How The Universe Works

Scientists are discovering volcanoes on worlds we once thought dead. From our nearest planetary neighbour to tiny moons billions of miles away, today we are discovering volcanoes on alien worlds. Are these worlds where, tomorrow, we might find life?

Stars: Erik Dellums, Richard Lintern, Michelle Thaller
Director(s): Alex Hearle

On Earth, violent and destructive storms create new opportunities for life. In our quest to discover if we are alone in the universe, we shouldn't just look for worlds, we should look for weather. Find chaotic weather and maybe we will find alien life.

Stars: Erik Dellums, Richard Lintern, David Grinspoon
Director(s): Alex Hearle

Over the last twenty years we have discovered an extraordinary zoo of planetary nightmares outside our own solar system, all of them truly wild worlds, a collection of monsters. Now we must face the question: Is every planet out there a planet from hell?

Stars: Erik Dellums, Richard Lintern, Michio Kaku
Director(s): Kate Dart

The Universe is a magnetic minefield. The Sun spits out flares capable of battering life on Earth. But out there in space lie the true magnetic monsters. As we uncover dangerous megaflares in the cosmos, the question is, will we end up in the firing line?

Stars: Erik Dellums, Richard Lintern, Phil Plait
Director(s): Kate Dart

The only reason life on Earth is possible is because of our stable orbit around the Sun. Elsewhere in the Universe, orbits are chaotic, violent and destructive. On the largest scale, orbits are a creative force and construct the fabric of the Universe.

Stars: Erik Dellums, Richard Lintern, Michelle Thaller
Director(s): Adam Warner

We follow the odyssey of a comet as it sails through space, watching every move as it evolves from a chunk of ice and rock into an active nucleus engulfed in a gaseous haze. What we learn is a revelation; comets are even more mysterious than we imagined.

Stars: Erik Dellums, Richard Lintern, Phil Plait
Director(s): Adam Warner

From icy worlds with more fresh water than Earth to flying mountains of pure metal, asteroids shaped our past and promise much for the future. Could these enigmatic space rocks hold the key to how life in the Universe arises and is extinguished?

Stars: Richard Lintern, Mike Rowe, Dan Durda
Director(s): George Harris

The Earth was formed by a series of cosmic cataclysms including the most powerful blast in the Universe. Yet amid the turmoil our world was born. Could the same chain of events have created other earths elsewhere, inhabited by creatures like us?

Stars: Erik Dellums, Richard Lintern, Mike Rowe
Director(s): George Harris