‘Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine’ Netflix Review - Travel Back in Time with a Telescope

What if I told you that you could see the past with your own eyes? Not just the past of your own life, or the past of human history, but the past of the entire universe. Sounds impossible, right? Well, not anymore. Thanks to a groundbreaking space mission, we now have a telescope that can do just that: travel back in time and show us the secrets of the cosmos.

Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine is a Netflix documentary that takes you on an epic adventure with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the most powerful and complex observatory ever built. It shows you how a team of brilliant scientists and engineers made this dream come true, and what amazing discoveries they made along the way.

The documentary is split into two parts. The first part tells you the story of how the JWST was designed, built, and tested. The JWST is not like any other telescope you have seen before. It uses infrared light to see things that are invisible to our eyes and other telescopes. It has a huge mirror that can collect more light than any other telescope and a giant sun shield that can keep it cool and protected from the sun’s heat. It also has four instruments that can take stunning pictures and measurements of planets, stars, galaxies, and nebulae.

The second part shows you what happened when the JWST was launched and deployed in space. The JWST had to travel very far from Earth to a special point where it can stay stable and balanced between the Earth and the sun. It also had to unfold its mirror and sun-shield in a precise and delicate way, which was very risky and tricky. If anything went wrong, the whole mission could fail and waste billions of dollars and decades of work.

The documentary also reveals what the JWST saw when it started working in space. The JWST could see things that no one had ever seen before, such as the first stars and galaxies that formed after the Big Bang, the atmospheres and surfaces of planets around other stars, and the birth and death of stars. The JWST was not only a time machine, but also a microscope that could show us the details and diversity of the universe.

Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine is a thrilling and inspiring documentary that celebrates human curiosity and creativity. It gives you a glimpse into the minds and hearts of the people who devoted their lives to expanding our knowledge and understanding of our place in the cosmos. It also invites you to marvel at the beauty and mystery of nature, which is always surprising us with new wonders and discoveries.

One of the strengths of the documentary is that it made me feel like you are part of the mission, witnessing firsthand the challenges, risks, and rewards of exploring the unknown. You can sense the excitement, anxiety, and joy of the scientists and engineers who worked on this project for years, and who finally saw their dreams come true. You can also share their awe and wonder at seeing things that no human had ever seen before and learning new things about our universe.

The documentary explains most of the complex scientific concepts and discoveries in a clear and engaging way. It uses animations, models, diagrams, and interviews to help you understand how the JWST works and what it can do. It also provides historical and cultural context for some of the topics that are covered, such as how we learned about the Big Bang, how we discovered exoplanets, or how we study star formation. It makes you appreciate how much we have learned about our universe, and how much more there is to learn.

However, a few questions are bugging me which the documentary did not address at all. For example,  What are some of the limitations or uncertainties of the current models and theories the scientists used? What are some of the alternative or competing explanations or hypotheses for some of the phenomena that the JWST observed? How do they test and verify their claims and predictions? These are some of the questions that are skipped or simplified by the documentary.

Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine is a documentary that will take you on a journey to the edge of the universe and back in time. It will show you how a team of passionate and talented people made history by launching and operating the most powerful and complex telescope ever built. If you are curious about the cosmos and want to see it like never before, you will love it just as I did. 

Final Score – [8/10]
Reviewed by - Arpita Mondal
Follow @ArpitaMond33387 on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times