This year, it was deeper dive into the solar system. You might wonder what was left to document so soon (in space documentary years) after The Planets. What Solar System does is to open things up to include moons and dwarf planets. Suddenly to the topic candidates expand from fewer than a dozen to hundreds. We've been sending probes to explore these words for decades, and researchers have been able to identify and sort unexpected mysteries.
Ice worlds composed of hot, black ice, volcanic worlds heated by tidal forces, dwarf planets that kiss more than they collide, comets, asteroids, and an unseen cloud of countless worlds. Solar System dives deep into some two dozen worlds in our own neighborhood, including Haumea, Ganymede, Miranda, Pan, Io, Enceladus, Iapetus, Phobos, Ceres, Triton, and Charon. Earth is included in the mix, correctly cast among the "Strange Worlds." Honestly, the more you know about Earth, the stranger it seems.
Thanks once again to my fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Murphy, for encouraging me to deepen my fascination with the other worlds of the solar system years before the Vikings or the Voyagers.
All across the solar system, volcanoes are erupting, storms are raging, and ice is acting in strange ways. And surprises like these aren’t limited to planets: Our solar system is home to a myriad of fascinating smaller bodies, including moons, asteroids, and comets. In recent decades, space missions have brought these neighboring worlds into sharp focus. Now, using the latest scientific imagery and stunningly realistic animations, planetary scientists take us on a journey across the solar system to uncover new revelations about our celestial neighborhood–and illuminate how Earth may be the oddest world of all.
VENUS · MARS · JUPITER · TITAN
Across the solar system, wild storms are raging. From globe-spanning dust storms, to monsoons of liquid methane, to monstrous storms with lightning bolts ten times more energetic than anything on Earth–our solar system is full of weird and wonderful weather. Explore the forces that create the truly awesome and extreme conditions found on our neighboring planets and moons.
HAUMEA · GANYMEDE · MIRANDA · PAN · CASSINI · EARTH
From a dwarf planet that looks like a deflated football, to a tiny moon with cliffs taller than Mt. Everest, to the spectacular rings of Saturn, discover how the effects of gravity produce the amazing variety of weird worlds in our solar system.
MARS · IO · ENCELADUS · VENUS
All around our solar system, volcanoes are powerful shapers of worlds. Next door on Mars is Olympus Mons, a giant volcanic mountain more than twice the size of Mount Everest. And closer to the Sun, thousands of volcanoes produce the toxic atmosphere that keeps Venus boiling. Then there’s Jupiter’s moon Io, the most volcanically active world in the entire solar system, and Saturn’s moon Enceladus, where clues in its watery eruptions hint at the possibility of life. Discover the explosive forces that molded each of these worlds–and what makes the volcanoes right here on Earth so special.
PLUTO · URANUS · IAPETUS · MARS · EARTH
Ice might seem familiar to us on Earth, but out in the solar system, it can get quite exotic. From Uranus’s ultra hot superionic ice, to glaciers of nitrogen ice on Pluto, to carbon dioxide snow on Mars, ice is a fundamental building block throughout our cosmic neighborhood. Visit some of the strange, frozen worlds of our solar system to discover why the ice here on Earth so special—and why we wouldn’t be here without it.
PHOBOS · CERES · TRITON · CHARON · OORT CLOUD
The classic view of our solar system contains eight orderly planets, some with moons in neat orbits—but when we look closer, we discover a bunch of stuff missing from this simple, clockwork model. Wandering worlds that seem out of place, found in the gaps between and beyond the planets, offer clues that our cosmic neighborhood is far more dynamic than we once thought. From the meteorites that impact Earth, to a moon that orbits backwards, to an imposter lurking in the asteroid belt, these wandering worlds are rewriting what we know—and even how we think about—our solar system.
More BBC PBS NOVA space science question sets:
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