JPL and the Space Age: The Hunt for Space Rocks
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Published 2023-06-15
Every day, the Earth receives visitors from outer space: tons of space debris that mostly goes unnoticed. Some of these “shooting stars,” however, do survive the fiery descent through the atmosphere. That’s what happened to the dinosaurs 65 million years ago when a massive asteroid – or comet – struck Earth. But as the saying goes: "The dinosaurs didn't have a space agency. Fortunately, we do."
“The Hunt for Space Rocks” chronicles JPLs pioneering work to understand asteroids and comets as part of NASA’s larger effort to protect our planet from cosmic marauders. From JPL’s effort to mount a mission to study the most famous comet of all – Halley’s comet – to the lab’s current role in planetary defense with its Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS). The documentary drives home a clear message: We need to find the asteroids and comets before they find us.
Documentary length: 1 hour 52 minutes
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This is the 16th episode in the documentary series “JPL and the Space Age,” which uses rare archival footage and interviews to help tell the story of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s trailblazing role in space exploration.
Watch all episodes of the “JPL and the Space Age” series:
* JPL’s Website – go.nasa.gov/30U6gTa
* JPL’s YouTube Channel – • JPL and the Space Age
All Comments (21)
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JPL. Thank you for creating these documentaries and sharing them with us here. What an excellent way to highlight the numerous contributions JPL teams have made. Bravo!
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AS space nerd, I love watching and learning ,more and more about this space. BIG THANKS.
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Hands down best content created about asteroids and our current understanding and defence capability against its threats
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This is an excellent production! As a person who grew up watching those old school NOVA documentaries on PBS, in the 1970s and 1980s, this production is exactly my speed. If you like information dense, clearly produced, no silly frills documentaries, this is for you. This is a what educational video should be - highly informative, well structured, dense. Wonderful!
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So glad to see another fantastic documentary coming!
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The narrator is the same guy that does the Mass Effect codex entries. It has to be. Incredible voice!
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The DART mission certainly sits upon the shoulders of great scientists and engineers. Can't imagine that mission would be possible without prior work ans successes such as this. Such beautiful and wonderful work.
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Amazing set of documentaries… lots to learn from… please keep sharing your experience in this format… I am sure there are masses of science enthusiasts who will one day or the other definitely be looking back to this! Love from India 🇮🇳
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This has been a wonderful series, and this one had importance that comes literally close to home. You've done general videos on many Mars and outer planet trips. How about some love for Mariner 10, MESSENGER and the incoming BepiColombo--and why we've sent so few things there, and what missions might land something there. A Venus show would be naturally populated with Venera stuff, so perhaps a Mercury/Venus show? Thanks again.
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Shoemaker-Levy-9 I saw it crash into Jupiter with my own Eyes through a Celestron C14. The bigger than earth explosion clouds.... awesome and a one in a lifetime event.
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I am amazed how space research has progressed in my lifetime, I remember the Voyager missions and loved looking at the images when they were published and also the Mars Viking landers. I also remember at School a teacher said that Venus was most likely a cloud wrapped tropical water world inhabited by Lizard people floating on rafts, I was so disappointed when the Soviet Venera missions finally reached the surface and revealed the true state of venus, no Lizard people to visit. Anyway I hope to live long enough to see more exciting Space missions and maybe find life on one of Jupiters or Saturns moons!
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YouTube at it's very best!! This is very important science that can quite literally save all life on Earth!! Well done, JPL!!😮😊
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Thank you so much for the documentaries you made! Amazing videos! JPL, you rock!
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Humanity saving information and projects, every earthzen should watch and appreciate 👍👍👍👍👍
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This was a very informative video. It's nice to know there are teams of scientists working to keep Earth safe. Keep up the great work.
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Had No Idea how much additional problem solving and logistical Kung Fu the JPL Laboratory had to solve aside from the "planned" mission parameters of these Spacecraft. Great Stories, Well presented ! 👍 👍
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CGI is so good nowadays it is often hard to tell what is CGI and what is real footage. I think it would be a good idea for JPL to put a little CGI flag in the corner of the screen when we are watching CGI or REAL when we are watching real footage. The only YouTuber who does this that I know is Astrum. I think all documentary makers should do this, including JPL. I think it matters.
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thank god there is JPL providing uns with the finest in space documentaries! This is so in depth, one could think u guys actually work on this stuff ;)
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A huge thank you and deepest respect to the men and women who made this possible, and dared to dream it was even possible in the first place. It's a joy to watch.
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Awesome documentary, thanks a lot. It was fascinating, and the work done by JPL is so important.
