Starship Asterisk*

Fossilnole wrote:
I thought that voice of Phil Morrison sounded familiar:
he did all the physics movies that were part of the high school PSSC Physics program in the early 60's. Cool piece of work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Morrison wrote:

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<<After surveying the destruction left by the use of the atom bomb in Hiroshima, Philip Morrison (November 7, 1915 – April 22, 2005) became a champion of nuclear nonproliferation. He wrote for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, and helped found the Federation of American Scientists and the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies. He testified before Congress on the need for civilian control of nuclear energy, and participated in the Civil Rights Congress in New York and the Cultural and Scientific Conference for World Peace in 1949.

Following his political stances, Morrison's attention began drifting towards the stars. In 1954, he published a paper with Bruno Rossi and Stanislaw Olbert in which they explored Enrico Fermi's theory of how cosmic rays travel through the galaxy. Morrison followed this up with a review of theories of the origins of cosmic rays in 1957. A 1958 paper in Nuovo Cimento is considered to mark the birth of gamma ray astronomy.

In collaboration with Giuseppe Cocconi, Morrison published a paper in 1959 proposing the potential of microwaves in the search for interstellar communications, a component of the modern SETI program.This was one of the first proposals for detecting extraterrestrial intelligence. He conceded that "The probability of success is difficult to estimate, but if we never search, the chance of success is zero."

Morrison remained at Cornell until 1964, when he went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He remained there for the remainder of his career, becoming Institute Professor in 1976, and Institute Professor Emeritus in 1986. In 1963, working in collaboration with a student of his, James Felten, Morrison had investigated the effect of inverse Compton scattering, an important source of cosmic x-rays and gamma rays. At MIT, Morrison teamed up with Bruno Rossi's x-ray group there, and also with Riccardo Giacconi's group at nearby American Science and Engineering. Morrison became deeply involved in the exploration of the cosmos through its x-ray and gamma ray emissions. In a 1960 paper, he noted the similarities between pulsars and quasars. He returned to this in 1976, applying his model to the radio galaxy Cygnus A.>>

smurfpumper wrote:The furthest distance. We would have to have a way to see faster than the speed of light, and even then, we would have to see faster than the warping of the speed of light, to go further. This is the problem that boggles minds...What is beyond our horizons. I can't tell you if the universe is infinite, and if so - that it means it will be here forever....but I can tell you that the guy in the picnic should have picked a quiter place if he wanted to get lucky. What a dunce!

Ron-Astro Pharmacist wrote:
Maybe the sequel should be the “Powers of i” a journey into hyperspace then reverse into the past? Or is it vice versa? Guess that would be an imaginary film; its pre and sequel – all in one.

Markus Schwarz wrote:On the large scale the movie stops at 100 Mly, whereas today we have observations of the entire observable universe.

Jim Shea wrote:
This is a GREAT movie. But, it really is out of date. Wasn't an updated version made at some point? I would love to see the updated version.

Nitpicker wrote:This was their second version of the film, released in 1977. Believe it or not, I remember seeing it as a kid, broadcast on TV in Australia, in the late 70s or early 80s.