let's bring in dr derek pitts from the franklin institute science museum. how accurate are the hollywood and spy novel depictions. the movies make it seem like they can read licence plates, newspapers, and the reality is that on our computers we can look at google earth and see detailed images of our houses. if they are that powerful. why have they not been more interested in finding the airplane. >> the question is how do we bring it to bear. where do we tell the satellites to look. it's not clear where the airplanes went down. when you look at an ocean surface the reality is that the ocean surface is enormous, truly enormous, and an object as large as an aeroplane from a great distance covers a small portion of what you see when you look down. >> with great magnification that helps. you have to be able to pinpoint where it looks. so if a location can be identified. maybe it can help. >> 30 years ago tom clansry wrote "hunt for red october", he described how satellites could tect the heat generated by a submarine. they could detect it from under water and