Video Documentaries

A look at two missions attempting one of the most difficult feats of space exploration - to collect a rock from another world. Post moved here: https://hdclump.com/sky-at-night-expedition-asteroid/ We find out how studying these space rocks can teach us about the origins of our solar system and may one day help save Earth from a catastrophic collision. The Sky at Night - Expedition Asteroid The Sky at Night - Expedition Asteroid Your monthly journey through the fascinating world of space and astronomy. Our team of astronomers explain the latest thinking on what's out there in space and what you can see in the night sky.

1972 was the year a great affair ended, as the human race fell out of love with the moon. Just three years after the world was gripped by Neil Armstrong's giant leap for mankind, the last man left the moon and we have never been back.  This film tells the epic story of our love affair with the moon - what inspired it, how it faded away and how we are now falling in love all over again. The Moon The Moon is an astronomical body that orbits planet Earth and is Earth's only permanent natural satellite. It is the fifth-largest natural satellite in the Solar System, and the largest among planetary satellites relative to the size of the planet that it orbits (its primary). Moon is after Jupiter's satellite Io the second-densest satellite in the Solar System among those whose densities are known. The Moon is thought to have formed about 4.51 billion years ago, not long after Earth. The most widely accepted explanation is that the Moon formed from the debris left over after a gian

Galaxies are the building blocks of the universe. Our solar system sits inside a huge galaxy that we call the Milky Way - home to as many as 300 billion stars. But the Milky Way is itself just one of hundreds of billions of galaxies in the observable universe. Over the last 60 years of broadcasting, the Sky at Night has covered every major story of discovery about the galaxies, and in this film presenter Chris Lintott uses this archive to reveal the deepest secrets of galaxies, from their earliest beginnings to their very ends. From the first galaxy ever discovered through to today's cutting edge attempts to map our own Milky Way, this is a story of incredible ingenuity, extraordinary technology and spectacular discoveries. We'll discover how galaxies work - from the secrets of their spiral arms to the dramatic events that drive their evolution - uncovering a weird and wonderful menagerie of objects along the way. Ultimately, the discovery of the galaxies is also the story of h

The planets have fascinated us for millennia, but over the past 60 years our understanding of them has been transformed. Using The Sky at Night archives, Maggie Aderin-Pocock takes us on a spectacular voyage of discovery through our exploration of the planets. From incredible technological achievements, to astonishing phenomena such as epic storms on Jupiter and the stunningly complex rings of Saturn, this is the definitive guide to the planets. And the journey doesn't end at the edges of our solar system. We're now discovering that the Milky Way is full of weird and wonderful exoplanets outside our own solar system. Yet the more we learn, the more we discover how special our own planet really is. The Sky at Night - Your monthly journey through the fascinating world of space and astronomy. Our team of astronomers explain the latest thinking on what's out there in space and what you can see in the night sky. The Sky at Night The Sky at Night is a monthly documentary televisi

For past three and a half years, ESA's Gaia Space telescope has been mapping the heavens in unprecedented detail. At the end of April 2018 it released precise data on over 1.3 billion stars in the Milky Way showing how they move over time and their distance from Earth. Maggie and Chris reveal some of the most surprising initial findings, from the discovery of wandering black holes, hyper velocity stars and 'transient phenomena' to a brand new age map of the Milky Way and concrete evidence of how our galaxy formed. The Sky at Night - Your monthly journey through the fascinating world of space and astronomy. Our team of astronomers explain the latest thinking on what's out there in space and what you can see in the night sky.

The Sky at Night - Return to the Moon ? -  Nearly 50 years ago, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon and it seemed like the dawn of a new age. Soon we'd be flying to the moon as effortlessly as we fly to America, and a moon base would be filled with men and women building a better future out in space. But then the moon fell out of fashion. We soon realized it was brutally inhospitable and getting there was eye-wateringly expensive.   [video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://video-clump.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/The-Sky-at-Night-Return-to-the-Moon.mp4"][/video]   Rather than spend huge sums of money going where we'd already been, Mars and the other planets seemed much more exciting destinations. But now that is set to change. For the first time in a generation, there are credible plans to go back to the moon, and maybe even build a working moon base. The Sky at Night examines this renewed interest in the moon, and asks why it's happeni

