![Southern Lights](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Southern_Lights.jpg)
''A Beautiful Planet'' is a 2016 American
documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...
directed, written, and produced by
Toni Myers
Toni Myers (29 September 1943 – 18 February 2019) was a Canadian film editor, writer, director, and producer, best known for her 3D IMAX work. Her most recent film was 2016's '' A Beautiful Planet''.
Selected filmography
*'' Blue Planet'' (1990 ...
, and narrated by actress
Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Shrader Lawrence (born August 15, 1990) is an American actress. The world's highest-paid actress in 2015 and 2016, her films have grossed over $6 billion worldwide to date. She appeared in ''Time''s 100 most influential people i ...
. It was originally released exclusively for
IMAX
IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating.
Graeme F ...
theatres. Created in cooperation with the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding th ...
(NASA), the documentary utilizes footage recorded by
astronauts
An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...
aboard the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...
(ISS) over the course of fifteen months. The documentary examines how astronauts lives and work on a daily basis. The astronauts are representing the respective
space agencies
This is a list of government agencies engaged in activities related to outer space and space exploration.
As of 2022, 77 different government space agencies are in existence, 16 of which have launch capabilities. Six government space agencie ...
of the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
,
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, and
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
.
The documentary premiered in
Manhattan, in New York City, on April 16, 2016, and made its theatrical debut on April 29, 2016. The film was first aired domestically in the United States, grossing $15.6 million.
It was later aired in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Russia/CIS.
Content overview
''A Beautiful Planet'' utilizes large-scale cinema screens to display capital
cities
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
illuminated by
skyglow
Skyglow (or sky glow) is the diffuse luminance of the night sky, apart from discrete light sources such as the Moon and visible individual stars. It is a commonly noticed aspect of light pollution. While usually referring to luminance arising ...
,
lightning storms seen above
clouds
In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may com ...
,
Super Typhoon Maysak as seen from its
eye,
polar auroras viewed from
low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...
, the
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...
of North America locked in ice and snow, and
reefs
A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes—deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock out ...
below the surface of the
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...
.
The big picture
The film depicts views of space from the
International Space Station (ISS) of
geographical
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...
formations that may not be visible from land such as
annular lake
An impact crater lake is a lake inside a depression caused by the impact of a meteor. It is also known as an annular lake in cases where the water body is shaped like a ring, as many impact crater lakes are.
Examples
One of the largest impac ...
,
Lake Manicouagan in Quebec, Canada.
Scenes from the documentary show a snow-capped segment of South America's
Andes
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...
, the
longest continental
mountain range
A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...
in the world. The Andes stretch from
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
north of
the Equator, through the
Tropics
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in
the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...
, and down to southern Argentina, and contain "some of the most extreme
climate zones
Climate classifications are systems that categorize the world's climates. A climate classification may correlate closely with a biome classification, as climate is a major influence on life in a region. One of the most used is the Köppen climate ...
on earth. All between "
ice fields and
deserts
A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one ...
". The Andean Mountains includes
Aconcagua
Aconcagua () is a mountain in the Principal Cordillera of the Andes mountain range, in Mendoza Province, Argentina. It is the List of highest mountains on Earth, highest mountain in the Americas, the highest outside Asia, and the highest in the ...
, the highest
peak Peak or The Peak may refer to:
Basic meanings Geology
* Mountain peak
** Pyramidal peak, a mountaintop that has been sculpted by erosion to form a point Mathematics
* Peak hour or rush hour, in traffic congestion
* Peak (geometry), an (''n''-3)-di ...
in
The Americas
The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America, North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. ...
, as well as the highest in the
Southern Hemisphere.
![ISS-35 Iberian Peninsula](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/ISS-35_Iberian_Peninsula.jpg)
The movie presents Earth's driest and wettest areas with an overhead sequence of the
Namib Desert
The Namib ( ; pt, Namibe) is a coastal desert in Southern Africa. The name is of Khoekhoegowab origin and means "vast place". According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Namib ...
on the east cleft by the Atlantic Ocean's
Skeleton Coast
The Skeleton Coast is the northern part of the Atlantic coast of Namibia and south of Angola from the Kunene River south to the Swakop River, although the name is sometimes used to describe the entire Namib Desert coast. The indigenous San p ...
in the west. The film repeats the consensus that the Namib is the "oldest
desert
A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About on ...
