Seven Ages of Starlight: This is the epic story of the stars, and how discovering their tale has transformed our own understanding of the universe. Once we thought the sun and stars were gods and giants. Now we know, in a way, our instincts were right. The stars do all have their own characters, histories and role in the cosmos. Not least, they played a vital part in creating us. There are old, bloated red giants, capable…
Universe - The Big Bang: Before the Dawn episode 5: It’s the ultimate question: why are we here? Cutting-edge space missions take us back 13.8 billion years to the very beginning – the origin of the Universe. Professor Brian Cox asks the ultimate question: how did the Universe come to be? The Universe is daunting in its scale. We live on one planet of eight that orbit just one of the four hundred billion stars in our galaxy.…
Universe - Black Holes: Heart of Darkness episode 4: Prof Brian Cox journeys into a supermassive black hole - a monster that can destroy worlds, stop time, and is forcing us to reassess our understanding of reality. Professor Brian Cox continues his epic exploration of the universe with a journey into darkness. The centre of our galaxy is home to an invisible monster of unimaginable power – a supermassive black hole named Sagittarius A*. Weighing 4 million times…
Universe - The Milky Way: Island of Light episode 3: Professor Brian Cox continues his epic exploration of the cosmos by exploring the faint band of light that sweeps across the night sky - our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The Sun is just one of almost 400 billion stars that form this vast, majestic disk of light, our own home in the universe. We’ve longed to understand our galaxy’s secrets since the time of the ancient Greeks, yet it’s…
Universe - Alien Worlds: The Search for Second Earth episode 2: Humans have long gazed up at the night sky, wondering whether other lifeforms and intelligences could be thriving on worlds far beyond our own. Answering that question seemed fated to remain pure speculation. But over the last few decades, ultra-sensitive telescopes and dogged detective work have transformed alien planet-hunting from science fiction into hard fact. Gone are the days of speculation; the hunt for extraterrestrials has become…