for members.
Originally, Earth was an inferno, impossibly hostile to life. Over billions of years, it transformed from an inhabitable ball of molten rock into a paradise covered with oceans of water.
Rocks collected from the moon’s surface during the first moon landing in 1969 told us that the Earth and Moon shared a common beginning. In the early days of the solar system, the Earth collided with a smaller planet as they orbited around the Sun. The Earth was almost completely obliterated, but it reformed. Other debris from the collision reformed in space, captured in orbit around the Earth and becoming our Moon.
Stromatolites are made by microbes, which are among the earliest forms of life on Earth. The Earth’s atmosphere was toxic and rich in carbon dioxide. For two billion years, the microbes produced oxygen, slowly changing the atmosphere from a noxious wasteland into one where life was able to flourish and evolve.
Active volcanoes play a crucial role in making our Earth habitable. When they erupt, they release greenhouse gases like ozone and carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. In the right amounts, these gases blanket the Earth and keep it at the right temperature to make life possible.
The Earth’s tectonic plates create a greenhouse gas recycling system, making sure the temperature doesn’t skyrocket from the atmosphere becoming too thick. Venus does not have tectonic plates to recycle greenhouse gases, meaning the atmosphere is thick and the planet is extremely hot.
The Earth’s molten iron core creates huge magnetic fields that deflect the solar radiation from the Sun; this invisible barrier is called the magnetosphere. The magnetosphere also creates auroras (also known as the northern lights or aurora australis).