" on Earth, having a
desert climate
The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...
longer than any other region in the world, and being around tens of millions of year longer than the
Sahara
, photo = Sahara real color.jpg
, photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972
, map =
, map_image =
, location =
, country =
, country1 =
, ...
.
The film begins with a
light-years
A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...
-long,
computer-generated trip through swarms of
stars
A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...
in the
Milky Way
The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye ...
; the compressed trip ends with the
Solar System
The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...
.
![ISS-46 Mount Fuji, Japan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/ISS-46_Mount_Fuji%2C_Japan.jpg)
The film uses
time-lapse photography
Time-lapse photography is a technique in which the frequency at which film frames are captured (the frame rate) is much lower than the frequency used to view the sequence. When played at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus ...
to depict how Earth's warming climate is causing the
Greenland ice sheet
The Greenland ice sheet ( da, Grønlands indlandsis, kl, Sermersuaq) is a vast body of ice covering , roughly near 80% of the surface of Greenland. It is sometimes referred to as an ice cap, or under the term ''inland ice'', or its Danish equiva ...
to melt, using footage of the
Jakobshavn Glacier
Jakobshavn Glacier ( da, Jakobshavn Isbræ), also known as Ilulissat Glacier ( kl, Sermeq Kujalleq), is a large outlet glacier in West Greenland. It is located near the Greenlandic town of Ilulissat (colonial name in da, Jakobshavn) and ends a ...
calving.
''A Beautiful Planet'' also presents images of large-scale deforestation in
Madagascar
Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...
. The film shows how this island suffers from widespread
soil erosion
Soil erosion is the denudation or wearing away of the upper layer of soil. It is a form of soil degradation. This natural process is caused by the dynamic activity of erosive agents, that is, water, ice (glaciers), snow, air (wind), plants, and ...
and
habitat destruction
Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...
of the island's
native wildlife, such as the
lemur
Lemurs ( ) (from Latin ''lemures'' – ghosts or spirits) are Strepsirrhini, wet-nosed primates of the Superfamily (biology), superfamily Lemuroidea (), divided into 8 Family (biology), families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 exist ...
. ''A Beautiful Planet'' also shows images of the
burning
Combustion, or burning, is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel (the reductant) and an oxidant, usually atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous products, in a mixture termed as smoke. Combusti ...
of the
Brazilian rainforest.
The film depicts multiple scenes of
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
and
environmental degradation
Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment (biophysical), environment through depletion of resources such as quality of air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; an ...
. Filmmaker Toni Myers told the ''Los Angeles Times'', "I wanted to inspire people especially as to how beautiful the planet is, how fragile it is, how
complex
Complex commonly refers to:
* Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe
** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...
and
diverse and varied it is ... Most of all I wanted to show why we want to find solutions to look after our planet. It's our only one."
Exoplanet Kepler-186f
The final scenes of ''A Beautiful Planet'' briefly examine an
extrasolar planet
An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...
(a planet outside of
our planetary system), which was discovered in 2014. The planet,
Kepler-186f
Kepler-186f (also known by its Kepler object of interest designation KOI-571.05) is an exoplanet orbiting the red dwarf Kepler-186, about from Earth.
It was the first planet with a radius similar to Earth's to be discovered in the habitable ...
, was the first approximately-Earth-sized planet found to be orbiting within its star's
habitable zone
In astronomy and astrobiology, the circumstellar habitable zone (CHZ), or simply the habitable zone, is the range of orbits around a star within which a planetary surface can support liquid water given sufficient atmospheric pressure.J. F. Kas ...
