The worst episodes of How the Universe Works
Ranked by viewer rating, lows first. Lit marks on the season rail place this list across the run. Vote on a placement to back it or contest it.
- 01
Time travel might be more possible than we ever imagined, and today, cutting-edge technology and the latest research into black holes and wormholes are helping experts get steps closer to discovering how to travel through time.
- 02
Journey to the heart of the M87 supermassive black hole, the first and only black hole ever photographed, and explore the mystery of how it grew so large, what lies inside, and how it controls the entire galaxy.
- 03
A look inside the supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way to discover terrifying secrets about parallel universes, wormholes, and space-time.
- 04
Galaxies, home to stars, planets and us, come in all shapes and sizes. Witnesses the evolution of galaxies; from clouds of cold gas floating in the voids of space 13 billion years ago, to the magnificent spirals that fill our night sky.
- 05
Black Holes: The Secret Origin
Recent evidence could explain how supermassive black holes grow so big; neither dark matter nor cannibalism can fully explain these beasts, but the latest science may finally provide an answer.
- 06
Dark matter is the biggest mystery of the cosmos. Scientists know that it has been vital to our universe since its birth, and new discoveries reveal that it could create black holes, cause mass extinctions, and might even shape life on Earth itself.
- 07
Spacetime is the secret structure that controls our universe, and this strange four-dimensional substance controls time, light, and energy; it will also determine how our universe will end.
- 08
The hidden kingdom of microscopic alien organisms shapes the universe as much as galaxies, stars, and planets; new discoveries reveal how bacteria, viruses, and other micro-organisms built life on Earth and influence humanity's future in the cosmos.
- 09
New discoveries are challenging everything we know about black holes -- astronomers are beginning to question if they even exist. The latest science tries to explain how they work & what they look like, despite the fact we've never actually seen one.
- 10
We don't yet know where the edge of the universe is or what happens there. Still, thanks to cutting-edge technology and new discoveries, experts might finally reveal the secrets of the phenomena that can be found in the deepest reaches of the cosmos.
- 11
Black Holes,the most powerful destroyers in the Universe, the most mysterious phenomena in the heavens. For years they were only speculation, now modern astronomy is proving them frighteningly real and showing that they may well shape everything we see.
- 12
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?
- 13
Examining the ways the unvierse could come to an end.
- 14
This is the greatest story ever told, the creation of everything us. The programme investigates how the Universe came into existence out of nothing, and how it grew from a miniscule point, smaller than an atomic particle, to the vast cosmos we see today.
- 15
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?
- 16
Extreme Orbits - Clockwork and Creation
Orbits are a creative force and construct the fabric of the Universe.
- 17
The first second of the Universe, the creation of everything when space, time, matter and energy burst into existence. It is the most important second in history, which seals the Universe's fate and defines everything that comes after - including us.
- 18
Experts utilize the latest science and discoveries to investigate the cause of the Milky Way galaxy's gradual death.
- 19
Quasars are the brightest and most powerful objects in the universe, and though they have shaped the cosmos, they might ultimately destroy everything that exists.
- 20
Dark matter and dark energy are locked in an epic battle for control of the cosmos, and the winner will determine the fate of the universe. New discoveries might reveal which force will emerge victorious.
- 21
Our universe's stars are dying off faster than new ones are born, and using the latest technology, experts investigate the secrets of the last stars of the cosmos and what this stellar apocalypse means for life on earth.
- 22
The story of how stars were made by the universe and how stars went on to engineer everything else in that universe.
- 23
Scientists are looking for life on Saturn's moons and they may have found it on Titan.
- 24
The universe is a dangerous place, explore the deadliest spots in the cosmos; between earth and the edge of the universe, there are a million ways to die, and our crash test dummy is on a mission to reveal the worst.
- 25
Life and Death on the Red Planet
Life once existed on Mars, but a series of devastating mass extinctions have made present-day life nearly impossible. The latest science shows how Martian life keeps bouncing back as it transforms from a watery world like Earth into a desert planet.
