Tonight at 8:00 p.m (though check your local listings) the show "Naked Science " on the National Geographic channel will have an episode called "How to Kill a Planet". Someone you know and read will be on it. Here’s a preview (an ad plays for 18 seconds).
The opening few seconds are funny; that must be the tail end of the Niagara Falls footage we shot, and they put it in the clip because of the voiceover segue. We filmed that in November, and it was about -8 Celsius outside… and the first thing in the morning we did: a helicopter ride. Standing on Canadian ground at 08:00 in subfreezing weather with a 60 kph wind in my face from the rotor chop was a tad unpleasant, but the I’m hoping the footage we got was worth it.
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I actually have lots of other footage I shot myself (hmmm, literally in one case) I’ll post soon with some back story. I’ve done a few standup documentary interviews before, but this was easily the coolest and most fun I’ve had doing one. I can’t wait to see the show tonight! [Update: Hey, Clifford is in the show too! Cool.]
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:16 am
I dunno, Phil. The “Wow” wasn’t really convincing.
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:21 am
Wow, Phil, I had to do a double take! I rarely yearn for cable TV, but I sincerely regret not having it tonight.
So not only are you on TV, looking like you belong there, but you are on TV blowing stuff up!!! Mythbusters beware!
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:28 am
Nice! Too bad Directv charges both an arm and a leg for the package that includes the NGC.
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:32 am
Wait, there’s ad playing before a preview, which is basically just an ad? There’s something wrong with that.
Meanwhile I don’t get Nat Geo, so I guess I shouldn’t waste my time watching it and make this inane blog comment instead.
Geez, I’m in a sour mood today! (Or sour grapes, you decide)
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:37 am
Oh, and one quibble. We don’t need to drill a hole to the center of the Earth. All we need to do is get the material to the arctic, enter the cave that leads down into the hollow center of the planet, and deposit the stuff. No drilling required. Sheesh, Phil, haven’t you learned anything about this planet of ours? Oh, and what does this have to do with astronomy?
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 am
Bigfoot:
You didn’t see the “make diamonds at home” episode, did you? They used 5,000 pounds of “high explosives” in one blast. (The cement truck was “only” 800 pounds.)
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:04 am
That looks cool. Wish I had the National Geo channel. Argh!
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:07 am
My wife kept asking me why I hacked in a web server to my Tivo. Well I’m still in NY and was able to add this show to the “To Do” list, that’s why wife.
Looking forward to the show.
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:16 am
COOOOOoooooooooOOOOOOL!
That looked like you were having way too much fun!
Wish I could see the show
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:17 am
No way! The BA and Lawrence Krauss together on the same show!? I’d better have access to this channel!!!
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:24 am
Were Phil Plait and Michael Ivins of The Flaming Lips separated at birth?
http://www.stage2.com/plait_ivins.jpg
J. D.
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:24 am
Looks like a great show.
Alas with no Pay-TV and over here in Oz I won’t be able to see it. ‘Least not until it comes down under – Hope that’ll happen one day but not holding my breath.
Any chance you might see if you can arrange for us to get it on ABC or SBS TV Oz BA!?
Now I’m NOT keen on doing this experiment on Earth but maybe an anti-matter bomb used for Venus or Mars … ??
It might be just the ticket to remove the thick, suffocating, toxic atmosphere from the former and nicely heat up the latter if done in the “let it fall back & cool down again” variety anti-matter bomb …
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:28 am
Oh there was a great website I saw a while ago (last year sometime?) on ways to destroy the Earth. (It may even have been a link from this blog or a commenters blog ..?) I bokmarke dit under ‘favourites’ but then unfortunately my old computer died and I lost the address.
Does anyone know the site I’m meaning? Think it also had “evil overlord” list thing maybe? Motives and mechanisms, incl. fictional ways and ways that wouldn’t work too.)
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:29 am
[...] Posted by astrogeek on April 23, 2009 I always thought that grin of his was hiding a sinister mind, now I have proof. Phil Plait plots to destroy the earth. Details tonight at 8:00 on NatGeo. [...]
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:34 am
@ Todd W. :
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:37 am
Oh, and what does this have to do with astronomy?
Oh come on, Todd Erath’s a planet! Even by the IAU rules.
