Hi everyone,
I recently watched the attached movie: Alien Planet. It is a fascinating film about extraterrestrial life, what it could look like and when we may find it. Alien Planet is an animated drama/documentary that takes place on Darwin IV, a planet 6.5 light years away from Earth. This fictional planet has two suns and 60% of Earth's gravity. Scientists send probes to the planet to find and assess any life forms on Darwin. The mission was originally conducted in search of microscopic life forms, but we soon discover much more. Darwin is in fact crawly with a diversity of life in all sizes. In fact, the planet is teeming with enormous creatures (100X larger than the dinosaurs) . I find this incredible that after originally expecting the most simple and microscopic of life forms we are instead shown that extraordinary, complex, large animals may be found as well.
I was concerned as to the accuracy of the film. This animated movie is not a documentary of real life, but of suspected life. Therefore, I cannot believe its contents as fully as I would have liked to. Although the information is all based on physics and mathematics, it is hard to conceive that there are such life forms living in the same universe as ourselves. I think the film would be a lot more realistic if the images were real (not animated) and the information was not fictional. It may be many, many years before we have recorded this kind of information.
The expedition is, however, inspired by real scientific missions such as the NASA Origins Program and the JPL Planet Finder Mission. This 94 minute documentary, based on the book Expedition by Wayne Barlowe premiered on May 14, 2005. Respected scientists such as Stephen Hawking and George Lucas feature in this documentary. Darwin IV is explored with probes, mini probes, and spider probes. Weather balloons are used to predict the forecast and warn the probes of any potentially threatening weather conditions.
This extraordinary film is food for thought and really makes you wonder about life outside our planet Earth. Perhaps we are not the only living creatures in our universe? Perhaps there are humans like ourselves on an identical Planet 5 light years away? I highly recommend this film to anyone who likes a thought-provoking, thrilling movie that challenges reality and science.
-Jessica
I recently watched the attached movie: Alien Planet. It is a fascinating film about extraterrestrial life, what it could look like and when we may find it. Alien Planet is an animated drama/documentary that takes place on Darwin IV, a planet 6.5 light years away from Earth. This fictional planet has two suns and 60% of Earth's gravity. Scientists send probes to the planet to find and assess any life forms on Darwin. The mission was originally conducted in search of microscopic life forms, but we soon discover much more. Darwin is in fact crawly with a diversity of life in all sizes. In fact, the planet is teeming with enormous creatures (100X larger than the dinosaurs) . I find this incredible that after originally expecting the most simple and microscopic of life forms we are instead shown that extraordinary, complex, large animals may be found as well.
I was concerned as to the accuracy of the film. This animated movie is not a documentary of real life, but of suspected life. Therefore, I cannot believe its contents as fully as I would have liked to. Although the information is all based on physics and mathematics, it is hard to conceive that there are such life forms living in the same universe as ourselves. I think the film would be a lot more realistic if the images were real (not animated) and the information was not fictional. It may be many, many years before we have recorded this kind of information.
The expedition is, however, inspired by real scientific missions such as the NASA Origins Program and the JPL Planet Finder Mission. This 94 minute documentary, based on the book Expedition by Wayne Barlowe premiered on May 14, 2005. Respected scientists such as Stephen Hawking and George Lucas feature in this documentary. Darwin IV is explored with probes, mini probes, and spider probes. Weather balloons are used to predict the forecast and warn the probes of any potentially threatening weather conditions.
This extraordinary film is food for thought and really makes you wonder about life outside our planet Earth. Perhaps we are not the only living creatures in our universe? Perhaps there are humans like ourselves on an identical Planet 5 light years away? I highly recommend this film to anyone who likes a thought-provoking, thrilling movie that challenges reality and science.
-Jessica
