Inflation explains why galaxies are spread so smoothly across the cosmos. ibid.
Saturn: Dazzling, spectacular, the most beautiful planet in the night sky. But Saturn is full of mystery. A planet with extreme storms and strange lights and with rings that ripple and rotate swayed by over sixty moons. How the Universe Works s3e5: Is Saturn Alive?
These winds blow through Saturn’s cloudtops at over 1,600 kh. ibid.
The rings appear to be alive … Cassini has captured ten years’ of images. ibid.
Titan. It is massive. Bigger than the planet Mercury … Mountains and deserts, rivers and lakes … A thick nitrogen-rich atmosphere … A vast source of methane must be replacing the orange smog … It has active geology and complex chemistry. ibid.
We live on a volatile planet in a violent universe. When planets collide, black holes eject deadly gamma rays, and asteroids strike without warning. These destroyers have struck time and again. How the Universe Works s3e6: Extinction: Weapons of Mass Extinction
The blue planet turned white. It became a snowball Earth … A few species survived. ibid.
If a gamma ray burst had obliterated life in the past it could happen again in the future. ibid.
Rogue planets, ice ages, gamma ray bursts, volcanic eruptions and asteroid strikes. ibid.
The Milky Way: a galaxy of over 200 billion stars. But where did it all come from? So what was it? What sparked our galaxy into life? New research has suggested a source. Is the great destroyer of the universe actually a creator? Did a black hole build our galaxy? How the Universe Works s3e7: Did a Black Hole Build the Milky Way?
Was a black hole our great creator? ibid.
A new theory called Direct Collapse emerged. ibid.
The Earth is in danger. Future cosmic events will blast, burn or rip it apart. One day life on Earth will become impossible. To save the human race other places will have to be found to be home. We’ll need a lifeboat and new homes out amongst the stars. How the Universe Works s3e8: Starman: Our Voyage to the Stars
We have to build a massive spacecraft. ibid.
A rocket powered by antimatter could reach a speed that’s 15% of the speed of light. ibid.
The Earth is not unique. In the last few years scientists have discovered that our planet is just one of billions in the Milky Way galaxy. How the Universe Works s3e9: The Search for a Second Earth
Super-Earths could be even more habitable. ibid.
Did you ever stop to wonder where your car came from? Really came from? Every component has been on a mind-blowing journey through Time, Space and the most cosmic events since the Big Bang. The history of your car is the history of the universe. How the Universe Works s4e1: How the Universe Built Your Car, Discovery 2016
‘It’s actually 13.8 billion years old.’ ibid.
Under their own gravity pressure and temperature builds as more and more gas is sucked in. Eventually, fusion sparks deep in the core of these giant balls of gas, and the first stars started to manufacture many of the heavy elements that make up cars today. ibid.
The explosion called a Supernova is one of the brightest and most violent events in the universe … ‘with heavier elements in them.’ ibid.
Neutron Stars: ‘This was a potential channel for the production of heavy elements.’ ibid.
Our galaxy a billion years from now. A planet shrouded in turbulence and dense clouds. Buried deep below an alien landscape. The surface scorched, the temperature sky-high, the pressure unbearable. This is not a distant extraterrestrial world. This is Earth, this is our future. We know it to be true because Earth has a twin: Venus. And Venus has already descended into Hell. How the Universe Works s4e2: Venus: Earth’s Evil Twin
Venus: the stuff of nightmares. The conditions on Venus are amongst the most inhospitable in the solar system. ibid.
Venus once harboured oceans. ibid.
‘Venus has tens of thousands of volcanoes.’ ibid. Phil Plait
A journey to infinity and beyond. A place where the rules of physics collapse. Where time and space twist and distort. Travel back to the past and see into the future. Enter the most extreme least understood place in the universe: the heart of a supermassive black hole. How the Universe Works s4e3: Monster Black Hole
Most black holes are born when a giant star dies. After the explosion gravity seizes control of the star’s core … The giant star is crushed down to a fraction of its original size. ibid.
They even eat each other. ibid.
This is space but not as you know it. Trillions of icy rocks, a dark mystical, giant magnetic bubbles, each one more than a hundred million kilometers across, and a cosmic war-zone where fields of deadly radiation collide. This isn’t a distant part of the galaxy, this is the edge of our own solar system. How the Universe Works s4e4: Edge of the Solar System
90% of our solar system lies beyond the planets. ibid.
The Kuyper Belt extends fifty times further away from the Sun than Earth. ibid.
Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet. ibid.
Far beyond the Kuyper Belt the Sun has deployed a deflector shield around the solar system. ibid.
Deducing what the Ort Cloud might look like is a staggeringly complicated task. ibid.
There is an unbreakable bond between life on Earth and the stars above. Everything we see up there and down here is made from the same stuff … How did these atoms come together to make us? And are we the only life asking this question? How the Universe Works s4e5: Dawn of Life
What is it that distinguishes life from mere chemistry? ibid.
Three things set life apart: a power source, a protective sack and the blueprints for making duplicates of itself. ibid.
A radical theory called Panspermia suggests our ancestors are about to arrive from outer space. ibid.
Imagine an alien world, a scorched barren landscape hot enough to boil water, where mysterious holes on the battle-scarred surface post a labyrinth of tunnels each wide enough to house a city. This world is dead. Yet it breaths life into its nearest planetary neighbour. This extraterrestrial place is closer than you imagine: this is our Moon. How the Universe Works s4e6: Secret History of the Moon
This battle-scarred giant serves as our guardian angel. ibid.
For hundreds of years astronomers have reported strange bursts of light coming from the moon. Others have witnessed reddish glows that lasted for minutes at a time. ibid.
Without the Moon we wouldn’t be here. ibid.
Life on Earth depends on seas, rivers and rain. But is our blue planet unique? Or did the universe create countless other wet worlds just like it? … For decades scientists have been trying to establish the origins of Earth’s water. How the Universe Works s4e7: The First Oceans
The collision with Thea leaves the crust of the Earth bone-dry. So where does the water we see today come from? Was our planet originally formed from much wetter rock than the scientists had believed? Or were the oceans delivered to the Earth much later? ibid.
The blueprint of the universe is drawn with magnetic lines. Magnetic fields help stars ignite, they shape entire galaxies, and the same force that creates magnetism is the cement that holds all matter together. How the Universe Works s4e8: Forces of Mass Construction
The force is known as electromagnetism. Electromagnetism also sticks atoms together to form molecules. And it sticks the molecules together to form us and everything around us. ibid.
A blast from a magnetar could blow our atmosphere into space … Earth would become a lifeless ball of rock. ibid.
Charged particles in gas clouds within the galaxy are directed along the spiral arms by magnetic fields. Here the gas clouds are denser allowing star formation to take place. ibid.
A journey to infinity and beyond to a place where the rules of physics collapse … Inflation: the first second of the universe has barely begun … An event that sets out the blueprint for the galaxies that fill the cosmos today … How could we ever test it? How the Universe Works s5e1: Most Amazing Discoveries, Discovery 2017
To construct a star you also need magnetism … The swirling gas and the forming star and its surrounding disc generate powerful magnetic fields. ibid.