. The orbital area where
liquid water
Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a s ...
could conceivably exist without
freezing
Freezing is a phase transition where a liquid turns into a solid when its temperature is lowered below its freezing point. In accordance with the internationally established definition, freezing means the solidification phase change of a liquid o ...
or
vaporizing
Vaporization (or vaporisation) of an element or compound is a phase transition from the liquid phase to vapor. There are two types of vaporization: evaporation and boiling. Evaporation is a surface phenomenon, whereas boiling is a bulk phenom ...
. It was the first discovery of an Earth-sized planet on which
life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...
could reside.
![Kepler186f-ArtistConcept-20140417](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Kepler186f-ArtistConcept-20140417.jpg)
The name "Kepler" comes from its discovery by the
Kepler Space Telescope
The Kepler space telescope is a disused space telescope launched by NASA in 2009 to discover Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars. Named after astronomer Johannes Kepler, the spacecraft was launched into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orb ...
, or "NASA
Discovery Mission Number 10," a
spacecraft observatory which is designed to find exoplanets in our region of the
Milky Way Galaxy
The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. ...
that are Earth-sized and smaller, and that are within the habitable zone. The planet orbits
Kepler-186
Kepler-186 is a main-sequence M1-type dwarf star, located 178.5 parsecs (582 light years) away in the constellation of Cygnus. The star is slightly cooler than the sun, with roughly half its metallicity. It is known to have five plane ...
, a
red dwarf
''Red Dwarf'' is a British science fiction comedy franchise created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, which primarily consists of a television sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999, and on Dave since 2009, gaining a cult following. T ...
star about half the
size
Size in general is the Magnitude (mathematics), magnitude or dimensions of a thing. More specifically, ''geometrical size'' (or ''spatial size'') can refer to linear dimensions (length, width, height, diameter, perimeter), area, or volume ...
and
mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...
of the Sun which lies in the direction of the
constellation
A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object.
The origins of the e ...
Cygnus, about 500
light-years
A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...
away. The number "186" in the planet's name refers to the
order in which its
planetary system
A planetary system is a set of gravitationally
In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interacti ...
was discovered while scientists processed all of the data produced by the Kepler Space Telescope.
Although the idea of
interstellar travel
Interstellar travel is the hypothetical travel of spacecraft from one star system, solitary star, or planetary system to another. Interstellar travel is expected to prove much more difficult than interplanetary spaceflight due to the vast dif ...
to another planetary system like Kepler-186f is not feasible given current
astronautics
Astronautics (or cosmonautics) is the theory and practice of travel beyond Earth's atmosphere into outer space. Spaceflight is one of its main applications and space science its overarching field.
The term ''astronautics'' (originally ''astronaut ...
technology, some
spaceflight
Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly spacecraft into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in or ...
futurists
Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abou ...
(like
Samantha Cristoforetti
Samantha Cristoforetti, OMRI (; born in Milan on 26 April 1977) is an Italian European Space Agency astronaut, former Italian Air Force pilot and engineer. She holds the record for the longest uninterrupted spaceflight by a European astronaut ( ...
) find value in speculating about the currently-impossible.
The astronauts
The film's cast consist of ISS crew from many nations. The astronauts who appeared in the movie included:
Scott Kelly (
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
/ USA), who spent an 11-month uninterrupted stint aboard the International Space Station;
Samantha Cristoforetti
Samantha Cristoforetti, OMRI (; born in Milan on 26 April 1977) is an Italian European Space Agency astronaut, former Italian Air Force pilot and engineer. She holds the record for the longest uninterrupted spaceflight by a European astronaut ( ...
(
European Space Agency
, owners =
, headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France
, coordinates =
, spaceport = Guiana Space Centre
, seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png
, seal_size = 130px
, image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...
/ Italy), who has spent more time in an uninterrupted spaceflight than any other European astronaut;
Barry "Butch" Wilmore (NASA / USA), commander of the
42nd expedition to the ISS from November 10, 2014, to March 11, 2015;
Terry Virts
Terry W. Virts (born December 1, 1967) is a retired NASA astronaut, International Space Station Commander and colonel in the United States Air Force.
