How did the universe begin? Where will it end? Are there other worlds like Earth? This groundbreaking series combs the rubble of exploding stars and dives into gigantic black holes in search of answers to our most searching questions about the cosmos.
Producer Thomas Lucas specializes in productions that make use of special effects and high-end computer animations, which are incorporated each episode.
Details
LENGTH: 17 x 30
CAMERA: HD
INTERNATIONAL TRACK: Yes
TEXTLESS MASTER AVAILABLE: Yes
CLOSED CAPTIONS: No
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
PRODUCTION YEAR: 2010 – 2012
RELEASE YEAR: 2012
PRODUCER: Thomas Lucas Productions, Inc.
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
RIGHTS TERRITORY: Worldwide
Episode Descriptions
Episode 101: Mysteries of a Dark Universe
Cosmology has been turned on its head by a stunning discovery that the universe is flying apart in all directions at an ever-increasing rate. Find out what this Nobel Prize winning discovery means for the future of our universe.
Episode 102: The Riddle of Antimatter
One of the deepest mysteries about how our universe came to be may finally be yielding to human investigation. Scientists are mounting new efforts to figure out how matter survived, and what happened to its birth twin, a mysterious substance known as antimatter?
Episode 103: The Search for Habitable Planets
The hunt for planets beyond our solar system has reached a fever pitch. Scientists are beginning to envision what these worlds are like, and in the process, redefining what a planet might need to spawn life.
Episode 104: Is the Universe Infinite?
Many astronomers now conclude that what we can see, the immense cosmic landscape of stars and galaxies, represents only a small fraction of all there is. Does the universe go on forever? Where do we fit within it?
Episode 105: The Most Powerful Objects in the Universe
What are the energy extremes that define our universe? And how much power can the cosmos wield? Climb a ladder of increasingly powerful events, from frigid gas clouds to nuclear explosions, and travel out to the seething environments of black holes. Find out where Earth fits in the vast power scales of the cosmos.
Episode 106: Venus: Death of a Planet
Long ago, from the fires of our Sun’s birth, twin planets emerged: Venus and Earth. Nature draped one world in the greens and blues of life, while enveloping the other in acid clouds, high heat, and volcanic flows. Why did Venus take such a disastrous turn and Earth developed a vibrant biosphere?
Episode 107: Mars World That Never Was
Did Mars long ago develop far enough for life to arise? If so, does anything still live somewhere underground? The search for answers has revealed the forces that long ago doomed the Red Planet.
Episode 108: Saturn’s Mysterious Moons
From the Cassini spacecraft comes one of the greatest photographic collections of all time. Scientists are using images of Saturn’s moons to uncover a trail of clues pointing to the energy sources and complex chemistry needed to spawn life.
Episode 109: Attack of the Sun
Massive solar eruptions can pose a serious threat to our high-tech society. Learn about the havoc caused by the solar storms of Halloween 2003 and 1859. Dive into the inner regions of the Sun to find out what can cause our star to turn angry.
Episode 110: Birth of the Moon
Scientists have been reconstructing the history of the Moon by scouring its surface, mapping its mountains and craters, and probing its interior. Find out what the origins of the Moon can tell us about our own planet’s beginnings.
Episode 111: Crashing Into the Moon
Astronomers have been tracking stars at the center of the Milky Way galaxy to probe a monster black hole that lurks in its dense gas clouds and star fields. They have turned up the best proof to date that black holes exist. Now, they are shooting for the first direct image of a black hole.
Episode 112: How Large Is the Universe?
The mind-blowing answer comes from a theory describing the first micro-moments of our universe. Just as scientists began to make precise measurements of the observable universe, new ideas suggest that our visible patch is an impossibly small portion of the whole.
Episode 113: When Will Time End?
How long will the Universe as we know it survive? The answer depends on whether Stephen Hawking’s theory about how black holes decay is right. These strange dense objects are like a clock that tick down to a distant moment when all matter and energy will dissipate into the void.
Episode 114: The Largest Black Holes in the Universe
So far, the largest black hole measured is a whopping 18 billion times the mass of the Sun. Monsters like this have played a central role in the evolution of the universe. They wreak havoc on galaxies, while setting the stage for worlds like ours.
Episode 115: Birth of a Black Hole
Spy satellites first saw these brief but extremely bright flashes of light in the 1960s. For three decades, gamma ray bursts for deep space were one of the persistent mysteries in all of science. It took a revolution in high-energy astronomy to prove that they are the distant birth cries of newborn black holes.
Episode 116: Voyager Journey to the Stars
The twin Voyager spacecraft are part of an ancient quest to push beyond our boundaries and to see what lies beyond the horizon. Now tens of billions of kilometers from Earth, these two spacecraft are streaking out into interstellar space. What will we learn about the Galaxy, the Universe, and ourselves from Voyager’s epic Journey to the stars?
Episode 117: Supermassive Black Hole in the Milky Way Galaxy
Thick dust and blinding starlight have long obscured our vision into the mysterious inner regions of our Milky Way galaxy. And yet, the clues have been piling up that something important, something strange is going on in there. Astronomers tracking stars in the center of the galaxy have found the best proof to date that black holes exist. Now, they are preparing to capture the first direct image of a supermassive black hole.
