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6 Episodes 2017 - 2017
Episode 1
Wed, Mar 22, 2017
We strip apart black holes, one of the most feared objects in the universe, and tear off swirling galaxies of stars, planets, and cosmic dust layer by layer to explore the secrets of these hungry menaces lurking right on our cosmic doorstep.
Episode 2
Wed, Mar 29, 201744 mins
Scattered across the night sky in immense numbers are the alchemists of our cosmos - the stars. They forge new elements inside their raging nuclear core and cast them out in cataclysmic supernova explosions. Many of these extreme monsters grow hundreds of times larger than our Sun and burn over million times brighter. But could the life and death of the most extreme stars in the cosmos be key to understanding our very existence? This episode follows scientists investigating some of the earliest stars in the universe, over 13 billion years back in time. Astronomers at Jodrell Bank in the UK reveal how even inside the aftermath of a massive stellar explosion, a freakish zombie star that cannibalises others can rise from the dead. We join astrophysicists working in laboratories hidden under the Gran Sasso mountains in Italy who are hoping to foresee a supernova explosion. CGI animation will tie together clues from ongoing scientific missions around the world and reveal how integral stars are to our universe.
Episode 3
Wed, Apr 5, 2017
We strip apart asteroids and peel back surfaces, slice open craters, and exploding out rocks layer by layer to explore these miniature worlds and the secrets of the early solar system.
Episode 4
Wed, Apr 12, 201743 mins
Jupiter is a planet of extremes. Twice the size of all the other planets in our solar system combined it's formed almost entirely from Hydrogen just like the sun. Yet little is known about this super sized world. Now NASA have launched a billion dollar space mission called JUNO to explore Jupiter's long-held secrets. We join JUNO scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to unlock the mystery of intense radiation belts around the planet. In New York a dramatic experiment with molten rock reveals what could be supercharging this deadly radiation. Conditions in space around Jupiter are extreme - but delving into the planets mysterious clouds exposes an even more dangerous and violent world. Stunning CGI animation will rip open the planets gassy surface to uncover an astonishing phenomenon - a rainstorm of solid diamonds. A wonder that sounds impossible - but that scientists in Wales think they can recreate on earth. Alongside churning cyclones that rage for centuries and pressures so extreme they crush hydrogen gas into a metal this journey to unpack Jupiter's riddles reveals a planet of unimaginable ferocity. It's a planet so bizarre that some scientists now think it almost became a star - our sun's secret twin.
Episode 5
Wed, Apr 19, 201744 mins
How much more is there to the Universe than meets the eye? In this episode, we join the scientists who hunt for our hidden cosmos. In New Mexico, radio astronomers probe the cold and seemingly empty void of space to uncover vast clouds of hidden matter called intergalactic plasma. But astronomers now realize that our universe has a 'dark side' - a second kind of matter and a mysterious 'energy' that together make up most of the universe. We join teams in the UK, Italy and the United States hunting for so called dark matter and dark energy. We go behind the scenes at the European Space Agency's EUCLID mission; venture underground to see a dark matter detector beneath the Gran Sasso mountain; and visit the construction of a powerful new telescope at Kitt Peak in Arizona. At Green Bank, USA we meet the scientist who ask the most intriguing question of all - is our universe just one of many...and is proof that this multiverse exists now within our grasp? Stunning CGI animation will tie together clues and unravel the mysterious secrets of the hidden side to our universe.
Episode 6
Wed, Apr 26, 201744 mins
The solar system and its planets seem like a familiar place. Yet scientists now think they've detected something huge lurking in the far reaches of the system we call home. Could it be that a missing, giant ninth planet orbits our sun in the dark reaches of space? We'll meet the astronomers hunting for this hypothetical world. Scientists who are only now beginning to understand how such a massive planet could have ended up so far away from the Sun - way beyond where science predicts planets can form. We join teams in the UK, Germany and the United States who are unlocking the ancient secrets of our planets' past. Only a revolution in our understanding of the Solar System's formation - and a re-assessment of Jupiter's early history - can reveal how Planet 9 was born. Stunning CGI animation will explore the origin or our solar system while dramatic experiments that recreate the micro gravity of space will reveal the secret to the earliest moments of our planets' formation.