Background and education
Virts was born in Baltimore, Maryland, but considers Columbia, Mar ...
(NASA / USA), commander of the
43rd expedition to the ISS from March 11, 2015, to June 11, 2015;
Anton Shkaplerov
Anton Nikolaevich Shkaplerov (russian: Антон Николаевич Шкаплеров; born 20 February 1972) is a Russian cosmonaut. He is a veteran of four spaceflights.
Personal life
Shkaplerov is married to Tatyana Petrovna, and they ...
(
Roscosmos
The State Space Corporation "Roscosmos" (russian: Государственная корпорация по космической деятельности «Роскосмос»), commonly known simply as Roscosmos (russian: Роскосмос) ...
/ Russia), the commander of
the Soyuz spacecraft that brought Cristoforetti and Virts to the Space Station;
Kjell Lindgren
Kjell Norwood Lindgren (born January 23, 1973) is an American astronaut who was selected in June 2009 as a member of the NASA Astronaut Group 20. He launched to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of Expedition 44/ 45 on July 22, 201 ...
(NASA / USA), a
medical doctor
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
who had previously worked as a
flight surgeon
A flight surgeon is a military medical officer practicing in the clinical field of aviation medicine. Although the term "flight surgery" is considered improper by purists, it may occasionally be encountered.
Flight surgeons are physicians ( MD ...
supporting medical operations and space-station training at NASA's
Johnson Space Center
The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in honor of the late U ...
, and
Kimiya Yui
is a Japanese astronaut from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). He was selected for the agency in 2009.
Biography
Yui, from Nagano Prefecture, enrolled in the Japan Air Self-Defense Force after he graduated from the National Defense ...
(
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into orb ...
/ Japan), a space explorer who was made Head of the JAXA Astronaut Group after he returned from his stay on the Space Station.
Research lab
The International Space Station is a
scientific laboratory, and many of the experiments on the ISS have the astronauts themselves as
research participants to determine
how spaceflight affects the human body. On March 28, 2015
Scott Kelly and
Mikhail Kornienko arrived at the Space Station to commence a much-discussed
one year mission to study the health effects of long-term space travel. Scientists hoped to analyze their mission and discover ways future space explorers might adjust to the effects of
weightlessness
Weightlessness is the complete or near-complete absence of the sensation of weight. It is also termed zero gravity, zero G-force, or zero-G.
Weight is a measurement of the force on an object at rest in a relatively strong gravitational fi ...
,
isolation,
radiation exposure
Radiation is a moving form of energy, classified into ionizing and non-ionizing type. Ionizing radiation is further categorized into electromagnetic radiation (without matter) and particulate radiation (with matter). Electromagnetic radiation con ...
, and
stress
Stress may refer to:
Science and medicine
* Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition
* Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...
they would encounter in a 30-month-round-trip expedition to Mars, or in an even longer trip beyond Mars. Shortly after Kelly's arrival at the Space Station, ''A Beautiful Planet'' shows him participating in an initial examination of his
eye, to study and correct any
vision decline reported by many astronauts.
![Mark and Scott Kelly at the Johnson Space Center, Houston Texas](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Mark_and_Scott_Kelly_at_the_Johnson_Space_Center%2C_Houston_Texas.jpg)
Scott Kelly has an identical twin,
Mark Kelly
Mark Edward Kelly (born February 21, 1964) is an American politician, former astronaut, and United States Navy captain who has served as the junior United States senator from Arizona since 2020. A member of the Democratic Party, he was electe ...
, who is also a retired NASA astronaut. The brothers agreed to be the subjects of an unprecedented
twin study
Twin studies are studies conducted on identical or fraternal twins. They aim to reveal the importance of environmental and genetic influences for traits, phenotypes, and disorders. Twin research is considered a key tool in behavioral genetics a ...