Or, hang on a sec is it?
We’ve got this other double planet thing called the Moon in our orbital space, nearly as large as Charon is in relation to Pluto, we’ve got earth-crossing asteroids and comets so our space ain’t clear! Oh no! :-O
Looks like Earth will be joining Pluto in the “celestial dwarf planet doghouse” if IAU dictates are strictly & equally applied.
BTW. If Earth was where Pluto is, we’d be the same situation as Pluto too. Seems very silly to me.
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:37 am
Click on my name for a link to a thought-provoking Pluto question via Ken Croswell’s webpages. If it works this time …
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:43 am
Plus click my name again for another one on similiar lines …
Ditto for source via Ken Croswell.
Not meaning to hijack this thread or anything. Really.
Its just an interesting tangeant & pair of questions / points.
Oh &, of course, I expect some people to chime in with use the AM bomb to destroy Pluto and make it a non-issue. (Well you’d just make Charontheplanet then but a-n-y-h-o-w)
Still, [Yoda voice on]
“eccentric, iceball? My home this is!” [/Yoda voice off.]
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:48 am
Hmm … If we’re going todestroy anyplanet with the AMbomb (do youuse that only inthe morning?)maybe it shouldn’t be Pluto -or Venus or Mars and definitelyNOT our Earth. Nup. Maybe the planet we *should* blow up is
Mercury?
click on my name for another Croswell article that will explain why …
(Surprised the BA hasn’t mentioned this idea before – or has he & I just missed it?)
Ditto for source via Ken Croswell.
Not meaning to hijack this thread or anything. Really.
Its just an interesting tangeant & pair of questions / points.
Oh &, of course, I expect some people to chime in with use the AM bomb to destroy Pluto and make it a non-issue. (Well you’d just make Charontheplanet then but a-n-y-h-o-w)
Still, [Yoda voice on]
“eccentric, iceball? My home this is!” [/Yoda voice off.]
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:50 am
[...] Ironically, the day after earth day, a TV program (part of the Naked Science series) entitled ‘How to Kill a Planet’ will air tonight (Thursday 23rd April) at 10pm on National Geographic Channel. It explores various scenarios for how the entire planet could be destroyed. Sensational, yes, but maybe an interesting way of exploring some interesting physics topics in an unusual way, assuming they don’t scare people unduly. I appear in it somewhere, I’m told. I’ll be talking about black holes, and may in fact be shown being swallowed by one, if I recall correctly what was planned. Some may rather enjoy that aspect! [Update: Phil's on it too!] [...]
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:52 am
Just called my wife to set it up on the DVR.
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:53 am
D’oh! TAKE II – now with correct Mercury threat link. Sorry. (Blushes) :
Hmm … If we’re going to destroy any planet with the AM bomb* (do you use that only inthe morning?) maybe it shouldn’t be Pluto -or Venus or Mars and definitelyNOT our Earth. Nup. Maybe the planet we *should* blow up is
Mercury?
Click on my name for another Croswell article that will explain why…
(Surprised the BA hasn’t mentioned this idea before – or has he & I just missed it?)
—
* AM bomb = Anti Matter natch.
Will the residue of the AM bomb be post-matter or PM?
PS. SIGH if only, if only, if only we could edit our posts here. T’would make life or at least this blog so much better! *Pleading hint*
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:57 am
Set my DVR to record the repeat (running at 8P opposite CSI, which I still watch w/o William Petersen, then again at midnight), which will be right after The Colbert Report.
Off Topic: Texas (uh-oh) Representative Joe Barton (R) posted a video asking Steven Chu about oil in Alaska – (YouTube)watch?v=pgKepHebKRc&feature=player_embedded
Hilarious,
J/P=?
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:15 am
BA got to blow up something…..cool.
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:19 am
@Todd W.
Teach the controversy!
http://controversy.wearscience.com/
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:21 am
# Flying sardines Says:
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:28 am
Oh there was a great website I saw a while ago (last year sometime?) on ways to destroy the Earth. (It may even have been a link from this blog or a commenters blog ..?) I bokmarke dit under ‘favourites’ but then unfortunately my old computer died and I lost the address.
Does anyone know the site I’m meaning? Think it also had “evil overlord” list thing maybe? Motives and mechanisms, incl. fictional ways and ways that wouldn’t work too.)
