Dossier: Movie Science Don’t Research, How Believable Is The Scenario?

in a do not search, a satirical fantasy film directed by Adam McKay (viceAnd Big bet) Just finished catalog Netflix (review), astronomers Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio(e Kate DiBiasky)Jennifer Lawrence) discovered that a large, previously undiscovered comet is on a collision course with Earth and that the event that will lead to the extinction of humanity is only six months away.

Given the importance of having to act quickly, the two scientists then tried to make their important case before the foolish President of the United States, Janie Orlean (Meryl Streepand his despicable son/chief of staff Jason (Jonah Hill), but they drive them out by discrediting them. Only when the head of state gets embroiled in a sex scandal does she decide to put a “feel” of guilt under the lens of the national media in her last attempt to divert attention from the personal sphere and that some contingency plans (some good, some nefarious…) are finally in an effort to prevent the orbs from being wiped out. on the human race.

Beyond critical judgment on the film, look no further It raises many current and important issues hotly, including exactly how we will respond to the possible end of civilization and, perhaps most importantly, whether such an event is really possible, or even imminent.

For an answer, contact DenOfGeek directly Dr.. Amy Mainzer, the leading scientific advisor at Don’t Look Up. He was previously a senior research fellow at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and is now a professor of planetary sciences at the University of Arizona, specializing in studying asteroids and comets, particularly those approaching Earth.

It is strange that the conversation took place right after an asteroid was summoned 4660 Nereus (with an average diameter of 0.33 km) it crossed the Earth in its orbit at a distance of about 4 million km:

It is a “near Earth” type object. This type of approach occurs quite often, so it is not particularly rare. But in this case, the object is slightly larger. Its orbit is well known to us, so it didn’t really have a chance to collide, which is great. However, for many organisms that fall into this exact size category, we simply don’t know where they are. We haven’t discovered them yet. So it’s clear that our work has stopped to detect most things that are already large enough to cause what I would call “severe regional damage”..

The decision about what kind of celestial body would approach Earth in Don’t Look Up was based on realistic ideas about the size, speed, and energy level needed to create a catastrophic event for our planet:

You have deliberately chosen an object that is a “long-range comet”. It’s a comet that comes from outside the solar system and these bodies are already entering at an incredible speed relative to the Earth. It can be very large. I mysteriously designed the movie object on Comet NEOWISEdiscovered by our team last year.

Dr. Mainzer continued:

Sometimes there can be a very short period of time when we find one of these things as it gets close to the Sun, because it’s moving so fast… In the case of Comet NEOWISE, we discovered it in late March and early July. It was already getting close to the sun.

So, in this case, six months from discovery to approach — or impact [come nel film] – Realistic enough for this class of objects, which we definitely want to keep an eye on It’s incredibly unlikely that any of them will hit Earth, because space is so big.

One aspect of the work on Don’t Look Up that Dr. Mainzer found encouraging and new is the actors’ passion and interest in the subject:

There is a certain scene in the movie where he finally gets to say what he’s thinking. We talked a lot about it together and I told him:You really have to speak for the scientists, because we need to be heard and feel that we are not“.

The uncensored signal is the inability to listen on the part of politicians like President Orleans or even prestigious talk show hosts (played in Don’t Look for Cate Blanchett and Tyler Perry):

Part of it is linguistically challenging, because we scientists use terms that mean something very specific in mathematical and scientific terms, but in everyday life they can mean something almost entirely different. Think We also really want people to know, love and understand science, because it is so important in our daily lives.

Even if we don’t really think about it or really get to know it, science pretty much governs everything that happens all the time. He is always at work. Determine how the world works. The physical laws of the universe are just that. So it is important for all of us to understand how things work, or else we can’t make good decisions.

There is a long part of “not looking for” where denial From science enters the scene, with politicians and other influential people literally pretending that a comet will never hit Earth and even not exist.

As funny as it is, it is also frustrating in light of the ignorance and denial we keep seeing about long-term issues like climate change and more recent issues, like the COVID-19 pandemic. In this regard, Dr. Mainzer said:

Something like this has happened to me several times during my career. I know it has happened to many of my other colleagues, where you see examples of scientists who have been marginalized, either through conspiracy theories or through “special” interests… We can solve the asteroid problem.

I think the biggest problem, The thing that really keeps me awake at night is that we – as a society – have to trust science. We have to withA science nebulous enough to be able to use the tools of critical thinking, hypothesis testing and peer review to be able to make good decisions on a whole range of issues. We need to become a scientifically literate society.

Below – the notes Don’t get me down From the Electric Light Orchestra – Found full italian trailer not looking for, From December 24 In the Netflix catalog:

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source: DofG