; Mark stayed on Earth during Scott's eleven months aboard the ISS so that researchers could examine how an extended spaceflight affected Scott's body compared to Mark's. While Scott was in space and then continuing after he returned, both twins gave periodic
blood samples
In medicine, venipuncture or venepuncture is the process of obtaining intravenous access for the purpose of venous blood sampling (also called ''phlebotomy'') or intravenous therapy. In healthcare, this procedure is performed by medical labo ...
and
DNA swabs, and they underwent
body scans and many other
medical tests
A medical test is a medical procedure performed to detect, diagnose, or monitor diseases, disease processes, susceptibility, or to determine a course of treatment. Medical tests such as, physical and visual exams, diagnostic imaging, genetic te ...
. In the epilogue to his 2017 book about the year long mission, Scott wrote that the very preliminary assessments of the data from the mission and from the twin study were promising:
In the taste test phase of an
experiment
An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into Causality, cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome oc ...
with
space farming, Kelly and his fellow
Expedition 44
Expedition 44 was the 44th expedition to the International Space Station. It commenced with the departure of Soyuz TMA-15M from the ISS with the Expedition 42/ 43 crew on 11 June 2015, and ended with the departure of Soyuz TMA-16M on 11 September ...
crew-members
Kjell Lindgren
Kjell Norwood Lindgren (born January 23, 1973) is an American astronaut who was selected in June 2009 as a member of the NASA Astronaut Group 20. He launched to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of Expedition 44/ 45 on July 22, 201 ...
and
Kimiya Yui
is a Japanese astronaut from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). He was selected for the agency in 2009.
Biography
Yui, from Nagano Prefecture, enrolled in the Japan Air Self-Defense Force after he graduated from the National Defense ...
are shown sampling red
romaine lettuce
Romaine or cos lettuce (''Lactuca sativa'' L. var. ''longifolia'') is a variety of lettuce that grows in a tall head of sturdy dark green leaves with firm ribs down their centers. Unlike most lettuces, it is tolerant of heat. In North America, ...
that was grown in the Space Station's
"Veggie" (or Vegetable Production) System. The Veggie series of experiments are designed to ensure that future explorers visiting
the Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the List of natural satellites, fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth ( ...
,
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...
or an
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere.
...
have access to
fresh produce, and also to provide them with an opportunity for
relaxation and relief from
stress
Stress may refer to:
Science and medicine
* Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition
* Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...
or
boredom
In conventional usage, boredom, ennui, or tedium is an emotional and occasionally psychological state experienced when an individual is left without anything in particular to do, is listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occu ...
.
Earth observatory
![ISS-42 Samantha Cristoforetti in the Cupola](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/ISS-42_Samantha_Cristoforetti_in_the_Cupola.jpg)
''A Beautiful Planet'' provides close-up footage of the ''
Cupola
In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome.
The word derives, via Italian, from ...
'', a domed, 360 degree observation bay on the
nadir
The nadir (, ; ar, نظير, naẓīr, counterpart) is the direction pointing directly ''below'' a particular location; that is, it is one of two vertical directions at a specified location, orthogonal to a horizontal flat surface.
The direc ...
(Earth-facing) side of the Station's
''Tranquility'' module / Node 3. It has seven windows in total, with six outwardly-angled windows arranged around a central, circular window which faces directly toward Earth. The circular window measures 80 centimeters in diameter; it is the largest window ever sent into space. Many scenes were filmed from the ''Cupola'', and the astronauts themselves are shown taking photographs and gazing through its windows at views of Earth.
The Cupola was constructed by the European Space Agency for the utilitarian purpose of giving astronauts a workstation where they could observe the Earth, the exterior of the Station, visiting vehicles, and the operation of the ISS robotic arms. It also serves as a rejuvenation area where astronauts can relax and seek inspiration, including communicating with other crew members.
Training facility
Much of the "training facility" aspect of the ISS mission is geared toward providing practical experience so that astronauts,
space agencies
This is a list of government agencies engaged in activities related to outer space and space exploration.
As of 2022, 77 different government space agencies are in existence, 16 of which have launch capabilities. Six government space agencie ...
,
aerospace engineers
Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is si ...
and
scientists
A scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences.