I think I saw something like that on live science, check this out:
http://www.livescience.com/technology/destroy_earth_mp.html
Is that the one?
Phoenix
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:26 am
I love the concept of blowing up the planet just enough to force it to reform into a primitive Earth from the Hadean Eon. Cool!
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:30 am
I also can’t afford the upgrade to get NG channel. I wrote them last year about it and they actually wrote back and said they felt bad about so many people missing out, but they had no control over what “pkg” they were in. I wish there was a national drive to get the cable cos. to let us choose our favorite channels and pay just for those. I dream big.
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:44 am
Oh &, of course, I expect some people to chime in with “use the AM bomb to destroy Pluto and make it a non-issue.” (Well you’d just make Charon the planet then but a-n-y-h-o-w)
How about blowing up Neptune instead? You’d get the same result planet-wise (Pluto dominating its orbital space & re-becoming a proper planet) and also a much bigger & more satisfying BANG!
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:47 am
Meh.
Accelerate object to 0.99c. Collide with Earth. Object does not even need to be that big.
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:52 am
“We filmed that in November, and it was about -8 Celsius outside… and the first thing in the morning we did: a helicopter ride. Standing on Canadian ground at 08:00 in subfreezing weather with a 60 kph wind in my face from the rotor chop was a tad unpleasant, but the I’m hoping the footage we got was worth it.”
As opposed to standing on the other side of the river, on American soil, where it was +25 C.
We Canadians are a hardy bunch. Why, right now, I’m just peering out of the igloo, and watching the neighbours drag home a Beluga Whale! I hope they share. Raw carrion is getting old.
Looking forward to watching!
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:55 am
Here are 10 ways!
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:57 am
If *I* were in charge and could re-arrange the solar system it’d be much better!
I’d swap the orbital positions of Venus and Mars, make Mercury a moon of Venus, swap Jupiter and Saturn so those magnificent rings were that much closer and brighter, swap Uranus and Neptune – and then just get rid of Uranus entirely! Blow Uranus up with an AM bomb? Heck, why not?
Oh & I’d bring Pluto into the asteroid belt & make Europa a moon of Earth too so that it was nice and convenient for exploration!
So then the solar system would run inner to outer :
1. Sun
2. Mars (Oh & lets see, Io and Ganymede too maybe?)
3. Earth & Moon – & Europa
4. Venus – & Mercury (plus, I’ll thrown in Titan there too!)
5. Pluto – &, oh why not, Eris along with Charon, Nix & Hydra!
6. Saturn
7. Jupiter
8. Neptune
9. Haumea & its moons
10. Sedna (yeah, anyone else remember Sedna?) Oh & Makemake makes it 11 so I’ll make Makemake a moon of Sedna too to get the even 10!
There, now wouldn’t that be a much more fun solar system!
That’s the plan, get to it engineers, make it so!
April 23rd, 2009 at 1:17 pm
CERN will soon start to make gobs of liquid metallic antihydrogen and storing it in plastic vacuum bottles whose battery lasts 24:00:00.0 hours, and whose charger must be plugged in to the Switzerland power grid to function.
If an Assassin were to steal it, hide it, and aim a wireless video camera at it, finding it would be a Miracle.
April 23rd, 2009 at 2:30 pm
“an eerie echo of Earth’s creation four and a half billion years ago.”
Hmm…eerier than the notion of blowing up the planet in the first place?
April 23rd, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Forget moving planets. Take all the spare metallics in the solar system (and by ’spare’ I mean ‘locked up in wortheless rocks a few thousand kilometers in diameter’), and fashion it all in to a bunch of Island 3-style habitats orbiting comfortably around 1AU from the sun. More living space than you can shake a stick at. Likely more than even Niven’s Ringworld if you arrange them cleverly (e.g. staggering orbits outside of the elliptic), and no need for as-yet-impossible substances. And, come the inevitable ballooning of a Sun into a red giant, you could float them up to a higher orbit on the increased solar radiation so you don’t cook yourselves, and eventually turn them into generation ships to leave for good.
April 23rd, 2009 at 3:07 pm
@ !astralProjectile
Got that one. Won’t wreck the plot for those who haven’t experienced it yet.
