Science and Nature

NOVA

NOVA brings you stories from the frontlines of science and engineering, answering the big questions of today and tomorrow, from how our ancestors lived, to whether parallel universes exist, to how technology will transform our lives. Visit the official website to watch full-length documentaries, or explore our world through short-form video, on our digital publication NOVA Next.

Solar System: Volcano Worlds

53m 34s

Around our solar system, violent eruptions are shaping distant worlds. Discover the explosive forces that helped create some of the most dynamic worlds in our cosmic neighborhood – and what makes the volcanoes right here on Earth so special.

Episodes

  • Solar System: Volcano Worlds: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Solar System: Volcano Worlds

    S51 E11 - 53m 34s

    Around our solar system, violent eruptions are shaping distant worlds. Discover the explosive forces that helped create some of the most dynamic worlds in our cosmic neighborhood – and what makes the volcanoes right here on Earth so special.

  • Solar System: Strange Worlds: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Solar System: Strange Worlds

    S51 E10 - 53m 34s

    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.

  • Solar System: Storm Worlds: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Solar System: Storm Worlds

    S51 E9 - 53m 34s

    Out in the solar system, the weather gets wacky – with globe-spanning dust storms, monsoons of liquid methane, and lightning 10 times stronger than here on Earth. Discover the forces driving the dramatic weather on neighboring planets and moons.

  • Decoding the Universe: Cosmos: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Decoding the Universe: Cosmos

    S51 E8 - 53m 38s

    How big is the universe? Will it ever end? Why is so much of it made of mysterious dark matter and energy? See how mind-bending discoveries over the past 50 years have revolutionized our understanding of the universe.

  • Secrets in Your Data: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Secrets in Your Data

    S51 E7 - 53m 40s

    Whether you’re on social media or surfing the web, you’re probably sharing more personal data than you realize. Find out where your data is going, who’s selling it, and how you – and a new kind of web – could put control back in your hands.

  • Great American Eclipse: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Great American Eclipse

    S51 E6 - 53m 34s

    Explore the spectacular cosmic phenomenon of a total solar eclipse. In April 2024, the Moon’s shadow is sweeping from Texas to Maine, as the U.S. witnesses its last total eclipse until 2044, and scientists scramble to unlock the secrets of our Sun.

  • A.I. Revolution: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    A.I. Revolution

    S51 E5 - 53m 30s

    A.I. tools like ChatGPT seem to think, speak, and create like humans. But what are they really doing? From cancer cures to Terminator-style takeovers, leading experts explore what A.I. can – and can’t – do today, and what lies ahead.

  • Hunt for the Oldest DNA: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Hunt for the Oldest DNA

    S51 E4 - 53m 10s

    For decades, scientists have tried to unlock the secrets of ancient DNA. Follow the dramatic quest to recover DNA millions of years old and reveal a lost world from before the last Ice Age.

  • Building the Eiffel Tower: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Building the Eiffel Tower

    S51 E3 - 53m 29s

    Explore the revolutionary engineering behind Paris’s iconic landmark. Completed in 1889, the iron tower smashed the record for the tallest structure on Earth, ushering in a new age of global construction that reached for the skies.

  • Easter Island Origins: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Easter Island Origins

    S51 E2 - 53m 17s

    The giant stone heads of Easter Island have inspired theories for centuries. Now, new research reveals intriguing evidence of the origins and inspirations of the ancient Rapanui people who created the iconic monoliths.

  • When Whales Could Walk: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    When Whales Could Walk

    S51 E1 - 53m 31s

    A spectacular fossil graveyard reveals a 43-million-year-old whale that had four legs and could walk. Follow scientists as they search for new clues to how mammals moved from land into the sea to become the largest animals on Earth.

Extras + Features

  • The whale that could walk: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The whale that could walk

    S51 E1 - 2m 48s

    A small furry carnivore that lived both on land and sea is the ancestor of modern whales.

  • How Did Whales Evolve From Land Mammals?: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    How Did Whales Evolve From Land Mammals?

    S51 E1 - 3m 8s

    The oceans are thought to be where life started but about 50-million years ago, something incredible happened: some mammals found their way back into the water.

Schedule

  • Image
    NOVA: Solar System: Icy Worlds: TVSS: Iconic

    NOVA

    Solar System: Icy Worlds

    Sunday
    Oct 27

    1 Hour

    Exploring the strange, frozen worlds of the solar system, from ultra hot superionic ice on Uranus to glaciers of nitrogen ice on Pluto.
  • Image
    NOVA: Solar System: Icy Worlds: TVSS: Iconic

    NOVA

    Solar System: Icy Worlds

    Sunday
    Oct 27

    1 Hour

    Exploring the strange, frozen worlds of the solar system, from ultra hot superionic ice on Uranus to glaciers of nitrogen ice on Pluto.
  • Image
    NOVA: Solar System: Icy Worlds: TVSS: Iconic