In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosophica ...
are prepared for much longer space missions, including a possible
human presence on Mars or
the Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the List of natural satellites, fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth ( ...
.
Astronauts on the Space Station are required to spend approximately two hours each day engaged in
physical training
Physical fitness is a state of health and well-being and, more specifically, the ability to perform aspects of sports, occupations and daily activities. Physical fitness is generally achieved through proper nutrition, moderate-vigorous physical ...
to prevent
loss of bone density,
muscle atrophy
Muscle atrophy is the loss of skeletal muscle mass. It can be caused by immobility, aging, malnutrition, medications, or a wide range of injuries or diseases that impact the musculoskeletal or nervous system. Muscle atrophy leads to muscle weakness ...
, and
weightlessness
Weightlessness is the complete or near-complete absence of the sensation of weight. It is also termed zero gravity, zero G-force, or zero-G.
Weight is a measurement of the force on an object at rest in a relatively strong gravitational fi ...
. In the documentary, Terry Virts is shown receiving a
cardiovascular workout by running on
an ISS treadmill and Samantha Cristoforetti does
strength training
Strength training or resistance training involves the performance of physical exercises that are designed to improve strength and endurance. It is often associated with the lifting of weights. It can also incorporate a variety of training te ...
using an ISS
exercise machine
An exercise machine is any machine used for physical exercise. These range from simple spring-like devices to computerized electromechanical devices to recirculating-stream swimming pools. Most exercise machines incorporate an ergometer. An ergome ...
that mimics
weightlifting exercises. Both machines have adaptations that permit them to function in a
micro-g environment
The term micro-g environment (also μg, often referred to by the term microgravity) is more or less synonymous with the terms ''weightlessness'' and ''zero-g'', but emphasising that g-forces are never exactly zero—just very small (on the I ...
. The treadmill has a harness and bungee cord straps that keep astronaut runners from floating away from it, and the "weightlifting" machine replaces the weights (which don't "
weigh" anything in
orbit
In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as a p ...
) with two canisters that create small
vacuums
A vacuum is a space devoid of matter. The word is derived from the Latin adjective ''vacuus'' for "vacant" or "void". An approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure much less than atmospheric pressure. Physicists often dis ...
against which exercising astronauts can pull.
![ISS-42 EVA-1 (a) Barry](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/ISS-42_EVA-1_%28a%29_Barry_%22Butch%22_Wilmore.jpg)
The Space Station is positioned in
low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...
. This is just outside of the Earth's appreciable
atmosphere
An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A s ...
, and provides a training area in which astronauts can put on
space suits
A space suit or spacesuit is a garment worn to keep a human alive in the harsh environment of outer space, vacuum and temperature extremes. Space suits are often worn inside spacecraft as a safety precaution in case of loss of cabin pressure, ...
, leave the ISS
life support system
A life-support system is the combination of equipment that allows survival in an environment or situation that would not support that life in its absence. It is generally applied to systems supporting human life in situations where the outsid ...
s behind, and conduct spacewalks - or "
Extravehicular activity (EVA)." An EVA may be undertaken to
make repairs,
reconfigure the Station to accommodate new modules and deploy new equipment. The ISS orbits high enough to permit an astronaut and their sponsoring nation to gain an EVA experience outside of the atmosphere. However, it is low enough to avoid the
increased radiation exposure and prevent difficulties associated with climbing further out of Earth's
gravity well
The Hill sphere of an astronomical body is the region in which it dominates the attraction of satellites. To be retained by a planet, a moon must have an orbit that lies within the planet's Hill sphere. That moon would, in turn, have a Hill sp ...
. (If the Earth is compared to a 16-inch beach ball, the orbit of the ISS would be about half an inch above the beach ball's surface.)
