Tonally the show strikes just the right balance between education and inspiration. Lingering closeups, with the far reaches of space reflected in its impossibly mirrored exterior, put the focus on fantasy - not the glory and wonder of the universe. Abrams’ Enterprise - or looks through portals on the ceiling and floor, which give glimpses into the future or the past.ĭesigned by concept artist Ryan Church ( Star Trek Into Darkness), the ship is certainly a flashy piece of effects work, but it ends up spending far too much time as the focal point of the show. Inside, Tyson gazes intently out of its enormous viewing window - think the viewing screen on J.J. In the new version, the ship is realized as a shiny metal vehicle that zips to and fro, dodging asteroids and carrying out acrobatic flips. The same concept was used in the original, but Sagan’s craft was primarily just seen from the inside. The vessel he uses throughout the show is dubbed the "Spaceship of Imagination," a fictional craft that serves as a vantage point for Tyson and the show’s writers to zip around the universe. "It’s time to get going again," he says, before sweeping the viewer away on an exploration of our solar system. Opening on the same cliff in Northern California where Sagan launched his own show 34 years ago, Cosmos begins with Tyson sounding the call that serves as the program’s main theme. It’s hard to find fault with such noble ambitions, and while the presence of a new Cosmos is certainly welcome the initial episode tries so hard to appeal to modern audiences that at times it feels like it’s missing its own point: that the greatest wonders aren’t CG spectacle, but our own marvelous universe. It should come as no surprise then that Tyson serves as host of the new show Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, which debuts tonight as part of a major global event that will see the show simulcast across 10 domestic networks - with an introduction by President Obama, no less - before reaching more than 180 countries.Ī reboot of Carl Sagan’s landmark 1980 program, the new Cosmos aims to be a primer on the incredible grandeur of the world around us, lionizing the scientists that have made our greatest discoveries, and hopefully stoking the fires for education and learning in the process. Neil deGrasse Tyson has a remarkably consistent message: our future depends on a passionate embrace of science, and for that to happen, science needs to be cool. (from wikipedia.Whether he’s discussing NASA’s impact on our cultural psyche or emailing James Cameron about the night sky, Dr. This since has led to the core of astronomical spectroscopy,Īllowing astronomers to make observations about the composition of stars, planets, and other stellar features through the spectral lines, as well as observing the motion and expansion of the universe,Īnd the hypothesized existence of dark matter. The Bohr model) when it passed through atoms, with each atom having a characteristic signature due to the quantum nature of these orbitals. These Fraunhofer lines would later be determined to be caused by the absorption of light by electrons in moving between atomic orbitals (in the show illustrated by Joseph von Fraunhofer would later come to discover that by magnifying the spectrum of visible light, While findings of William Herschel in the 19th century showed that light also consisted of infrared rays. Work by Isaac Newton using diffraction through prisms demonstrated that light was composed of the visible spectrum, Tyson proceeds to discuss the nature of light as discovered by humankind. Tyson describes the work of the 11th century Arabic scientist Ibn al-Haytham,Ĭonsidered to be one of the first to postulate on the nature of light and optics leading to the concept of the telescope, as well as one of the first researchers to use the scientific method. With such early experiments from over 2000 years ago involving the camera obscura by the Chinese philosopher Mozi. This episode explores the wave theory of light as studied by humankind, noting that light has played an important role in scientific progress,
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