An asteroid the size of Mount Everest is going to hit Earth in the next 6 months. The result will be, if no action is taken, the end of the world. With this discovery begins the Netflix movie, Don’t look up, in which a doctoral student played by Jennifer Lawrence and her professor Leonardo DiCaprio want to tell the world about the terrible find. They begin by informing the president of the United States (Meryl Streep) and, for this, they have the help of Teddy oglethorpe, the head of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, played by Rob Morgan.
Does this position exist in real life? Who would play the role of NASA scientist from Don’t look up? In the first place, the Planetary Defense Coordination Office is a reality and is in charge of detect potentially dangerous objects like asteroids or comets.
In addition, they work on technologies that could avoid the impact by diverting its path or destroying the object. Teddy Oglethorpe is the head of this office and his real life counterpart is Lindley johnson, a lieutenant colonel who even has an asteroid named after him.
The ‘Armageddon’ theory is also not valid in ‘Don’t look up’
Johnson read and reviewed a first draft of Don’t look up long before it was released on Netflix. In interview with Time magazine, NASA’s planetary defense chief acknowledged that the Adam McKay-directed film has some inaccuracies such as the possibility of the asteroid being destroyed. The main reason is that when the object exploded, it would break into thousands of small pieces that could not be controlled either.
“Is hard to predict where all those pieces will go and it’s hard to make sure you’ve broken them into pieces small enough that Earth’s atmosphere can deal with them, “Johnson said. Armageddon and that, once again, it has been confirmed that it is not adequate.
This is not the first time that Lindley Johnson has talked about asteroids. The expert explained to the Tech Briefs medium that a volcano or a hurricane is much more likely to affect us, “It is a reality that an asteroid could hit the Earth”. He continued: “A lot has happened in the past, and there are still many objects that are approaching Earth’s orbit. So it could happen again in the future.”
What would the real life Teddy Oglethorpe do
Johnson also explained that all the asteroids that are detected are part of the record of the call Minor Planet Center (MPC). Comet Dibiasky from Don’t look up it would certainly have been in this database. What if, like in the movie, one of these potentially dangerous objects is found to be very close to Earth and could impact?
The head of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office clarified that despite the fact that an asteroid was millions of kilometers from us at the time of its discovery, in the future it may get closer and closer to Earth. That is why they need to have all possible observations on the object so that, with orbital models, they can project the possible danger up to 100 years from now.
The asteroid would never be a secret
Don’t look up it has a part of fiction when it comes to the discovery and treatment of the comet that would end the Earth. There are, however, some parts of reality such as the existence of the NASA Office. Also that there is a boss who would report quickly if an asteroid is discovered that could hit Earth.
“One of the things that gets a lot misunderstood is that this is all done in secret, that if we detect something that is heading for Earth, we would not tell anyone. When we predict that they will pass near Earth, anyone who has any probability impact, even if it’s just one in a hundred thousand, is listed on the NEO Study Center website. All of that data is available for people to see. “
Lindley johnson
He added that one of his team’s responsibilities is better get information to the public in regards to asteroids or comets. “If something is discovered, we are probably going to have a race to get the information through our leadership before the internet starts talking about it.” In Don’t look up, this information is explained by Lawrence and DiCaprio but their alerts are not taken into account. From his first television appearance explaining the existence of the comet are taken Internet memes and even comet deniers are popular.
The mission that would fight the comet of ‘Don’t look up
Lindley Johnson is NASA’s Head of Planetary Defense, a role that in Don’t look up It is occupied by Teddy Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan). If the film had been European, surely the counterpart in real life would be Detlef Koschny, the head of the same office but of the European Space Agency (ESA). Both the latter and NASA have put a lot of effort into innovate in planetary defense; in the last mission they have worked together to this end.
The DART spacecraft launched into space on November 24 and will be the first mission to actively carry out planetary defense actions. In this case, the goal is collide with the asteroid to try to change its trajectory towards Earth. In Don’t look upUnfortunately, this scenario never happens.
Kate Dibiasky also has her pair off the screen
Teddy Oglethorpe in the Netflix movie would be the closest thing to Lindley Johnson in real life. Kate Dibiasky, Jennifer Lawrence’s character, also has her peer off-screen. Amy Mainzer is a NASA astronomer who discovered, together with his team, the brightest comet in the northern hemisphere in more than two decades, called NEOWISE. In fact, this scientist was one of the inspirations of the creators of the film to develop the character of Lawrence.
In an interview with The Verge, Mainzer stated that he loved working with the film’s actors and that Rob Morgan (Teddy Oglethorpe in Don’t look up) is also a ‘nerd’. He says it as a compliment. “They themselves are really interested and passionate about science. And I also think they were very interested in portraying scientists as fully realized human beings, “he stressed.
“Very often in the movies, we see scientists as cartoons. Either they are some kind of joke, or they are evil or something that just doesn’t represent scientists as people doing a job and trying to do the job to the best of their ability. So this was really an important part of the movie. I hope people have an idea of who scientists are as people. “
Amy mainzer