How the Universe Works — Season 2
All 8 episodes in airing order, with first-run dates and viewer ratings.
- 01
Volcanoes - The Furnaces of Life
Scientists are discovering volcanoes on worlds we once thought dead. From our nearest planetary neighbor to tiny moons billions of miles away, today, we are discovering volcanoes on alien worlds. Are these worlds where, tomorrow, we might find life?
- 02
Megastorms - The Winds of Creation
Examining chaotic weather to help determine whether we are alone in the universe.
- 03
Exoplanets - Planets from Hell
Discovering an extraordinary zoo of planetary nightmares outside our own planet.
- 04
Megaflares - Cosmic Firestorms
The Universe is a magnetic minefield. Spinning star systems crackle and explode, magnetic monsters rip worlds apart, star-quakes shoot beams of devastating energy, and galactic flamethrowers fire gamma-rays halfway across the Universe. Could the earth be in the line of fire from the dangerous megaflares from the sun?
- 05
Extreme Orbits - Clockwork and Creation
Orbits are a creative force and construct the fabric of the Universe.
- 06
Following the journey of a comet from its beginning as cosmic detritus floating around the outer limits of the solar system to the outgassing process as the comet approaches the sun. Watch the movement of a comet as it evolves from a chunk of ice and rock into an active nucleus engulfed in a gaseous haze.
- 07
Asteroids - Worlds That Never Were
Asteroids shaped our past and promise much in the future; revealing the mysteries behind giant asteroids that influence the creation and destruction of life on Earth.
- 08
The Earth was formed by a series of cosmic cataclysms, including the most powerful blast in the universe. Could the same chain of events have created other earths elsewhere, inhabited by creatures like us?
