Transforming astrophysics in a planetarium: 'we are part of the universe, the universe is part of us'

When they create exhibitions, science museums are not just putting science on display; they are purposefully deconstructing scientific knowledge, values and practices and reconstructing these to create environments that appeal to their visitors. Here, we examine this de-/reconstruction process in the development of the award-winning exhibition Made in Space at the Tycho Brahe Planetarium in Copenhagen, an exhibition specifically designed to be inclusive to visitors across the gender spectrum. We trace the adaptive transformations undergone by astrophysics knowledge, values and practises as these progress through a series of workshops involving astrophysicists, designers and education researchers to finally become embodied in the exhibition. We use this data to identify the explicit and implicit notions about visitors and gender held by these stakeholders, and we discuss how these notions can be understood in the context of more overarching societal, institutional, disciplinary and pedagogical discourses