Stellar update at Chicago planetarium

'Let's fly to Jupiter," suggests the director of the Grainger Sky Theater. "Can you turn on the asteroids?"

I am a spectator inside the remodeled Adler Planetarium dome, and I seem to be speeding through space, stars flying by, when the planet comes into view, ballooning larger and larger until it looks as though Jupiter might pop. I also fly to galaxies beyond the Milky Way and brush elbows with dark matter.

Earlier this month, Adler opened the country's most advanced star show, Deep Space Adventure, including multimedia interative exhibits. The centerpiece of the show -- "The Searchers" shown in the Grainger Sky Theater -- showcases not only our own solar system but other galaxies and the wider universe with resolution eight times clearer than the best digital cinema.

"The old star ball could tell the story of the night sky, but it didn't have the technology to take you beyond," says the director, Doug Roberts, as we watch Jupiter shrink back to a reassuring dot.

Created with digital technology unimaginable a few years ago, the 20-camera dome projects in a 190-degree arc above viewers' seats. It replaces 1970s technology that used a central mechanical ball, basically a metal box with holes in it.

Viewers sit just slightly reclined, not on their backs like at the dentist's office.

The galaxy unfolds around you, scientifically accurate and so flexible that planets and suns can swirl, constellations turn and even dark matter -- invisible to the naked eye -- can be depicted in dreamy patterns, based on the latest astronomical data.

The show is like being in a simulator without the dizziness of a carnival ride.

To anyone who last visited a planetarium 50 years ago, the advancements are stunning. Then, patrons would hear the grinding of gears as the star ball was projected onto a domed ceiling. The dome often had big seams and limited vision. Its shows would have featured Pluto, a planet that, sadly, was demoted to "dwarf planet" in 2006.

Back then, no one had even heard of dark matter and dark energy, which astronomers now believe make up a lot of the universe. Solar systems and galaxies and black holes were mysterious. No robots had mapped planets' terrain.

Speaking of dark, it is vital that a planetarium's blacks be really black, a downfall of most new digital systems, which tend to make black space look gray and fake. This one fixes that.

This new advanced dome, made of thin aluminum, looks seamless. The controls are computer screens and keyboards connected to powerful servers. And the resulting views -- of the Big Bang and the edge of the universe to our own Earth -- advances planetarium shows by light-years.