The Universe Episode Guide

Main

Extreme Energy

Original Airdate: 2009-11-10

Synopsis:

Vast amounts of various forms of energy maintain the universe's equilibrium while creating awesome cosmic events and stellar displays.

Science Fiction. Science Fact

Original Airdate: 2009-11-03

Synopsis:

Researchers try to turn science-fiction concepts into reality; testing a ``transporter''; physicists rewrite fundamental laws of the universe.

Pulsars & Quasars

Original Airdate: 2009-10-27

Synopsis:

Pulsars are relatively tiny but spin fast, sweep the sky with beacons of radiation and have strong magnetic fields; quasars are huge cores of galaxies with black holes.

Liquid Universe

Original Airdate: 2009-10-20

Synopsis:

Liquids of the universe include scalding iron rain, lakes of methane, oceans of electrified hydrogen metal and miles-high geysers.

Space Wars

Original Airdate: 2009-10-06

Synopsis:

How future weapons might work and how effective they might be if outer space becomes militarized.

The Search for Cosmic Clusters

Original Airdate: 2009-09-29

Synopsis:

Exploring two kinds of star clusters in the galaxy that provide scientists with insights into the birth and formation of stars.

10 Ways to Destroy the Earth

Original Airdate: 2009-09-22

Synopsis:

Experts come up with 10 ways the Earth could be destroyed, including swallowing it with a microscopic black hole, blowing it up with antimatter, hurling it into the sun and switching off gravity.

The Hunt for Ringed Planets

Original Airdate: 2009-09-15

Synopsis:

Rings around planets reveal secrets of the origins of the Earth's solar system and distant galaxies.

Biggest Blasts

Original Airdate: 2009-09-08

Synopsis:

The Big Bang, supernovas, gamma ray bursts and other explosions in the universe.

It Fell From Space

Original Airdate: 2009-09-01

Synopsis:

Scientists gain insights into the cosmos from objects that fall from the heavens, including asteroids, comets, meteors and space debris.

The Day the Moon Was Gone

Original Airdate: 2009-08-25

Synopsis:

How Earth without the moon would be a very different and desolate place with just four hours of sunlight, giant hurricanes that would last for months and virtually no complex life forms.

Death Stars

Original Airdate: 2009-08-18

Synopsis:

Death stars are in the final stage of life until they explode into supernovae, and occasionally unleash the biggest blast in the universe known as a gamma ray burst; the violent ends of death stars.

Cosmic Phenomena

Original Airdate: 2009-02-03

Synopsis:

Cosmic events that have had helpful and harmful effects on life on Earth; the beauty of rainbows and the Aurora Borealis; the dangers of UV radiation and cosmic rays; photosynthesis; meteor showers.

Edge of Space

Original Airdate: 2009-02-03

Synopsis:

The dangers of traveling in low Earth orbit aboard a spacecraft include radiation, cosmic rays and debris; the commercial prospects of taking private citizens into orbit and aboard the International Space Station.