New Adler Planetarium sky show ponders the possibility of a multiverse — Chicago-style

Head to a planetarium — any planetarium — and you perhaps expect to see a charred space capsule, or grainy film of Neil Armstrong plodding on the moon, or the story of a bearded, 16th century-born Italian named Galileo who held the then-outlandish view that the Earth rotates around the sun.

In its newest sky show, “Niyah and the Multiverse,” the Adler Planetarium is asking visitors to embrace — or at least consider — the notion that we exist not in a single universe, but in a realm of multiple universes. The show debuts Feb. 17.

Is it possible, the film asks, that there might be another one of each of us — living beyond the reach of our earthly senses on another plane of existence?

The show’s creators say Adler is the first planetarium anywhere to explore multiverse theories in a movie production.

If it sounds like science fiction, spend some time in a few university physics department conference rooms, says Andrew Johnston, vice president of Museum Experiences & Collections.

“Some of the discussions that you hear even among professional scientists are really out-there discussions, but that’s sometimes where the math leads us,” Johnston says.

The Adler folks are very excited about their new production, its first all-new show since 2019. It cost about $1 million to make and features what they say is the most ambitious collaboration since the planetarium began producing shows in 2006.

They’ve brought in astronomers, cosmologists, artists, animators, storytellers and others from all over the globe — about 40 people in all, said Mike Smail, Adler’s senior director of theaters.

“One of the fun things is that this gave us the license to really be creative,” Smail said. “How you can imagine a universe with different laws of physics, where gravity works in reverse, where there are no magnetic fields — things that are outside of the bounds that we see?”

The production features a girl named Niyah, who lives in Chicago. She dreams of becoming an astronomer. Her imagination embarks on a journey that has her floating through the cosmos, but also traveling to the past to consider how the Ancients — the Egyptians, Nubians and the Mayans — used the heavens in their everyday life: creating calendars, growing crops, making predictions.

She also talks about a connection between the earthly life and an unseen world — “where the ancestors and spirit guides reside.”

“The comic books I read talk about the multiverse all the time. ... Is it possible: two timelines? Two Niyahs?” our heroine wonders.

The show isn’t heavy on equations and mathematical theory — for a reason.

“We didn’t want to go over people’s heads, especially with the show sort of aiming at a younger audience,” Smail said.

Or as Ytasha Womack, co-writer and producer on the project, puts it: “Some of our charge as writers was to talk about these theories and then look to depict them in a way where it’s a point of contemplation for kids and families.”

Womack, who visited the Adler as a kid, said the goal with Niyah was to connect her own personal story to those of her extended family and to her broader Black cultural heritage — all while considering the possibility that the universe might not be quite so singular.

“For us, the cool part was being able to talk to scientists. Some of these theories you can read about, but there’s nothing like actually talking to theoretical physicists who can break them down for you,” Womack said.