The Sun Dome

Ever wondered what makes the Sun shine? What process is capable of keeping it burning for 5 billion years and will keep it burning for 5 billion more? That process is fusion - and a tour through the inflatable Sun dome will answer all your questions! The journey starts inside the darkened dome with a high speed trip into the Sun - played as an exciting graphical animation above your heads. Here, the fusing of light atoms will be visualised, with an explanation of how this process releases vast amounts of energy and keeps the Sun burning bright.Now, with the interior lit up, the fusion process is explained further. Using the dome as an impromptu theatre stage, members of the audience are invited to 'become' atoms. With guidance from the fusion scientists on hand, they will be dressed as atoms and shown how to form the states of matter (solid, liquid, gas and plasma), how atoms/nuclei combine in the fusion process, what forces are at work and what energies are required. They thereby gain a deep understanding of the fundamentals of fusion as well as more general science themes relevant to the national curriculum (charges, atoms, forces etc.).For the final part of the journey, the lights are dimmed again, and a further graphical animation above the heads of the audience shows how fusion research is striving to harness this enormous source of power to generate electricity in the future. This will be put in the context of climate change and the continued use of non sustainable reserves of energy - again linking to broader national curriculum subjects (energy, environmental science etc. ).The Sun Dome will be a pioneering and fun journey of scientific discovery - touching on several aspects of basic science and the importance of sustainable energy to the future of the world.