At the foot of the Tree, at the edge of the Terrace, the PlanetObserver Centre
The PlanetObserver
centre (1000 m² on the ground floor and 3000 m² in the upper
levels) houses the site's general reception, bookshop, ticket offices,
coffee shops and tells the public about the different programs in the
various parts of the centre:
- spectacles and shows around the Dance of the Earth
- visits to the Earth Tree
- exhibitions in the centre
- exhibitions, debates
- The project house
The PlanetObserver center, which opens onto the Terrace, dialogues permanently
with the Earth Tree through a slit in its roof.
Certain parts are devoted to the origins of life and of the Earth, their
role being to explain to the visitor the Earth's long past, to enable
him to measure it's mystery and science, to apprehend the slow and astonishing
appearance of the mankind on this Earth.
The blue Planet
It is a full projection spectacle: in a 250 seat spherical room, around a 6 metre diameter spherical screen, the visitor takes part in conferences, audio-visual spectacles lasting from 20 to 30 minutes (retro-projected onto the translucent internal walls of the screen). Images as varied as continental drift, climate change, the greenhouse effect, transhumance, zooms on countries, seas, deserts, give the spectator the illusion of moving in space like cosmonauts, at 500 or 1000 km above the planet Earth.
The Terra Cognita database offers a general resolution of 30 metres/pixel (1/100.000 scale) and of 2.5 mètres/pixel (1/10000 scale) for the images SPOT 5 images which enhance the collection.
