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The James Webb Space Telescope hasn’t made as many headlines as climate change activism or some other relief bill, but its scheduled launch in October 2021 could have an even bigger impact in the long term. After nearly 15 years of recovery, Hubble’s promising replacement will scrutinize ancient galaxies and stars, possibly uncovering distant hospitable planets with ongoing life. Director Nathaniel Kahn’s “The Hunt for Planet B” places this perspective in a much larger context than the bureaucracy responsible for grounding the Webb Telescope all these years, showing how its success could galvanize a community of passionate astronomers. and eventually change our relationship to the universe itself.
Kahn, who previously directed the 2016 short “Into the Unknown” on the team behind the telescope, extended this project to. Kahn’s serious big picture isn’t always the sum of its parts: it lacks the awesome production values that make “Cosmos” so fun, and the gravity of astronomically sloping documentaries like “Nostalgia for the Light.” However, Kahn just has to point his camera at the right places to capture many fascinating details, as “The Hunt for Planet B” celebrates a community whose enthusiasm for the possibility of living on other planets is downright infectious.
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Carl Sagan may have popularized the search for alien life among “billions and billions” of stars on the original “Cosmos,” but the field has come a long way since then. “The Hunt for Planet B” details the eruption of the discovery of exoplanets – that is, planets in other solar systems – over the past three decades, and the imaginative possibilities involved in the confirmation. of their existence. It opens with an exciting CGI visit to one of the seven Earth bodies orbiting TRAPPIST-1, a dwarf star about 40 light years away, and therefore at the receiving end of audio signals sent from Earth. in the 1970s. Throughout the film, Kahn returns to this place through the reflections of various researchers as they work on a series of intriguing questions: How would possible intelligent life forms treat Earth through time capsule we sent them? Would they predict the future of climate change or discern the nuances of our culture?
These ideas sway alongside many others as the film moves from various observatories to NASA research surrounding Webb, providing a kind of extrasolar science guide 101. It discusses the quest to find planets in the “Goldilock Zone” », This heavenly sweet spot where life can exist, and considers the ramifications of discovering life elsewhere even if the researchers who discover it can never visit it themselves. Taken together, they show how the field forces open-mindedness on research rather than firm results, which is part of the reason why Congressional hearings rarely yield constructive results. In one, sampled from ephemeral archive footage, a scientist in a hurry to provide a timeline for the discovery of habitable planets says it could happen “within a decade.” But Kahn’s documentaries show why those deadlines are a red herring.
Instead, the film’s appeal depends on the degree of intellectual curiosity it elicits from its subjects. As such, he struggles through awkward acknowledgment of the many women he puts on camera, rather than allowing their accomplishments to remain as fact. Kahn forces the story to brutality in other ways as well, and his occasional offscreen presence as he marvels at his subjects with questions interrupts the underlying force of their observations.
These setbacks stand out, however, because people make such compelling numbers in the first place. Many of the talking heads of Team Webb, including Amy Lo, Gregory Robinson and Project Manager Bill Ochs, show how the project has evolved into a diverse team fully engaged in a new phase of astronomical research. SETI’s Maggie Turnbull and Elinor Gates add even more depth to the nature of the ongoing quest, though the bleeding heart of “The Hunt for Planet B” belongs to extrasolar researcher Sara Seager, who remembers the loss of her. husband and his impact on the quest for meaning in his work. She is the emotional backbone of a film that doesn’t always know where to devote its time, but which is a moving blend of intriguing inquiry and intellectual rigor every time Seager appears onscreen.
To its credit, “The Hunt for Planet B” above all cherishes the humanity of its characters. A clever framing device, built around an amateur astronomer setting up his equipment at Walden Pond, ends up connecting to a different thread in the narrative and leads to the touching finale. Everyone in “The Hunt for Planet” beams with pleasant enthusiasm for what they are doing. There is no noticeable conflict between them. Politicians who question the costly efforts to send telescopes into space would do well to consider the film’s argument for the sincerity of the scientific community, and the possibility that the same researchers who might find life on it other planets are the last strongholds of goodwill on this one.
Throughout this exploration, Kahn returns to the Webb regularly, with his vast golden mirrors moving around a huge lab as he prepares for launch. Above all, the film demonstrates the enormous resources on display by tying them to a genuine investment in current issues. When the telescope gets down to business, it may not provide firm answers for a world that demands immediate gratification. But it will provide plenty of reasons to keep looking, and “The Hunt for Planet B” captures a lot.
Category B-
“The Hunt For Planet B” premiered at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival. It is currently seeking distribution in the United States.
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