Anthony Mackie Asks NASA About Ocean Science

NASA’s exploration of the ocean from the vantage point of space is unveiling the mysteries of our interconnected home planet. Join Anthony Mackie, actor and National Geographic host, as he chats with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s Ivona Cetinić about how scientists study the ocean and the creatures that live there – including sharks! Producers: Scott Bednar, Jessica Wilde, Emily Furfaro, Ryan Fitzgibbons, Sofie Bates Editor/Graphics: Matthew Schara

What is said in the film

Hey, everyone. I'm Anthony Mackie, and I'm hosting a National Geographic special that uncovers the delicate balance between humans, sharks, and the ocean. Now, I know NASA sends astronauts to space and explores the cosmos. But what does NASA, a space agency, have to do with sharks? Hi, my name is Ivona.

I'm a NASA oceanographer. And first to answer the questions, NASA cannot see sharks from space. However, being up in the air has its own advantages, as you all know. So looking at Earth from this vantage point of space allows us to see the environment that sharks are living in. Earth’s satellites can see ocean currents, surface salinity, surface temperature and also phytoplankton that feeds the oceanic environment.

So we compare that information with sharks movement and behavior to understand how they're responding to changes in its environment. Does NASA have any Earth science research in my home state of Louisiana? Yes, NASA keeps his eye on coastal Louisiana. Louisiana from different from many other parts of the world is really suffering from sea level rise, increasing temperatures, and NASA can use their Earth observing satellite to look at the impact of the sea level rise. And is increasing temperatures not just to the ocean coastal communities, but land ecosystems such as the wetlands.

And also what kind of impact does it have on shrimp fisheries and aquaculture? On the other side, you can roll back to the ocean and start using NASA's ocean observing satellites to look at how much food is there for that aquaculture or like, is there harmful algal blooms happening and things that are really important for day to day decisions that humans make. I'm so glad this is an area NASA is studying. This leads me to my next question. How does NASA's study of the ocean as a whole?

NASA has a whole suite of Earth observing satellites that allows us to see all systems of the Earth so land, ocean, atmosphere and ice. And that's important because all these systems are interconnected. So we want to know how they're talking to each other and stuff. But when it comes to ocean, we have a whole suite of satellites. And looking at the physics and chemistry and biology and being able to see ocean day to day changes, also long term changes.

But that's not all. NASA conducts different experiments of studies that allows us to see a little bit deeper what's happening in the surface of the ocean, but also the depth of the ocean. And ultimately, we can take all this data and plug it into Earth system models and allow us to better understand what's going to happen in the future in the oceans of this world. That's incredible. I've always wondered how local organizations are able to make better decisions for their communities, and it's great that NASA data helps with this.

Has NASA found oceans on other planets? And what about sharks? Well, yeah. NASA actually has a whole team of scientists studying the ocean worlds. It's how we call these planets and moons and solar system, we believe have oceans there.

The technology that we've developed, studied the ocean. This planet is very similar to technology that we're going to take to study the oceans on another planet, and then look for life in them. And maybe, you know, even sharks. It's cool knowing that their teams on Earth studying the interconnected systems on our special planet. Thank you for all that you do.

No no, no. Thank you, Captain America.

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