    NOVA

    Solar System: Icy Worlds

    Sunday
    Oct 27

    1 Hour

    Exploring the strange, frozen worlds of the solar system, from ultra hot superionic ice on Uranus to glaciers of nitrogen ice on Pluto.
  • Image
    NOVA: Solar System: Icy Worlds: TVSS: Iconic

    NOVA

    Solar System: Icy Worlds

    Tuesday
    Oct 29

    1 Hour

    Exploring the strange, frozen worlds of the solar system, from ultra hot superionic ice on Uranus to glaciers of nitrogen ice on Pluto.
  • Image
    NOVA: Solar System: Icy Worlds: TVSS: Iconic

    NOVA

    Solar System: Icy Worlds

    Wednesday
    Oct 30

    1 Hour

    Exploring the strange, frozen worlds of the solar system, from ultra hot superionic ice on Uranus to glaciers of nitrogen ice on Pluto.
  • Image
    NOVA: Solar System: Icy Worlds: TVSS: Iconic

    NOVA

    Solar System: Icy Worlds

    Wednesday
    Oct 30

    1 Hour

    Exploring the strange, frozen worlds of the solar system, from ultra hot superionic ice on Uranus to glaciers of nitrogen ice on Pluto.
  • Image
    NOVA: Solar System: Wandering Worlds: TVSS: Banner-L1

    NOVA

    Solar System: Wandering Worlds

    Wednesday
    Oct 30

    1 Hour

    Exploring wandering worlds that move around the solar system, from meteorites that impact Earth to a moon that orbits backwards.
  • Image
    NOVA: Solar System: Wandering Worlds: TVSS: Banner-L1

    NOVA

    Solar System: Wandering Worlds

    Wednesday
    Oct 30

    1 Hour

    Exploring wandering worlds that move around the solar system, from meteorites that impact Earth to a moon that orbits backwards.
  • Image
    NOVA: Solar System: Wandering Worlds: TVSS: Banner-L1

    NOVA

    Solar System: Wandering Worlds

    Thursday
    Oct 31

    1 Hour

    Exploring wandering worlds that move around the solar system, from meteorites that impact Earth to a moon that orbits backwards.
  • Image
    NOVA: Solar System: Wandering Worlds: TVSS: Banner-L1

    NOVA

    Solar System: Wandering Worlds

    Thursday
    Oct 31

    1 Hour

    Exploring wandering worlds that move around the solar system, from meteorites that impact Earth to a moon that orbits backwards.
  • Image
    NOVA: Solar System: Wandering Worlds: TVSS: Banner-L1

    NOVA

    Solar System: Wandering Worlds

    Sunday
    Nov 3

    1 Hour

    Exploring wandering worlds that move around the solar system, from meteorites that impact Earth to a moon that orbits backwards.
  • Image
    NOVA: Solar System: Wandering Worlds: TVSS: Banner-L1

    NOVA

    Solar System: Wandering Worlds

    Sunday
    Nov 3

    1 Hour

    Exploring wandering worlds that move around the solar system, from meteorites that impact Earth to a moon that orbits backwards.
  • Image
    NOVA: Solar System: Wandering Worlds: TVSS: Banner-L1

    NOVA

    Solar System: Wandering Worlds

    Sunday
    Nov 3

    1 Hour

    Exploring wandering worlds that move around the solar system, from meteorites that impact Earth to a moon that orbits backwards.
  • Image
    NOVA: Solar System: Wandering Worlds: TVSS: Banner-L1

    NOVA

    Solar System: Wandering Worlds

    Tuesday
    Nov 5

    1 Hour

    Exploring wandering worlds that move around the solar system, from meteorites that impact Earth to a moon that orbits backwards.
  • Image
    NOVA: Solar System: Wandering Worlds: TVSS: Banner-L1

    NOVA

    Solar System: Wandering Worlds

    Wednesday
    Nov 6

    1 Hour

    Exploring wandering worlds that move around the solar system, from meteorites that impact Earth to a moon that orbits backwards.
  • Image
    NOVA: Solar System: Wandering Worlds: TVSS: Banner-L1

    NOVA

    Solar System: Wandering Worlds

    Wednesday
    Nov 6

    1 Hour

    Exploring wandering worlds that move around the solar system, from meteorites that impact Earth to a moon that orbits backwards.
  • Image
    NOVA: TVSS: Banner-L1

    NOVA

    Decoding the Universe: Quantum

    Wednesday
    Nov 6

    1 Hour

    Exploring the quantum universe.
  • Image
    NOVA: TVSS: Banner-L1

    NOVA

    Decoding the Universe: Quantum

    Wednesday
    Nov 6

    1 Hour

    Exploring the quantum universe.
  • Image
    NOVA: TVSS: Banner-L1

    NOVA

    Decoding the Universe: Quantum

    Thursday
    Nov 7

    1 Hour

    Exploring the quantum universe.
  • Image
    NOVA: TVSS: Banner-L1

    NOVA

    Decoding the Universe: Quantum

    Thursday
    Nov 7

    1 Hour

    Exploring the quantum universe.

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