‘Coral: Rekindling Venus’
We are excited to share that Coral Morphologic has contributed film and images to Coral: Rekindling Venus, a full-dome digital planetarium motion picture directed by artist Lynette Wallworth. Coral: Rekindling Venus explores the magnificence of the coral reef and its organisms in a high definition, 360 degree view with a score including Antony Hegarty and Christian Fennesz. The film premieres in twenty-four (24) planetariums around the world on June 5th, which coincides with the Transit of Venus. The movie’s title equates the significance of coral reefs in the 21st century to this historic astronomical event.
The transit of Venus occurs when the planet Venus aligns with the Sun and Earth, and Venus can be observed passing in front of the face of the Sun. The next transit of Venus will not happen again until 2117. The importance of this alignment was recognized by the famous astronomer Edmund Halley to provide the mathematical information needed to calculate the distance between the Earth and the Sun. While he was able to make a single measurement from the remote Atlantic island of St. Helena during the transit of 1676, he recognized that multiple measurements from across the globe would be necessary to gather enough information to make a precise calculation. The next transit didn’t occur until 1761, 20 years after Halley’s death, but this time expeditions were organized to take multiple measurements from across the globe. Scientists from multiple countries joined together, and wartime hostilities were set aside to allow their boats to safely travel to distant lands across the globe. Earth’s distance from the Sun, the Astronomical Unit, was determined in 1771 to be roughly 150 million kilometers. This is one of the earliest examples of science fostering global cooperation for the sake of improving our understanding of mankind’s place in the Universe. In Coral: Rekindling Venus, Wallworth proposes that in the 21st century, understanding the biology of coral reefs is a matter of global human importance, and that now is our opportunity to collectively unite in this mission.