April 23rd, 2009 at 3:12 pm
@Slartibartfast wannabe:
swap Uranus and Neptune – and then just get rid of Uranus entirely
Ouch! That would hurt….
sorry, just couldn’t let the pun go.
J/P=?
April 23rd, 2009 at 4:06 pm
@Slartibartfast wannabe:
I think I can say for many, that the Solar System would be a far less fun place without Uranus…
Imagine, no more standing outside, in the darkest night, staring up wide eyed at the spectacle that is Uranus… along with his twin moons, glowing brightly for the world to see…
April 23rd, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Hm. Maybe it’s just me, but…why would we want to kill the planet in the first place?? I kind of enjoy living here!!
April 23rd, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Link to TiVo for this episode:
https://www3.tivo.com/tivo-tco/oneclick.do?searchCriteria=1800|14|tivo:ct.144151881|tivo:cl.29612088|episodesearch
I see that they’re also searching for Atlantis and investigating the Bermuda Triangle. :O I hope it’s just debunking, although since it only took Randi a few pages to destroy each myth in Flim-Flam!, I don’t see how they can fill an hour. O.o
April 23rd, 2009 at 5:13 pm
My thoughts regarding Pluto:
Earth and Moon together make up >99.99% of the mass within the vicinity of the orbit. Pluto and Charon together make up < 0.001% of the mass within the vicinity of their orbit (and this is NOT including Neptune) This why Earth is said to have cleared its orbit and Pluto not.
The center of gravity around which Earth and Moon orbit lies beneath the surface of the earth. The center of gravity around Pluto and Charon orbit lies above the surface of Pluto. This is why Earth/Moon is not considered a double planet, but a true planet/satellite system, while Pluto/Charon used to be thought of as a double planet (double dwarf planet now?)
If you eliminated Neptune, it would do nothing for Pluto's planetary status, because the problem for Pluto is the Kuiper Belt, not Neptune.
If you put Earth where Pluto is now, the big question is what would happen next. Would earth be sufficiently massive to, over time, eject or capture all the Kuiper Belt objects, until again the earth constitutes >99% of the mass within the region. (I don’t know the answer to this. It might well be no, which is a legitimate argument against the planet definition. Another weakness is that if you go back far enough in time, to the early formation of the Solar System, then nothing would have yet cleared its orbit, and even Jupiter would not have counted as a planet. I guess you could define it so that it becomes a planet at the moment it clears its orbit)
Personally, I think Pluto should be a planet. A special subtype of planet which we could call ice dwarf planet. And all the spheroid Kuiper Belt objects are ice dwarf planets too. And Ceres and all the large asteroids should be rock dwarf planets. And Earth, Venus, Mars and Mercury should be terrestrial planets. Jupiter and Saturn would be Hydrogen Giant Planets. Neptune and Uranus would be Ice Giant Planets.
And the subtypes can be extended to extrasolar planets too, as we discover their properties in greater detail.
April 23rd, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Unclear on the concept. Maybe it’s the martinis. Maybe it is that I am only just partway through “Death from the Skies!” Why is Phil trying to get enough antimatter to blow the Earth up? Doesn’t he like us any more? Is he sore that he is so wrong about the pronunciation of kilometer?
Inquiring minds want to know.
JC
April 23rd, 2009 at 8:34 pm
I am watching you right now Phil… Blowing stuff up in the desert huh?
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:01 pm
@Flying Sardines:
Try this one http://qntm.org/?destroy This maybe the site you were looking for.
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Just finished watching the show, very enjoyable. However I noticed a mistake. Whenever your name was shown on the screen, they mispelled “Astronomer”, instead it showed “Astronmer”.
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:34 pm
Yeah, here’s to Phil, the Bad Astronmer!
Maybe I should jump over to lay claim to badastronmy.com.
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:49 pm
Pfff … that’s not even COLD yet. If anyone offered me a trip back to Niagara I’d take it even if it’s smack in the middle of winter (even though I can’t walk next to the Bride Falls at that time of year).
Is there anyone out there who screams and tears out their hair whenever the Trinity Test or similar is shown with a “boom” that coincides with the flash of light? Anyone who’s even seen so much as a pyrotechnic mortar set off knows that’s just pure BS.
