This engaging and inventive project offers the chance to view science as art, and art as science. What's up in the Universe? has as its central theme and goal a desire to help viewers understand the nature of the universe, and to recognize that we achieved this knowledge through a fascinating relationship between creativity and the hard work of scientific research. Among all sciences, astronomy has the greatest dependence on daring leaps of imagination and on the ongoing development of ever better technology.
What's up in the Universe? explores our own planet's relationship and similarities with the other planets in our solar system and ponders in a truly contemporary matrix the age old questions, "Are we alone? Is there life elsewhere in the universe?" Questions made more profound with the recent discovery of extra-solar planets orbiting sun-like starts and the new discoveries being transmitted daily from sources from beyond our own galaxy.
In the first segment, viewers travel with Nainoa Thompson, a Hawaiian native who uses a blend of ancient and modern techniques of navigation to guide his twin-hulled canoe to the island of Rapa Nui (Easter Island). His ambitious and dangerous venture parallels current journeys beyond Earth, and gives an overwhelming sense of adventure and thrill involved in exploration.
Dr. Robin Canup, both a well known planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado, and formally a professional ballerina, performs a ballet to elegantly and precisely demonstrate the gravitational nuances of the Earth-Moon system.
In the stark desert of Arizona, planetary scientist and artist Dr. William Hartmann, also our narrator paints his reditions of the landscape of Mars using examples on Earth to explain how scientists are able to deduce the history of a planet upon which they've never set foot.
Since there are a wide variety of atmospheric and geologial conditions within our own solar system, we can easily imagine that even more bizarre conditions may exist elsewhere. We journey with astronomer Dr. Tobias Owen to Big Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island where the steaming landscapes and molten lava flows are reminiscent of ancient activity on Mars - and the more current volcanic activity on the moons Io and Titan. We end with an exploration led by Dr. Geoff Marcy and Paul Butler on their search for extra-solar planets.
What's Up in the Universe? is produced and directed by Susan Friedman, with cinematography by John Chater and editing by Mahri Holt. The scientific director of the show is Dr. R. Brent Tully of the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Hawaii, who was also executive producer on the recent PBS NOVA show "The Runaway Universe. What's Up in the Universe? was principally funded by The National Science Foundation, with additional funding from Pacific Islanders in Communication and the Space Telescope Science Institute.
Though numerous other programs have dealt with astronomy and science, What's Up in the Universe? offers a highly inventive approach to presenting recent discoveries and concepts, while highlighting the wonderfully inquisitive and exploratory nature of the human spirit.
Human instinct is to explore, discover and dream. The question "Are we alone in the universe?" is ancient. What's new is that we are coming to possess tools that could give us a shot at answering it. Human identity is the fusion of understanding where we come from and understanding where we are going: then we may know who we are.