Documentary AreaSimply the best Documentaries

Around the world, a new generation of astronomers are hunting for the most mysterious objects in the universe. Young stars, black holes, even other forms of life. They have created a dazzling new set of super-telescopes that promise to rewrite the story of the heavens. This film follows the men and women who are pushing the limits of science and engineering in some of the most extreme environments on earth. But most strikingly of all, no-one really knows what they will find out there.

'Deliver Us from Drought' - Over the past years, Texas has experienced the worst drought in its recorded history. 97% of the scientific community agrees that human activity has contributed to extreme weather patterns around the world. But many Texans--legislators, community leaders and citizens--don't attribute their drought to humans, and have taken few if any initiatives to limit the state's CO2 emissions, currently the highest in the country. "The Resource Curse" - As humanity's appetite for energy grows exponentially, the extraction industry scrambles to the most remote regions on Earth. In the undeveloped Melanesian country of Papua New Guinea, America's Exxon Mobil has staked its claim to a $19 billion liquid natural-gas project. While some see Exxon's mammoth presence as the catalyst that will usher the underdeveloped country into the 21st Century, others predict the initiative could plunge its people into civil war.

Why were the most fearsome warriors our planet has ever known stopped by a flaming light in the sky? How did Columbus use secret knowledge of the heavens to cheat death in the New World? Our ancestors saw a universe filled with bad omens. The film examines the interpretations by ancient peoples of celestial phenomena as bad omens, and the impact that the perceived omens may have had on history.

In the ninth episode, Steven's trial is over, but a new one is just beginning. Will the jury find the suspect's confession or his conflicting statements more believable?

Right now cosmic forces prowl the universe and threaten man's very existence. They're asteroids and comets; they've left their imprint on planet Earth, literally. Initially helping to build planets through violent collisions, during this fiery bombardment period they may have even seeded Earth with water and the building blocks for life. Since the turbulent formation of the solar system, these space rocks have continued to impact Earth. Some have been so violent that they've led to mass extinctions, including one that wiped out the dinosaur. New theories suggest that asteroid and comet dust harbour deadly viruses that may have triggered some of our worst pandemics. The possibility of future collisions remains a legitimate threat yet despite their dangers, asteroids and comets may hold vital natural resources, which could actually preserve

How is the universe put together? How is it built? And how does it actually work? How the Universe Works Series 8 shows the inner workings of our planet, the solar system, the galaxies and the universe itself.
In the first episode, if a massive asteroid collides with earth, it could end life on our planet as we know it. New discoveries and cutting-edge tech reveal just how close we are to apocalypse and what it would take for the world's leading space agencies to stop it.