Still from the Black Holes planetarium show

Black Holes

Journey into the unknown

What
Planetarium
When
Terms 2 and 4, Monday to Friday
Duration
45 minutes in the Planetarium
Curriculum links & Accessibility & Access Fund
Year level
Years 9 to 10, VCE
Minmum student numbers
Minimum 15 students
Maximum student numbers
Maximum 150 students
Cost
$9 per student + education service fee
Booking information
Bookings 13 11 02

No longer the stuff of science fiction, the discovery of the black hole has been a triumph of modern science – an incredible journey from imagination to reality.

Narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Geoffrey Rush, this curriculum-aligned Planetarium show traces the story of black holes from the 18th Century, through to their detection almost 200 years later. This spectacular show is for upper secondary school students and explores concepts related to physics, astrophysics and relativity.

Students will experience

  • A Planetarium film with fulldome projection and reclining seats
  • An exploration of how Black Holes were discovered, from theory to being observed and measured
  • The ways that mass can warp space, to prevent light from escaping
  • What would happen if you got too close to a black hole

Students will learn

  • That Black Holes have a mass so large that light can’t escape from beyond the event horizon
  • How Einstein’s theory of relativity connected gravity with the bending of spacetime
  • About the history of the discovery of black holes, including the ways that scientific understandings change over time

Victorian Curriculum links

Science: Levels 9 and 10

Science as a human endeavour

  • scientific knowledge is contestable and is validated and refined over time through expanding scientific methods, replication, publication, peer review and consensus
    VC2S10H01
  • advances in technologies have enabled advances in science, while science has contributed to developments in technologies and engineering
    VC2S10H02

Earth and space sciences

  • the universe contains features including galaxies, stars, solar systems and black holes; the big bang theory models the origin and evolution of the universe and is supported by evidence
    VC2S10U13
VCE Physics

Unit 2: How does physics help us to understand the world?

  • Area of Study 2: How does physics inform contemporary issues and applications in society?
  • Option 2.13

Unit 4: How have creative ideas and investigation revolutionised thinking in physics

  • Area of study 1: How has understanding about the physical world changed?

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