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The Universe: The Outer Planets

44 minutes 27 seconds

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Close up view of Neptune in space. Caption: What happened to Neptune's great dark spot?

New discoveries regarding the Outer Planets are creating a fundamental rethinking of our solar system. Uranus is a toxic combination of hydrogen, helium and methane. Scientists speculate that the planet was knocked on its side after colliding with another body. Neptune's largest moon, Triton, is cold and barren, but some scientists speculate that liquid water might exist under Triton's icy surface. Cold and inhospitable, Pluto completes one orbit around the solar system every 248 years. Cutting-edge computer graphics are used to bring the universe down to earth to show what life would be like on other planets, and to imagine what kind of life forms might evolve in alien atmospheres.

Media Details

Runtime: 44 minutes 27 seconds

Bubbling hot plasma. Caption: superheated into a plasma that burns at millions of degrees.
The Universe
Season 1 / Ep 1
44 minutes 8 seconds
Grade Level: 8 - 12
Earth and Mars passing each other in space. Caption: Mars and the Earth had been passing each other
The Universe
Season 1 / Ep 2
44 minutes 8 seconds
Grade Level: 9 - 12
Illustration of Jupiter's radiation. Caption: Its electromagnetic radiation is intense.
The Universe
Season 1 / Ep 4
44 minutes 16 seconds
Grade Level: 9 - 12
Two red orange planets in space. Caption: coalesced to shape our moon.
The Universe
Season 1 / Ep 6
44 minutes 6 seconds
Grade Level: 9 - 12
Meteor on fire traveling downwards. Caption: Venus has been hit hard with meteors…
The Universe
Season 1 / Ep 7
44 minutes 5 seconds
Grade Level: 9 - 12
Close up view of Neptune in space. Caption: What happened to Neptune's great dark spot?
The Universe
Season 2 / Ep 1
44 minutes 27 seconds
Grade Level: 9 - 12
View of Saturn in space. Caption: "Saturn: Lord of the Rings."
The Universe
Season 2 / Ep 2
44 minutes 9 seconds
Grade Level: 9 - 12
Six planets orbiting around the sun. Caption: (narrator) It is gravity that holds our solar system together.
The Universe
Season 2 / Ep 17
44 minutes 29 seconds
Grade Level: 8 - 12
Illustration of Mars in space. Caption: (narrator) How could life have first formed on Mars?
The Universe
Season 5 / Ep 2
44 minutes
Grade Level: 9 - 12
Image of the sun from above Earth. Caption: And the clock is ticking toward magnetic apocalypse.
The Universe
Season 5 / Ep 3
44 minutes 3 seconds
Grade Level: 9 - 12