Space-time is the secret structure that controls the universe, and this strange four-dimensional substance controls time, light, and energy. It will also determine how the universe will end. [video width="992" height="558" mp4="https://video-clump.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/How-the-Universe-Works-ep.10.mp4"][/video]   Space-time In physics, space-time is any mathematical model that fuses the three dimensions of space and the one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional continuum. Space-time diagrams are useful in visualizing and understanding relativistic effects such as how different observers perceive where and when events occur. Until the turn of the 20th century, the assumption had been that the three-dimensional geometry of the universe (its description in terms of locations, shapes, distances, and directions) was distinct from time (the measurement of when events occur within the universe). However, Albert Einstein's 1905 special theo

Our solar system is home to hundreds of strange, tiny worlds called dwarf planets, and new discoveries reveal the secrets of these mysterious places. [video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://video-clump.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/How-the-Universe-Works-Strange-Lives-of-Dwarf-Planets-ep.8-2018.mp4"][/video] Dwarf Planets Dwarf planets are worlds that are too small to be considered full-fledged planets, but too large to fall into smaller categories. In recent years, there's been a lot of hubbub about Pluto losing its status as one of the planets of the solar system. Pluto is no longer considered the ninth planet in the series of major planetary objects, but instead is now just one of the many so-called "dwarf planets." The debate started anew after the New Horizons mission passed by Pluto in 2015, revealing a world of surprising geological complexity. As of 2017, delegates from the mission are trying to get Pluto's planethood statu

Quasars are the brightest and most powerful objects in our universe, and though they have shaped the cosmos, they might ultimately destroy everything that exists. [video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://video-clump.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/How-the-Universe-Works-The-Quasar-Engima.mp4"][/video]   Quasar   A quasar (also quasi-stellar object or QSO) is an active galactic nucleus of very high luminosity. A quasar consists of a super massive black hole surrounded by an orbiting accretion disk of gas. As gas in the accretion disk falls toward the black hole, energy is released in the form of electromagnetic radiation. Quasars emit energy across the electromagnetic spectrum and can be observed at radio, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, and X-ray wavelengths. The most powerful quasars have luminosity exceeding 1041 W, thousands of times greater than the luminosity of a large galaxy such as the Milky Way. The term originated as a contraction of "qu

Astronomers are now trying to witness the 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. [video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://video-clump.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Horizon-Cosmic-Dawn.mp4"][/video]   Forget the big bang. The real moment of creation was the cosmic dawn - the moment of first light. 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. 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 was the real moment of creation.

Mercury is a deadly world, facing attacks from the sun, comets, and other planets, and even though it's the smallest planet in the solar system, it has a dangerous secret a dangerous secret that might one day threaten life on Earth. [video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://video-clump.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/How-the-Universe-Works-Secret-History-of-Mercury.mp4"][/video]   How is the universe put together? How is it built? And how does it actually work? Science's hit space series will blow your mind by answering how the universe started and how it will end - and everything in between. Learn how nuclear fusion keeps them burning for billions of years and what powers our nearest star: the sun. The inner workings of outer space will be revealed as modern astronomy helps to demystify a series of unusual phenomena. Mercury Mercury is the smallest and innermost planet in the Solar System. Its orbital period around the Sun of 88 days is the sho

The Milky Way is dying, and experts are investigating what's killing it. [video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://video-clump.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Death-of-the-Milky-Way.mp4"][/video]   How is the universe put together? How is it built? And how does it actually work? Science's hit space series will blow your mind by answering how the universe started and how it will end - and everything in between. Learn how nuclear fusion keeps them burning for billions of years and what powers our nearest star: the sun. The inner workings of outer space will be revealed as modern astronomy helps to demystify a series of unusual phenomena. Milky Way The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our Solar System. The descriptive "milky" is derived from the appearance from Earth of the galaxy – a band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. The term Milky Way is a translation o

In October 2017, astronomers made a spectacular discovery - they spotted the first ever object to visit our solar system from outer space. They gave it a suitably exotic name... 'Oumuamua. Its discovery set off a hurricane of press speculation and a major scientific investigation. To investigate this spectacular astronomical detective story, The Sky at Night goes to Queen's University in Belfast, which has become the centre of scientific research on this cosmic visitor. When they first spotted it, all scientists knew was that it was small, it was travelling fast, and it came from outside our solar system. Its discovery provoked a host of questions. What did it look like? How had it formed? What was it made of? Where had it come from? To answer these questions, the team pieces together all the clues that scientists have extracted from the small amounts of data collected as 'Oumuamua flashed through the solar system. This forensic analysis - including exclusive new revelation

