An expert has assessed an asteroid collision scene from The Expanse for scientific accuracy. A show that aired three seasons on SyFy and three seasons on Prime Video from 2015 until 2019, The Expanse characters were forced to try and maintain a fragile intergalactic peace. The sci-fi series was based on James S. A. Corey’s novels of the same name.
By the time The Expanse ended, fans of the show had seen many incredible sequences brought to life. A video from Insider that judged a memorable asteroid collision scene from The Expanse season 5, episode 3, “Mother” revealed that the show deserved a lot of credit.
The Insider video featured a mineralogist and astrogeologist from Curtin University named Professor Gretchen Benedict. During the video, Professor Benedict scored The Expanse’s scene that featured a visualization of an asteroid on course to collide with Earth an 8/10 in scientific accuracy. The scene focused on an asteroid-detection system designed to prevent the collision. Check out her comments on the scene below:
I love this show. And in terms of the realism about everything else, they actually use real asteroid-shaped files. They have coated it with material that would make it hard to see. The amount of light that’s reflecting off the surface is the only way we can tell that that thing is there.
So, we can see it moving. And if it’s moving fast, and it’s bright enough, the amount of light it reflects from the sun is how we tell it’s there. So if they’ve coded it with this coding that’s stealthy, then the system that they have in place to detect incoming asteroids would fail. So that actually makes sense.
What Being Scientifically Accurate Means For The Expanse’s Legacy
Unfortunately for science-fiction fans, the genre rarely gets the respect it deserves in a lot of ways. One example of that is the fact that The Expanse never received nominations for mainstream accolades, like a Primetime Emmy Award. Considering The Expanse season 2 got a 95% Tomatometer score from Rotten Tomatoes, it seems like a big oversight.
The Expanse not getting the respect it deserved at the time, had to sting for the team behind the show. Seeing The Expanse now being praised for being mostly scientifically accurate would have to feel good for anyone who worked on the show. Perhaps more importantly, The Expanse’s score from Professor Benedict should make fans and non-viewers alike respect the show even more.
Our Take On A Scene From The Expanse Receiving An 8/10 Scientific Accuracy Score
At first blush, people may think that it would have been ideal if The Expanse received a 10/10 score from Professor Benedict. However, there is a simple reason that isn’t the case. By definition, science fiction stories are supposed to feature a combination of realistic and fantastical elements.
Considering The Expanse was a science fiction show, I’d argue that it would have felt wrong if it got a 10/10 score from Professor Benedict. Instead, the 8/10 score The Expanse got seems perfect to me. That score indicates that The Expanse was grounded in some level of realism while embracing the creativity sci-fi affords to storytellers.
The Expanse
10/10
- Release Date
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2015 – 2022-00-00
- Showrunner
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Naren Shankar, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby
