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Extreme Orbits - Clockwork and Creation

   2012    Science
Orbits are the dynamics that drive the universe. From the smallest asteroid to the largest super-cluster, everything in the universe is in orbit. We owe our very existence to the stability of earth's orbit — it gave us life and keeps us safe. But we are the freaks. Everywhere else we look we find orbits are chaotic, unstable, and violent. Beyond our solar system we find planets that are blow-torched, stars that eat each other, and black holes that destroy everything in their path. Yet on the very largest scale, orbits are also a creative force. clashing galaxies give birth to new stars and new worlds. on the galactic scale orbits even construct the fabric of the universe itself.
Series: How the Universe Works

Bear Woodlands

   2020    Nature
In the boreal forests of Europe, a young brown bear clashes with wolves and tries to find a mate beneath the stars. On the edge of the Arctic Circle, lies an enchanted wilderness. In Europe's boreal forest, It's so far north that in winter, nights can last 20 hours. This woodland is home to a population of secretive bears that lives most of their lives in the dark. But now, using low-light cameras we can see their nighttime world as if it were day.
Series: Earth at Night in Color

Cosmic Dawn: The Real Moment of Creation

   2015    Science
Forget the Big Bang. The real moment of creation was the Cosmic Dawn - the moment of first light. It's the moment the first stars were born, the moment that lit up the Universe, and made the first structure and the first ingredients of life. This is the scientific version of the story of Genesis. The Big Bang gets all the credit for creating our universe. But in fact, the universe it gave was dark and boring. There were no stars, no galaxies, just a vast, black fog of gas - the cosmic dark ages". But, after a hundred million years of nothing, came a dramatic moment of transformation - the Cosmic Dawn. Astronomers are now trying to witness this cosmic dawn. For the first time they have the tools to explore the very first stars of the universe and to tell the scientific story of our creation.

The Salt of the Earth

   2014    Art
For the last 40 years, the photographer Sebastião Salgado has been travelling through the continents, in the footsteps of an ever-changing humanity. He has witnessed some of the major events of our recent history; international conflicts, starvation and exodus. He is now embarking on the discovery of pristine territories, of wild fauna and flora, and of grandiose landscapes as part of a huge photographic project, which is a tribute to the planet's beauty". Sebastião Salgado's life and work are revealed to us by his son, Juliano, who went with him during his last travels, and by Wim Wenders, himself a photographer.

Who Is Afraid of a Big Black Hole

   2009    Science
Black Holes are one of the most destructive forces in the universe, capable of tearing a planet apart and swallowing an entire star. Yet scientists now believe they could hold the key to answering the ultimate question - what was there before the Big Bang? The trouble is that researching them is next to impossible. Black holes are by definition invisible and there's no scientific theory able to explain them. Meet the astronomers attempting to image a black hole for the very first time and the theoretical physicists getting ever closer to unlocking their mysteries. It's a story that takes us into the heart of a black hole and to the very edge of what we think we know about the universe.

Second Earth

   2015    Science
20 years ago, two astronomers made a remarkable discovery, one which would change the way we view the universe for ever. A planet outside our solar system, orbiting a distant star - an exoplanet. Since then, we have found worlds where it rains diamonds, ones that boil at 3,000 degrees centigrade and even a world with four suns in its sky. But the big question is - will we ever find another Earth? As we close in on the discovery of the 2,000th planet outside our solar system, or exoplanet, we investigates the techniques that are revealing so much about these alien worlds. The documentary asks if we are really any closer to finding another world like our own - a second Earth.
Series: The Sky at Night