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Whats with the computer generated graphic at 3:10 in the video? I recognized it as the dark matter map right away. You can see it at 1:15 in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCgTJ6ID6ZA
April 24th, 2009 at 12:23 am
JackC Says:
Unclear on the concept. Maybe it’s the martinis. Maybe it is that I am only just partway through “Death from the Skies!” Why is Phil trying to get enough antimatter to blow the Earth up? Doesn’t he like us any more? Is he sore that he is so wrong about the pronunciation of kilometer?
To save the Earth from ‘woo’, we may have to destroy the Earth……
J/P=?
April 24th, 2009 at 5:36 am
@ Kyle (April 23rd, 2009 at 9:01 pm)
@Flying Sardines – Try this one
http: (double backslash) qntm (dot) org (backslslash questionmark) destroy
This maybe the site you were looking for.
YESS!! Many thanks! That’s the one. I’ve now bookmarked it again on my new machine.
@ TheWhitePhoenix : (April 23rd, 2009 at 11:21 am)
I think I saw something like that on live science, check this out:
http (double backslash) www (dot) livescience (dot) com (slash) technology (slash) destroy (underscore) earth (undesrcore) mp (dot) html
Is that the one? Phoenix
Not quite but very close and seems related – maybe a ‘live science’ version of the other site. Many thanks also for trying.
April 24th, 2009 at 5:52 am
@ Michael L : (April 23rd, 2009 at 4:06 pm)
@Slartibartfast wannabe:
I think I can say for many, that the Solar System would be a far less fun place without Uranus… Imagine, no more standing outside, in the darkest night, staring up wide eyed at the spectacle that is Uranus… along with his twin moons, glowing brightly for the world to see…
Brightly shining spectacle? Wha …? You can barely see Uranus under the very darkest skies with good eyesight. Really it takes binocs at least to find and even then ain’t much to look at. Just a pale greenish dot.
As for its twin moons, well to be pedantic its actually got quite a few more than two; Ariel Umbriel, Titania, Oberon & Miranda being the five largest and main ones with a heap more little rocks – twenty~ish all up I think?
Two moons? Not sure where that comes from – are you being cheek-y?
Uranus is the blandest of the gas giants, Neptune’s its close if not exactly identical twin. So we won’t miss it, I’m pretty sure. It’ll end all those asinine jokes & make the solar system much cooler if we just eliminate Uranus.
Still if it makes you happy, Michael L, I could add tipping Neptune on its side to my plans… after all that was Uranus’es only really interesting feature.
Besides, I’ve got to blow up at least *one* planet just for the fun of it!
April 24th, 2009 at 5:55 am
Hey, stop being rude about my Uranus!
April 24th, 2009 at 6:31 am
Last night while I was watching with some friends, one of them got really scared about CERN making black holes. I tried explaining that the show was blowing it way out of proportion. Hell, the show even said they were trying to make them, which simply isn’t true. It’s an extremely unlikely event, and as BA says, a microscopic black hole would just pass right through the planet anyways. She was really upset by that part of the show though, and started questioning why we’re even messing with things at CERN. I had to play science advocate for about 30 minutes =\. Friggin sensationalist show, ruined my night.
April 24th, 2009 at 6:49 am
Phil, are you practicing for your Mythbusters appearance? Loved the dynamite!
April 24th, 2009 at 9:39 am
I was lucky in that I missed this blog post but caught the show by accident. Very cool. But it did leave me one burning question…
Why were you not allowed to touch the helicopter window???
April 24th, 2009 at 10:17 am
[...] night, National Geographic aired the episode of Naked Science called "How to Kill a Planet", about five ways we can literally and totally destroy the Earth. I was interviewed extensively for [...]
April 24th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
I’d really like watch that preview, but I can’t because Firefox is blocking Flash… (even though I’ve uninstalled FlashBlock…)
Oh well…
April 24th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
[...] Astronomer on National Geographic BA Blog: How to Kill a Planet: [...]
April 25th, 2009 at 5:26 am
Phil – I was with you the whole way – antimatter, center of the earth, a mount everest of antimatter, etc… but that whole nonsense of the result being like the earth 4.5 billion years ago…. dude – come on… 6,000 years, max!