The ice giants Uranus and Neptune are mysterious, icy worlds at the edge of the solar system; new discoveries reveal that these strange planets may have helped start life on Earth. [video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://video-clump.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/How-the-Universe-Works-Uranus-Neptune-Rise-of-the-Ice-Giants-ep.4-2018.mp4"][/video] Ice giants An ice giant is a giant planet composed mainly of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, such as oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur. There are two known ice giants in the Solar System, Uranus and Neptune. In astrophysics and planetary science the term "ices" refers to volatile chemical compounds with freezing points above about 100 K, such as water, ammonia, or methane, with freezing points of 273 K, 195 K, and 91 K, respectively (see Volatiles). In the 1990s, it was realized that Uranus and Neptune are a distinct class of giant planet, separate from the other giant planets, Jupite

Planets that orbit two suns instead of one might be deadly hell worlds, but new discoveries reveal that sci-fi star systems with binary stars might be optimal places for alien life. [video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://video-clump.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Twin-Suns-The-Alien-Mysteries.mp4"][/video]   How the Universe Works is a users guide to the cosmos from the big bang to galaxies, stars, planets and moons. Where did it all come from and how does it all fit together. A primer for anyone who has ever looked up at the night sky and wondered. Binary stars A binary star is a star system consisting of two stars orbiting around their common barycenter. Systems of two or more stars are called multiple star systems. These systems, especially when more distant, often appear to the unaided eye as a single point of light, and are then revealed as multiple by other means. Research over the last two centuries suggests that half or more of visible stars

Our solar system hides a dark and violent past, and new discoveries reveal that the earth and planets were formed from the destruction of strange alien worlds that came before us. [video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://video-clump.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Dark-History-of-the-Solar-System.mp4"][/video]   Dark History of the Solar System: The formation and evolution of the Solar System began 4.6 billion years ago with the gravitational collapse of a small part of a giant molecular cloud. Most of the collapsing mass collected in the center, forming the Sun, while the rest flattened into a protoplanetary disk out of which the planets, moons, asteroids, and other small Solar System bodies formed. This model, known as the nebular hypothesis, was first developed in the 18th century by Emanuel Swedenborg, Immanuel Kant, and Pierre-Simon Laplace. Its subsequent development has interwoven a variety of scientific disciplines including astronomy, physics,

The Sky at Night - The Invisible Universe: reports on one of the most unnerving discoveries in space science - that most of the universe is missing. We live in a material world, so instinctively we know what normal matter is - the world around us, the planets, stars and interstellar dust. But scientists currently estimate that 95 per cent of everything in the universe is actually - one way or another - invisible. Some of this is ordinary matter that we just can't easily see. But there's also stuff that's much more weird. For instance, there's a new kind of matter we think is out there, but whose very existence is still largely hypothetical - dark matter. And most mysteriously of all, scientists think there is an unknown form of energy pervading the universe that we know so little about, all it has so far is a name - dark energy. The Sky at Night takes you on a tour of this invisible universe, and shows how its existence - or lack of it - will define the fate of the enti

Wonders of the Night Sky The Sky at Night celebrates one of the most profound, moving and enjoyable activities there is - the ancient art of looking up, studying and marvelling at the night sky. The programme is based at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich - the spiritual home of British astronomy - and sets out to discover the many and varied ways we can all enjoy the majesty of the skies. Maggie Aderin-Pocock travels to Norway to see the northern lights, and discovers that we are in a golden age of aurora research as she learns what they tell us about the solar system. Chris Lintott learns the ancient art of navigating by the stars, whilst Pete Lawrence helps choose the right equipment to set yourself up as an amateur astronomer. This is your guide to observing and enjoying all the Wonders of the Night Sky.

May 9 2016 sees one of the astronomical highlights of the year - a transit of Mercury across the sun, the best opportunity to observe this phenomenon until 2049. To mark the event, the Sky at Night attempts to explain the many mysteries of Mercury - a planet so bizarre that it is sometimes described as the 'problem child' of the solar system. Surface temperatures exceed 450 degrees but it also has patches of ice, its day is twice as long as its year, and it is a planet that appears to be shrinking.

In this episode we reveal how a golden age of invention and scholarship thrived in the Islamic World at a time when Europe lingered in the dark age. We see how Muslim scholars brought together for the first time the ideas of the Greeks and Romans with Persian and Indian mathematics and astronomy, and developed them into the beginnings of modern Science. [video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://video-clump.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/East-to-West-–-A-Force-from-the-Desert-ep.4.mp4"][/video]   We reveal the first contacts by which European scholars discovered this treasury of knowledge and how it was developed by generations of Arab-admirers (including Galileo & Copernicus) into modern science. This episode focuses on the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, the great university mosques of Cairo and uncovers ancient documents translated in Baghdad by Islamic scholars, now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. East to West is an exciting seven part series chart