Playback is currently unavailable for S1 E1 · Empire of the Sun. Episode details remain available below.
Wonders of the Solar System
In this spellbinding series, Professor Brian Cox visits the most extreme locations on Earth to explain how the laws of physics carved natural wonders across the solar system.
- Cast:
- Brian Cox
- Language:
- English
- Country:
- United Kingdom
- Network:
- BBC Two
Episode guide
Seasons
Season 1
Episodes
E01
Episode 1
★ 8.0Empire of the Sun
2010-03-07 · 58mPhysicist Brian Cox examines the sun's rule over our planet, heading for India to witness a total solar eclipse, and viewing the Northern Lights in the Arctic Circle.
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E02
Episode 2
★ 8.0Order Out of Chaos
2010-03-14 · 59mBrian reveals how the beauty and order of the solar system was formed from a chaotic cloud of gas.
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E03
Episode 3
★ 8.0The Thin Blue Line
2010-03-21 · 59mBrian reveals how something as flimsy as an atmosphere can create some of the most wondrous sights in the solar system. He takes a ride to the top of earth's atmosphere, and in the Namib desert, he tells how Mercury lost its atmosphere.
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E04
Episode 4
★ 7.5Dead or Alive
2010-03-28 · 59mThe worlds that surround our planet are all made of rock, but there the similarity ends. Some have a beating geological heart, others are frozen in time. Brian travels to the tallest mountain on earth, the volcano Mauna Kea on Hawaii, to show how something as basic as a planet's size can make the difference between life and death. Even on the summit of this volcano, Brian would stand in the shade of the tallest mountain in the solar system, an extinct volcano on Mars called Olympus Mons, which rises up 27 km. Yet the fifth wonder in the series isn't on a planet at all. It's on a tiny moon of Jupiter. The discoveries made on Io have been astonishing. This fragment of rock should be cold and dead, yet, with the volcanic landscape of eastern Ethiopia as a backdrop, Brian reveals why Io is home to extraordinary lakes of lava and giant volcanic plumes that erupt 500 km into the sky.
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E05
Episode 5
★ 7.7Aliens
2010-04-04 · 59mProfessor Brian Cox visits some of the most stunning locations on earth to describe how the laws of nature have carved natural wonders across the solar system. Brian descends to the bottom of the Pacific in a submarine to witness the extraordinary life forms that survive in the cold, black waters. All life on Earth needs water so the search for aliens in the solar system has followed the search for water. Soaring above the dramatic Scablands of the United States, Brian discovers how the same landscape has been found on Mars. And it was all carved out in a geological heartbeat by a monumental flood. Armed with a gas mask, Brian enters a cave in Mexico where bacteria breathe toxic gas and leak concentrated acid. Yet relatives of these creatures could be surviving in newly-discovered caves on Mars.
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Brian Cox
Self - Presenter
