Huge asteroids have smashed into the earth, and turned it into an enveloped fire, uninhabitable to almost all life on the surface. The world will get hit again. It's just a matter of when. So, what should we do as a species? Should we just, like the dinosaurs, look up and die? The reasons the dinosaurs are extinct is they didn't have a space program. We do. We have the capability to perhaps escape the Earth. Astronaut Chris Hadfield believes the only chance for human survival is to escape from Earth and build a space colony, but there are real barriers.
The Blue Marble is an image of Earth taken on 1972, from a distance of about 18,000 miles from the planet's surface. It was taken by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft on its way to the Moon. Before it was photographed from space, our perspective of Earth was fragmented and disconnected. Recent discoveries have revealed a dynamic and rapidly changing planet, above the crust and below.
On the second part of his journey through the dark ages Richard Rudgley continues into the age of the wandering peoples, the Volkerwanderung. These Northern people enjoyed a golden age unaffected by Rome and just 30 years after the Romans relinquished Britain, the 'Anglo-Saxons' made their move. The bedraggled legions are in retreat. Walls are pulled down. Mosaics shattered. And yet there never was a people called Anglo-Saxon. We look at the lasting influence of Saxon leaders like Alfred the Great, and his blue print for social justice.
In the third episode, the discovery of extraterrestrial life might face an impossible challenge: the physics of the universe itself; but using cutting-edge tech, experts might be on the verge of a groundbreaking find -- and the evidence could already be in hand.
Our world, our solar system, our universe, none of it would exist without a ghostly particle called the neutrino. They are our early warning system whenever there's trouble in the universe. Neutrinos trigger star-killing explosions, supernovas. Neutrinos can answer so many questions, from why do we exist to how was the universe created. Neutrinos can be the very reason that we exist at all. The more we understand these elusive particles, the more we can gain insight into how the universe works.
In the echoing chambers of a cave located in the Cradle of Humankind in South Africa, paleoanthropologist Lee Berger stumbles upon a revelation that could rewrite History. Not only has he uncovered the world's oldest graveyard, but it's also unlike anything we've ever seen. Amid the shadows, the faint glimmers of ancient hearths, mysterious tools and cryptic symbols hint at rituals beyond our understanding. A place where knowing what an ancient creature did means glimpsing into its very soul. This isn't just any discovery - it's a journey into a world of human-level complexity in an entirely different species from our own. A tale that beckons with the allure of the unknown, challenging everything we thought we knew about hominid evolution and the origins of belief. A story so profound, it demands respect from the entire human race. Dive into the mystery and experience the awe, spirituality, and eerie wonders of the 'Cave of Bones'.
Astronaut Chris Hadfield believes the only chance for human survival is to escape from Earth and build a space colony, but there are real barriers.