Down to the Earth's Core • 2012

83:37

In July 1969, history was made as 600 million people watched Neil Armstrong's giant leap for mankind on the surface of the moon. But behind these iconic images is an untold story. Now, 50 years later, Discovery and Science Channel celebrate the Apollo 11 moon landing with a two-hour television event, APOLLO: THE FORGOTTEN FILMS, that tells the complete story of this most audacious of missions. Featuring forgotten and never-before-seen footage from events surrounding the landmark mission, the documentary by Duncan Copp traces the decade's worth of effort involving half a million scientists that was required to enable that "one giant leap for mankind". The archives reveal the incredible lengths an army of engineers, scientists and astronauts went to, to achieve America's greatest technological feat.

2019 • Astronomy

29:49

Voyager 1 and 2 are truly the probes that just won’t quit. Launched almost 40 years ago these twin probes continue to stun the world. They've explored all the giant outer planets of our solar system, 48 of their moons, and are now leaving the solar system, on a journey into interstellar space.

S1E1 • Space Probes • 2016 • Astronomy

43:56

Explore the story behind the man who found the first clues to life's beginnings on Earth.

3/13 • Cosmos: Possible Worlds • 2020 • Astronomy

42:01

Asteroids strike, planets collide, black holes blast out death rays, volcanoes erupt and ice engulfs the planet. These are the universe’s weapons of extinction. They’ve happened before - wiping out entire species, and they will happen again. Are we next?

S3E6 • How the Universe Works • 2014 • Astronomy

59:37

As Nasa releases the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope, this film tells the inside story of the telescope's construction and the astronomers taking its first picture of distant stars and galaxies. Will it be the deepest image of our universe ever taken? The successor to Hubble, and 100 times more powerful, the James Webb is the most technically advanced telescope ever built. It will look further back in time than Hubble to an era around 200 million years after the Big Bang, when the first stars and galaxies appeared. Webb's primary mission is to capture the faint light from these objects on the edge of our visible universe so that scientists can learn how they formed, but its instruments are so sensitive it could also be the first telescope to detect signs of life on a distant planet. The James Webb Telescope is an ?8 billion gamble on the skills of its engineering team. It’s the first telescope designed to unfold in space – a complicated two-week operation in which 178 release devices must all work - 107 of them on the telescope's sun shield alone. If just one fails, the expensive telescope could become a giant piece of space junk. From its conception in the late 1980s, the construction of Webb has posed a huge technical challenge. The team must build a mirror six times larger than Hubble’s and construct a vast sun shield the size of a tennis court, fold them up so they fit into an Ariane 5 rocket, then find a way to unfold them in space. This film tells the inside story of the James Webb Space Telescope in the words of the engineers who built it and the astronomers who will use it.

2022 • Astronomy

43:53

From the birth of the devil in ancient Persia, where a beloved family dog becomes a seething beast, to a searing story of saintliness among macaque monkeys, join an exploration into the human potential for change. One of history's greatest monsters is transformed into one of its shining lights.

11/13 • Cosmos: Possible Worlds • 2020 • Astronomy