The American Museum of Natural History in New York City is about to enhance the way we see our galaxy with its upcoming space show, "Encounters in the Milky Way". Narrated by none other than Pedro Pascal, the actor who's won over the internet with his charm and viral "Saturday Night Live" gig, the Hayden Planetarium Space Show is set to be a cosmic spectacle. According to a NBC New York report, audiences can expect a visual journey showcasing "the paths of stars, comets, interstellar debris, and visually stunning gas and dust clouds."
With the excitement surrounding the opening on Monday, the museum is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Rose Center for Earth and Space, where, the show will play at the Frederick Phineas and Sandra Priest Rose Center's Hayden Planetarium. The museum's president, Sean M. Decatur, emphasized the significance of this space show in a statement obtained by AMNY, saying, "Since 2000, our space shows have transported millions of visitors to the edge of the observable universe with increasingly sophisticated visualizations based on observations from groundbreaking space missions and leading-edge scientific models."
The show is a feat of collaborative efforts bringing together a robust team of astronomers, educators, science visualization experts, and artists. It offers insights from the European Space Agency's Gaia mission, which wrapped up in March 2025 after mapping nearly 2 billion stars in our Milky Way. Viewers will be taken through time-lapse simulations based on Gaia's new celestial atlas, as well as images from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. According to the information from AMNY, the show portrays "the dynamic history and future of our corner of the Milky Way."
Jackie Faherty, a senior research scientist at the museum and an education manager, told AMNY, "It’s a once-in-a-generation time in astrophysics as we are mapping our galactic neighborhood and learning the dynamic history and future of our corner of the Milky Way." Making the experience accessible, the museum provides English subtitles, transcripts, assistive listening devices, and in coming weeks, audio descriptions and translations in multiple languages for the space show.
Pedro Pascal adds to the allure of the experience. The actor, known for his role in the hit series "The Last of Us", has been dubbed by fans and media as "the internet's boyfriend". His down-to-earth personality and willingness to stand up for others, captured through many online forums and editorials, make his involvement in the space show a noteworthy addition, as highlighted by NBC New York. With Pascal's voice guiding the celestial journey, "Encounters in the Milky Way" could likely become as memorable as his on-screen roles.
