New discoveries have rewritten the history of our solar system, revealing a complex and violent story that begins with the birth of our Sun from the debris of a massive galactic collision, to its eventual fate as a lone zombie star. It is a dramatic history of elegant beauty and extreme violence. The inner solar system was like a congested highway. Planets crossing lanes, frequent collisions. There were a lot of planets that could have made it but didn't, and we just happen to be one of the lucky ones that did. The players in our solar system's story are more tangled up than we ever imagined. Without all of these things interplaying, the Earth wouldn't have the stable environment that we have today, and life wouldn't be able to exist.
November 4, 2029. We face a countdown to catastrophe. A giant asteroid hurtles towards Earth at 40,000 mph. It's heading straight for the eastern seaboard of the United States. The space rock could wipe out an entire city and cause widespread devastation. Can Earth survive? Now, experts confront the story of this fictional asteroid event to determine what could happen, and how it might be stopped.
Mars is infested with robots, orbiting the planet and roaming the Martian surface on a mission to uncover its secrets; now, Perseverance joins this dedicated group of machines to uncover if there is, or was ever, life on the Red Planet. Our neighbor, Mars, fascinates us. It's a planet that is similar to Earth but with some big differences. Mars is rusty, dusty, frigid, and frozen. Past missions suggest that Mars was once a very different world. The Mars we see today has completely changed from the Mars of a few billion years ago. Without a time machine to explore ancient Mars, we employ a team of high-tech robot investigators, an entire fleet of robotic spacecraft exploring the planet. Working together, they dig into Mars's past to answer the ultimate question -- did Mars once have life?
The magnificent ringed planet Saturn, along with its more than 80 moons, forms the most dynamic planetary system in our neighborhood. With underground oceans and protective magnetic fields, experts are exploring how this collective of satellites has the potential to rewrite the rules of the Solar System. The closer that we look, the more we see these extraordinary moons like worlds of their own -- so dynamic, so Earth-like. Almost a billion miles from the Sun, these icy worlds could be home for Life 2.0. The moons of Saturn offer possibly the best chance of finding extraterrestrial life in our solar system. With each new mission, we get closer to unraveling the mysteries of Saturn's moons.
A Tyrannosaurus and two Quetzalcoatlus fight over an Alamosaurus carcass. A shoal of Sphenodiscus are ambushed by a Globidens, intent on surplus killing them. At an evaporating lake, juvenile Pectinodon hunt flies while their father hunts Styginetta. Male Triceratops fight and display for the right to mate. A female Nanuqsaurus hunts Ornithomimus to feed herself and her offpsring.
A female Phosphorosaurus hunts lanternfish under the ocean's moonlit surface. Hesperornis hunt for fish until they themselves are hunted by Xiphactinus. A Mosasaurus hunts a group of Tuarangisaurus. Nostoceras hatchlings are at the mercy of the tides and juvenile Pyroraptor. The young Nostoceras that survived find themselves among Baculites and Diplomoceras in their new seagrass meadow home. A pod of Morturneria sift the muddy seabed in search of food.
It is a dramatic history of elegant beauty and extreme violence. The inner solar system was like a congested highway. Planets crossing lanes, frequent collisions. There were a lot of planets that could have made it but didn't, and we just happen to be one of the lucky ones that did. The players in our solar system's story are more tangled up than we ever imagined. Without all of these things interplaying, the Earth wouldn't have the stable environment that we have today, and life wouldn't be able to exist.