This year's International Museum Day, organised by ICOM and celebrated annually on May 18, has the theme "Museums for Education and Research", highlighting the fundamental role of museums as dynamic educational institutions that promote discovery and access to culture. In addition to exhibitions, planetarium sessions and a lecture entitled "Can the sky fall on our heads", there is also a challenging museumpaper among the city's participating museums.
The Planetário do Porto - CCV is taking part in this initiative with other museums in Porto

> 10:30 – 19:30: ALL THE PARTICIPANTING MUSEUS
«Museuspaper»
Get to know the Museums of Porto on a peddy paper among the participating museums. For every riddle there is a right answer. At the end of each successfully completed route, yu´ll have a surprise wainting for you.
Ask for the Museuspaper passport at the Planetarium reception or at any other participating museum in the city.

> 10:30 – 19:30: EXHIBITIONS
Explore the Solar System at Scale
What if the Sun was the size of the Planetário do Porto dome? How big would the planets be? Why don't the real orbits fit in the Planetário? Come to the Planetário do Porto and explore the Solar System on a large scale!

«Meteorites: extraterrestrial rocks»
What are small bodies in the Solar System? How do some of them reach Earth? What are meteorites? Are there any differences between meteorites and Earth rocks? What can we learn from these extraterrestrial objects? Is it possible to touch pieces of the Moon, Mercury, Mars or Vesta without a spaceship? Come to Planetário do Porto to touch meteorites and explore the answers to these fascinating questions!

«From Earth to the Edge of the Universe»
What is the scale of the Universe? How would a journey from Earth's surface, with the VLT telescopes in Chile, to the edge of the universe look like, with the first image of the James Webb Space Telescope Deep Field? What does the Deep Field image show? Explore these and other questions in this exhibition at the Planetário do Porto!

«Solar spectrum»
What is a spectrum? How does a spectrograph separate the light from stars? Can we learn to "read" a spectrum? Does "reading" a spectrum reveal a lot of information? How can we determine the chemical composition of stars? Explore these and other questions in this exhibition at the Planetário do Porto!

> 11:00 + 15:00 + 16:00: IMMERSIVE ANIMATED FILM FOR CHILDREN
«Shapes in Space»
Did the Solar System take its inspiration from the shapes of a Ball and a Pizza? What shapes can we find in our Solar System? Join our Ball and Pizza on a space adventure!
In an immersive adventure for the little ones, come and help pilot our "spaceship" through the Solar System and beyond!

> 11:30 + 15:30: PLANETARIUM IMMERSIVE FILMS
«Solar System Adventure» + «CHEOPS: Hello Universe!»
Like passengers in a spaceship, we will travel huge distances in just a few minutes, exploring the main destinations in our Solar System.
CHEOPS: Hello Universe! In this immersive short film we are guided by the CHEOPS space observatory, which tells us a little about the history of detecting exoplanets - planets that orbit around other stars - and Portugal's great involvement in this area. It also explains the main detection methods and the main characteristics of the exoplanets known to date.

> 16:30: IMMERSIVE PLANETARIUM FILM
«The Sky of "Os Lusíadas"»
On an immersive journey, explore the sky of Os Lusíadas!
What links are there between the epic poem Os Lusíadas and the Astronomy of the time? What scientific knowledge inspired the verses of the poem? What was the night sky like that Camões seemed to know so well? What astronomical references can we find in the work? What astronomical events marked the author's life?

> 17:30 – 18:50: LECTURE
«Can the sky fall on our heads?»
What incredible stories do asteroids and meteorites hide? What are they and what are they made of? What dangers do they pose to Earth? What happened to the dinosaurs 66 million years ago? How did meteorites shape our planet? Could a similar impact happen in the future? How can we protect ourselves from potential space threats?

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See more information on the Planetarium program: www.planetario.up.pt/pt/evento/DIM2024
See the general program of museums in the city of Porto: https://cultura.cm-porto.pt/destaque/programacao