ESA: Planetarium Prag

The new exhibition Earth from Space lets visitors experience Earth from a satellite’s perspective and discover ESA and its missions.

On November 12, the anniversary of the Czech Republic’s accession to ESA, the Earth from Space exhibition opened at the Prague Planetarium. It is dedicated to the fascination of Earth observation and impressively demonstrates how satellite data shape our understanding of climate, the environment, and global change. The exhibition was conceived and realized by Ars Electronica Solutions on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA), in cooperation with the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

The exhibition design, lighting, and sound follow the “Science Experience” approach: complex concepts are made playful, tangible, and intuitively accessible. The project builds on the Φ-Experience developed by Ars Electronica Solutions for ESA, first realized at the ESRIN visitor center in Frascati.

Earth from Space – Grasping Knowledge

At the heart of the exhibition are interactive installations that combine scientific content with immersive visualizations. The Elevation Model transforms Earth’s topography into a shimmering play of light and form. Data becomes color, contour lines become stories, and geographic structures emerge as living landscapes. This height model makes local changes visible and invites visitors to explore topography and climate intuitively and interactively.

The Globe raises awareness of our living planet and presents Earth as a dynamic system, projecting atmospheric and environmental data so that global connections become immediately tangible. Visitors can explore atmospheric, terrestrial, and oceanic processes interactively and trace global changes over time.

The Touchtable combines a behind-the-scenes view of the sky with hands-on interaction with Earth. Like in a digital observatory, visitors can track satellite paths, explore missions, and experience the interplay of ESA’s space activities in the Mini Control Room. At the same time, the large-format Touchtable opens up the world like a living map: maps, satellite images, climate data, and animations become dynamic layers, making patterns, landscapes, and changes visible and tangible.

The experience is complemented by a central info screen, which provides insights into Earth Observation and helps visitors navigate the exhibition.

Together, these stations show how satellites deliver data and make changes on our planet visible both locally and globally.

A space for discovery – and for the future

Earth from Space combines science and design into an experience-oriented learning environment that sharpens our perspective on our planet. The exhibition is designed as a growing format: the Prague Planetarium already plans further expansions and content that will explore Earth observation even more comprehensively in the future.