A virtual 3-D planetarium makes traveling light years into the g - KTIV News 4 Sioux City IA: News, Weather and Sports

It's housed inside this 16 feet tall by nearly 25 feet wide black igloo.

It will revolutionize how students learn about astronomy and science, according to Jim Christensen with Northwest AEA, an agency which works to improve

"When you can see the movements of the planets, the phases of the moon, and you can tell the change that happen in the night sky, Star Lab allows us to manipulate the time and places we view the sky from so that kids can understand the processes that are taking place," Jim Christensen said.

The set-up is fairly simple.

It's basically a laptop hooked up to a light that can project data, or images.

And it's all inside of an inflatable housing.

The idea is to loan out the mobile planetarium so schools don't have to foot the cost of buying the whole set-up, which is about 50 thousand dollars.

Christensen says, the planetarium will be traveling around northwestern Iowa schools.

So far, dozens of schools have already signed up.