Astronomer Explains 'Don't Look Up' Comet Scenes | WIRED

It's the end of the world in "Don't Look Up," and it's all thanks to a comet heading straight towards Earth. Dr. Amy Mainzer, a science consultant on "Don't Look Up," breaks down a few scenes from the film and explores the science behind near-Earth objects.


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[HarBosSar]

She explained everything well. But one thing remains a mystery. *He's a 3-star General. He works for the Pentagon. Why would he charge us for free snacks...*

[julesgaskarth]

not only she's smart.. seems like she also has some media training done

[Iexpedite]

I’m glad there are people like her out there.

[easypimpin]

This movie satirized modern society perfectly. “Don’t look up” is a sharp line that hilariously sums up human beings. People will believe whatever makes them feel better and literally refuse to “look up”. Lol

[maddashecho]

Dr. Mainzer has a great way of explaining the subject. A few times while watching her I got the sense that she was channeling Carl and it made me fondly recall how much I enjoyed hearing him explain just about anything. Would love to see Dr. Mainzer have a series of her very own. Great stuff!

[sappyog]

The real question is: Why didn't he just give the snacks for free?

[andrewlim]

Good to know that the producers did a good deal of research on the comet and consulted an astronomer.

[goodenergi]

humanity's technology has evolved so much its honestly crazy to think we can intentionally stop asteroids.

[simmzzzz]

The real question is: How many of these known asteroids are made of valuable materials?

[GETitHOWuLIVit]

Yeah you would most likely use a computer to do the math irl, but they explain this in the movie- it was more "fun" to find the trajectory by hand (and the professor was using it as a teaching moment to answer his student's question). Thanks for your contribution to a great film, and for making this informative YouTube video!

[Skeptic_Tank]

the fact that this movie collaborated with professionals of the field is just great to see.

[DLegato]

This has always been a fear of mine... Literally like some one ripped a dream I've been having for years and made a movie out of it. Thanks to Dr. Mainzer's explanation of our current plans for such events, I might actually stop having bad endings to those dreams.

[bored_grape]

The ending of this movie was awesome and very realistic.

[MurCurieux]

Super well spoken - always gotta appreciate a great communicator.

[Ranveer_sangha]

I love her smartness since 2011 when I first time saw her in history channel series called THE UNIVERSE ✨

[saturdaysequalsyouth]

"No chance of impact." --Dinosaurs

[bobduncan]

It makes me realize how trivial the disagreements our "intelligent" species have. Time is a gift. Bless you all and count yours daily.

[SweetBerryWine]

I heart Dr. Mainzer! She's the astronomer featured in the PBS Kids Show "Ready, Jet, Go!".
Nice to see her here. Great stuff.
Fingers crossed that we never need to do more than collect data about near-earth objects.

[randomobserver]

4:52 was encouraging. I'm 51 years old and have clearly not kept up. When I was younger, the idea we could actually do anything about a potential comet impact was still being considered pure science fiction- ICBMs couldn't have the right range or launch angle, allegedly, and we didn't have the ability to send a spacecraft under enough power or with enough precision even to do a kinetic bump. I'm not entirely sure why this seemed to be the dominant perspective, since "we" had sent spacecraft to Mars with mixed success and out of the system entirely, albeit at longer timespans. Maybe it was just the low-orbit fixation of NASA and the absence of any Saturn rockets suggested to the general commentariat that anything outside LEO was impractical if it wasn't a long term science mission with ten years of planning and a defined launch window.

[randomobserver]

This whole video was shockingly informative and well presented!