Super Comet – The longest night
65 million years ago the dinosaurs were wiped out by a gigantic asteroid. We could soon be next. We don’t know when it will happen or where the asteroid will strike. We only know that it will happen – sometime – perhaps in 1000 years’ time or perhaps tomorrow. Will it be the end of mankind?
Through the eyes of a young astronomer we experience this catastrophic event. On discovering the asteroid on collision course with Earth, he tries to give a warning, but in vain. He survives, but this is just the beginning. The impact results in an eclipse of the sun leading to a global winter and the extinction of many life-forms.
This documentary will depict the scientific background to the catastrophe, with all its consequences for mankind and the natural world. This is the end of an era, but also the beginning of a new one – the age of the conquerors.
Part 1
Sixty-five million years ago, a comet hit the earth, putting an end to life as it then was. Now a comet is about to hit the earth again. In the dramatised part of this episode, Fernando Martinez, a Mexican who works in Houston, Texas, sets off home to be with his family, the Vaton family in France seeks shelter, and the Baka pygmy tribesmen continue to hunt, unaware of the impending disaster. Astrophysicist Noah Boyle, and computer scientist Shiang Yatan, remain at the observation centre in Hawaii to try to find out exactly when the comet will hit.
Part 2
An asteroid hits the earth in the Mexican province of Yucatan in 2007. The impact causes the entire planet to burst into flames. Humankind is catapulted into a very dark age and this re-enacted doco-drama describes what happens 5, 10, 30, 60 and 80 days and lastly 4 months after the impact. Most life is extinguished within hundreds of kilometres of the crater. The entire earth sinks into darkness. Paris, New York, Hawaii are all in complete darkness and all plant life dies out as a result of the lack of sunlight. Temperatures fall much below anything ever experienced before. Many survivors are left absolutely alone and must fend for themselves.
