A Traveler's Guide to the Planets

Episode 1

Jupiter

Thu, Jan 14, 201050 mins

Have you ever thought of blasting off to the King of the Planets? For a truly out of this world planetary experience, you should head beyond the Asteroid Belt to the largest planet in the solar system. Welcome to Jupiter, a world so roomy that it could swallow every planet and moon in the solar system and still have room for more. Yet for all its bulk there is nowhere to land, just an infernal drop into a bottomless sky. If you like solid ground beneath your feet, there's plenty of that as well. Encircled by some 63 moons and moonlets, Jupiter is like a miniature solar system all of its own. The four biggest moons offer off-world travel opportunities to die for. Rent by eruptions and bathed in intense radiation, Io is the most volcanic place in the Solar System, at once incredibly beautiful and astoundingly dangerous. But it is tiny, frozen neighbor Europa that everyone is trying to reach. Hidden beneath its icy crust is a vast alien ocean, warmed from within, and offering one of the best chances for an encounter with aliens that we have found beyond Earth.