Butch Wilmore and Terry Virts performed
three spacewalks over a nine-day period from February 21 to March 1, 2015. The film depicts some of their EVA activities outside the Space Station. While they worked, both explorers were cognizant of the dangers associated with spacewalks. Virts explains that a puncture to their
EMU spacesuits was a particular concern because "you 'walk around' by grabbing onto things with your gloves ... The outside of the Space Station
sa jungle of wires and equipment and metal bars and trusses. If you accidentally sliced your glove or your spacesuit on one of the sharp edges, that could create a leak, and if that leak were big enough, you would die." Describing some of the other EVA hazards, Wilmore elaborates that the temperature is "almost 300 degrees
ahrenheiton the Sun side of the Space Station,
ut whenyou get in the shade, it's minus 275 degrees. You feel that inside the suit. My fingertips in the sunlight would feel like they were on fire almost ...
lso,you have a safety tether attached to the Station, and it's on a reel ... You can be upside down, twisted, inverted; you can completely lose your spatial awareness about where you are and what your altitude is, and you can easily get tangled up in that safety tether if you're not cautious. Every single movement you make, you're making an effort to think
hingsthrough."
Production
''A Beautiful Planet'' was written, produced, and directed by
Toni Myers
Toni Myers (29 September 1943 – 18 February 2019) was a Canadian film editor, writer, director, and producer, best known for her 3D IMAX work. Her most recent film was 2016's '' A Beautiful Planet''.
Selected filmography
*'' Blue Planet'' (1990 ...
, who has created seven other space-themed IMAX films including ''
Hubble 3D
''Hubble'' (also known as ''Hubble 3D'', ''IMAX: Hubble'', or ''IMAX: Hubble 3D'') is a 2010 American documentary film about Space Shuttle missions to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. It is narrated by the actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
...
'' and ''
Space Station 3D
''Space Station 3D'' (simply known as ''Space Station'' in 2D format) is a 2002 Canadian-American 3D short documentary film about the International Space Station written, produced, edited and directed by Toni Myers. Narrated by Tom Cruise, it ...
''. The film premiered in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
on April 16, 2016, and was released in cinemas on April 29, 2016.
Despite being announced as distributor,
Walt Disney Studios later removed association with the film prior to its release.
[
]
Digital IMAX cameras
The astronauts who filmed the movie used digital IMAX cameras, and much of the footage they produced was shot through the seven window panes on the Space Station's domed ''Cupola'' module. The use of digital cameras permitted cinematographer James Neihouse to review image sequences almost immediately and make suggestions for retakes, and was a lightweight alternative to using IMAX film which can be developed only when returned from space.
Myers and Neihouse coordinated with their astronaut camera crew to make use of the digital cameras' augmented capacity for filming in dim light. According to Myers, "We would not have the nighttime scenes without the digital dynamic range ... What the digital capture did was totally open up that night world to us, with stars, cities at night, lightning and other phenomena that you see at night, like aurora."
Reception
This movie received a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 79% audience-enjoyment rating from the 13 reviews.
The film's ratings and reviews were mostly centered around its cinematography
Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography.
Cinematographers use a lens to focu ...
. A review in the British newspaper, ''The Guardian'' called it a "large-format eye-opener hich
Ij ( fa, ايج, also Romanized as Īj; also known as Hich and Īch) is a village in Golabar Rural District, in the Central District of Ijrud County, Zanjan Province, Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also ...
achieves a breathtaking new perspective on Earthly life," while another appraisal in ''The New York Times'' asked, "how can your eyes not bug out when given 3-D views of Earth, taken from space, on a stories-high MAXscreen?"
See also
*List of films featuring space stations
There is a body of films that feature space stations. Science fiction films have featured both real-life space stations such as the International Space Station and ''Mir'' as well as fictional ones such as the Death Star and the Satellite of Love. ...
References
External links
''A Beautiful Planet'' official website
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beautiful Planet, A
2016 films
Documentary films about the space program of the United States
Documentary films about outer space
Films about astronauts
Films shot in space
IMAX short films
2016 3D films
2016 documentary films
American 3D films
3D short films
Earth in film
Documentary films about nature
Films directed by Toni Myers
IMAX documentary films
Films scored by Maribeth Solomon
Films scored by Micky Erbe
3D documentary films
2010s English-language films