Kansas Witness for Impact Earth

"Kansas Witness" for the NASA Immersive Earth fulldome show "Impact Earth"

A dramatic fulldome sequence for "Impact: Earth" initially for the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Burke Baker Planetarium and then as part of the NASA Immersive Earth Project, for licensed distribution. The story wraps around the idea that the Earth lives in a dangerous neighborhood... with rocks, large and small impacting our planet in the past, present and future. This scene is set in the mid US, Kansas area approximately 10,000 years ago. The museum, with the help of NASA scientists utilizing ground penetrating radar, unearthed a 154 pound meteorite. The discovery was reported on the Discovery Channel Weekly Science News show.

Museun scientists dated the find at around 8000BC and it is possible that early paleo-indians may have witnessed the impact. Because of the many meteroites recovered in the area and the pattern of their locations, it is believed that a larger meteor, upon entering the atmosphere, exploded and threw smaller rocks across what is today many square miles of wheat fields. Taking this information, Home Run Pictures' animators creeated a sequence where a lone paleo-indian, standing guard over his family's camp one evening witnesses the impact.

Research into what the scene would have realistically looked like involved creating a group of small leather-skin covered huts as well as clothing that the witness may have worn. The path and "splitting" of the meteor was designed from scientific theories that have been suggested by data of the locations of many other unearthed rocks.

The scene was created using Maya and Shake software. The fulldome planetarium show will premier in May of 2009, along with a display of the meteroite that was unearthed.

Click here for Quicktime movie of the Kansas Witness