To catch a comet

DVD - 2015

On November 11, billions of miles from Earth, a spacecraft orbiter and lander will do what no other has dared to attempt: land on the volatile surface of a comet as it flies around the sun at 41,000 mph. If successful, it could help peer into our past and unlock secrets from our very origins. The stakes couldn't be higher.

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Subjects
Genres
Documentary television programs
Science television programs
Video recordings for the hearing impaired
Published
Arlington, VA : PBS Distribution c2015.
Language
English
Edition
Widescreen
Physical Description
1 videodisc (60 min.) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 in
Format
DVD, region 1, widescreen; 5.1 surround.
Audience
Rating: TVG.
ISBN
9781627891998
Contents unavailable.
Review by School Library Journal Review

Gr 5-8-Hyperrealistic CGI sequences, with pounding music in the background (plus the occasional "WHOOSH!"), crank up the melodrama in this documentary about an interplanetary encounter between a comet and Rosetta, a probe constructed and launched by the European Space Agency. Along with visualizations of the tumbling comet and the probe in transit through space, live-action segments of scientists and technicians at work on Earth capture many of the 10-year mission's moments of suspense and triumph. Moreover, talking-head experts aided, at times, by virtual reality overlays explain the project's significance with clarity and infectious enthusiasm. Unfortunately, the documentary was completed before the most dramatic turn of all-the lander Philae's rough touchdown on the comet's surface last November and the devastating realization that the solar-powered craft had landed in a shadowed area. Viewers prepped and wound up for a big finish are likely to find the film's sudden cutoff anticlimactic. VERDICT This has its merits as a picture of science in action and also as a reminder that NASA isn't the only space agency in town.-John Peters, Literacy Consultant, New York City (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.