Skip to content
Home » Asteroids: Spark of Life? Documentary

Asteroids: Spark of Life? Documentary

  • by

Aired Wednesday night, and also available online- a PBS asteroid documentary:

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/asteroids-spark-of-life/
Nova: Asteroids: Spark of Life?

Earth started off as a barren rock. Somehow, it became inhabitable and inhabited. Here we see some of the possible stages in that process, courtesy of planetary scientists and their work. Short version: asteroids likely delivered their water and organic chemicals to a young, forming Earth. You know, water and organics as found by Hayabusa2 and OSIRIS-REx. This may have been just the kickstart needed, if not the start itself.

It’s a modern documentary, of course. Lots of glamour shots, occasional CGI, and in between the Ken Burns Effect. Nowadays, there’s at least one drone pan. The CGI of asteroids in flight may be a bit artistic instead of accurate, but that’s a minor issue. Comprehensive but bittersweet: they mention that the Perseverance rover has taken promising samples at Mars. Oh well.

Have a watch. It’s a nice documentary.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *