''Wonders of the Solar System'' is a 2010 television series co-produced by the BBC and

Science Channel Science Channel (often simply branded as Science; abbreviated to SCI) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel features programming focusing on science related to wilderness survival, engineering, man ...

, and hosted by physicist Brian Cox. ''Wonders of the Solar System'' was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream a ...

on 7 March 2010. The series comprises five episodes, each of which focuses on an aspect of the

Solar System The Solar System Capitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar ...

and features a 'wonder' relevant to the theme. The series was described as one of the most successful to appear on BBC Two in recent years. An accompanying book with the same name was also published. On 31 March 2011, the series won the prestigious

George Foster Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

for excellence in documentary film-making.

Episodes

1. "Empire of the Sun"

The first episode illustrates how the formation and behaviour of the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

affects each planet in the

. During this episode, Cox visits India to view and explain the workings of a total

solar eclipse A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of the Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six mon ...

and the partial eclipses that occur on other planets. He travels to the

Iguazu Falls Iguazú Falls or Iguaçu Falls ( gn, Chororõ Yguasu , es, Cataratas del Iguazú, links=no ; pt, Cataratas do Iguaçu ) are waterfalls of the Iguazu River on the border of the Argentine province of Misiones and the Brazilian state of Paraná ...

to relate the causality between river levels, and

sunspot Sunspots are phenomena on the Sun's photosphere that appear as temporary spots that are darker than the surrounding areas. They are regions of reduced surface temperature caused by concentrations of magnetic flux that inhibit convection. S ...

fluctuations. An explanation of the Earth's exposure to the power of the Sun occurs in

Death Valley Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. During summer, it is the hottest place on Earth. Death Valley's Badwater Basin is the point of lowest elevation in Nort ...

, California, US, with an experiment inspired by

John Herschel Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet (; 7 March 1792 – 11 May 1871) was an English polymath active as a mathematician, astronomer, chemist, inventor, experimental photographer who invented the blueprint and did botanical wo ...

actinometer Actinometers are instruments used to measure the heating power of radiation. They are used in meteorology to measure solar radiation as pyranometers, pyrheliometers and net radiometers. An actinometer is a chemical system or physical device whic ...

. He also travels to Norway to observe and explain the defensive role of the Earth's

magnetosphere In astronomy and planetary science, a magnetosphere is a region of space surrounding an astronomical object in which charged particles are affected by that object's magnetic field. It is created by a celestial body with an active interior d ...

against the Sun's

solar wind The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun, called the corona. This plasma mostly consists of electrons, protons and alpha particles with kinetic energy between . The composition of the sol ...

and its role in forming the

Aurora Borealis An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

. Cox then relates the Voyager missions and their continuing exploration of the massive reach of the Sun's gravitational forces on objects in the farthest regions of the Solar System. Finally, in the clear skies of the

Atacama Desert The Atacama Desert ( es, Desierto de Atacama) is a desert plateau in South America covering a 1,600 km (990 mi) strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes Mountains. The Atacama Desert is the driest nonpolar desert in th ...

, at the Paranal Observatory he is able to observe, with the naked eye, the myriad of stars on the

Milky Way The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. ...

and relates the meaning of their diverse colours as mapped on the

Hertzsprung–Russell diagram The Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, abbreviated as H–R diagram, HR diagram or HRD, is a scatter plot of stars showing the relationship between the stars' absolute magnitudes or luminosities versus their stellar classifications or effective te ...

2. "Order Out of Chaos"

Cox starts this episode in

Al-Qayrawan Kairouan (, ), also spelled El Qayrawān or Kairwan ( ar, ٱلْقَيْرَوَان, al-Qayrawān , aeb, script=Latn, Qeirwān ), is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city was founded by th ...

, Tunisia to analyse the orbit of the planets around our Sun, with details on how the 23-degree tilt of the Earth creates the seasonal weather patterns. He also visits the

Atlas Mountains The Atlas Mountains are a mountain range in the Maghreb in North Africa. It separates the Sahara Desert from the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean; the name "Atlantic" is derived from the mountain range. It stretches around through ...

, and relates how in clear night skies the ancients observed the rotation of the stars and the

retrograde and prograde motion Retrograde motion in astronomy is, in general, orbital or rotational motion of an object in the direction opposite the rotation of its primary, that is, the central object (right figure). It may also describe other motions such as precession or ...

of Mars and the other wandering

planets A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a youn ...

. In Oklahoma, US, he discusses the universal reach of the

Coriolis effect In physics, the Coriolis force is an inertial or fictitious force that acts on objects in motion within a frame of reference that rotates with respect to an inertial frame. In a reference frame with clockwise rotation, the force acts to the ...

and the importance of the conservation of

angular momentum In physics, angular momentum (rarely, moment of momentum or rotational momentum) is the rotational analog of linear momentum. It is an important physical quantity because it is a conserved quantity—the total angular momentum of a closed syst ...

. Next, at the

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, La Cañada Flintridge, California ...

he examines how the ''

Cassini–Huygens ''Cassini–Huygens'' ( ), commonly called ''Cassini'', was a space-research mission by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to send a space probe to study the planet Saturn and its system, including its r ...

'' space-probe's imagery provides an insight on the highly complex structure of the ice

rings of Saturn The rings of Saturn are the most extensive ring system of any planet in the Solar System. They consist of countless small particles, ranging in size from micrometers to meters, that orbit around Saturn. The ring particles are made almost entir ...

, and its diverse array of moons, and how they can reveal insights into the formation and evolution of the

. He also explains how

Enceladus Enceladus is the sixth-largest moon of Saturn (19th largest in the Solar System). It is about in diameter, about a tenth of that of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Enceladus is mostly covered by fresh, clean ice, making it one of the most refle ...

, as the most reflective object in the known universe, has been of interest due to its

continental divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not c ...

-like canyons and geysers (as also observed in parts of

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

). In the

Sahara Desert , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

the formative effect of winds on sand-dune morphology is paralleled to that of the gravitational effect of Saturn's 61 known moons on the matter that composite the rings - a phenomenon called

orbital resonance In celestial mechanics, orbital resonance occurs when orbiting bodies exert regular, periodic gravitational influence on each other, usually because their orbital periods are related by a ratio of small integers. Most commonly, this relationsh ...

3. "The Thin Blue Line"

The third episode looks at the

atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A ...

of the planets and moons of the Solar System, with Earth,

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

, and

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

being the main focus. The episode starts with Cox travelling to South Africa and taking a journey in an

English Electric Lightning The English Electric Lightning is a British fighter aircraft that served as an interceptor during the 1960s, the 1970s and into the late 1980s. It was capable of a top speed of above Mach 2. The Lightning was designed, developed, and manufa ...

up to an altitude of 18 kilometres where the "thinness and fragility" of the atmosphere could be observed in the middle of the day. This is then contrasted with the planet-wide consequences of Mercury's depleted, and Venus' broiling greenhouse atmospheres. Later, the dunal morphology of the

Namib Desert The Namib ( ; pt, Namibe) is a coastal desert in Southern Africa. The name is of Khoekhoegowab origin and means "vast place". According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Nami ...

is compared to what is known of the surface and depleted atmosphere of Mars, and is used to give an explanation of how the Earth maintains its temperature. Cox then explains how the damaging effect of the Sun's

is deflected by the Earth's

. Next, he discusses the transformative effect of weather on a planet's surface, such as the global dust-storms on Mars or the electrical-storms of Jupiter. The episode continues with an in-depth comparison of Saturn's largest moon,

Titan Titan most often refers to: * Titan (moon), the largest moon of Saturn * Titans, a race of deities in Greek mythology Titan or Titans may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities Fictional locations * Titan in fiction, fictiona ...

, using data gained from the ''Huygens'' probe's January 2005 descent down to the frigid

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane ...

surface of the moon. It ends with Cox comparing Earth's

hydrological cycle The water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle or the hydrological cycle, is a biogeochemical cycle that describes the continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface of the Earth. The mass of water on Earth remains fairly const ...

with Titan's methanological one.

4. "Dead or Alive"

The fourth episode begins at the

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon (, yuf-x-yav, Wi:kaʼi:la, , Southern Paiute language: Paxa’uipi, ) is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a m ...

, Arizona, US, where Cox draws comparisons of the canyon to Mars and the massive

Valles Marineris Valles Marineris (; Latin for '' Mariner Valleys'', named after the ''Mariner 9'' Mars orbiter of 1971–72 which discovered it) is a system of canyons that runs along the Martian surface east of the Tharsis region. At more than long, wide and ...

. A trip to

Kīlauea Kīlauea ( , ) is an active shield volcano in the Hawaiian Islands. Located along the southeastern shore of the Big Island of Hawaii, the volcano is between 210,000 and 280,000 years old and emerged above sea level about 100,000 years ago. His ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

shows the constant geological activity of Earth, and again a comparison to Mars and the massive

Olympus Mons Olympus Mons (; Latin for Mount Olympus) is a large shield volcano on Mars. The volcano has a height of over 21.9 km (13.6 mi or 72,000 ft) as measured by the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA). Olympus Mons is about two and a ha ...

is seen. Both comparisons are insightful in the sense that Earth's systems are still dynamic and active whereas Mars' have gradually slowed into inactivity. Cox then switches view closer to the Sun and the scorched greenhouse planet

, a planet often referred to as "Earth's twin", and compares it to the vulcan geology of the

Deccan Plateau The large Deccan Plateau in southern India is located between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, and is loosely defined as the peninsular region between these ranges that is south of the Narmada river. To the north, it is bounded by th ...

. An example of Earth's interconnectivity with the Solar System reveals that Jupiter's gravitational effect could potentially send an asteroid through the

Asteroid Belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, c ...

on a collision course with Earth, as evidenced by

Meteor Crater Meteor Crater, or Barringer Crater, is a meteorite impact crater about east of Flagstaff and west of Winslow in the desert of northern Arizona, United States. The site had several earlier names, and fragments of the meteorite are offi ...

. The same gravitational force is also shown to give the Jovian moon Io geological life (given the absence of meteor impact evidence there) as paralleled by the volcanism of

Erta Ale Erta Ale (or Ertale or Irta'ale; Amharic: ኤርታሌ) is a continuously active basaltic shield volcano in the Afar Region of northeastern Ethiopia. It is situated in the Afar Depression, a barren desert area. Erta Ale is the most active volcano ...

in Ethiopia. All in all, with the universal laws of physics at play throughout the solar system, its interconnectedness can also be seen.

5. "Aliens"

The final installment covers life surviving in extreme environments, and how the search for life on other worlds follows the search for water. Cox begins by travelling to the deep ocean to draw comparisons between life in the hostile conditions of the deep seabed (on the submersible

DSV Alvin ''Alvin'' (DSV-2) is a crewed deep-ocean research submersible owned by the United States Navy and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The vehicle was built by General Mills' Electronics Gro ...

) and the parallel potential of non-Earth life. The absence of life-sustaining water in the

in South America is also viewed, which is cited to explain the lack of even basic microbial life there. A trip to the

Scablands The Channeled Scablands are a relatively barren and soil-free region of interconnected relict and dry flood channels, coulees and cataracts eroded into Palouse loess and the typically flat-lying basalt flows that remain after cataclysmic floods w ...

in North-West America is also made, with an explanation of the

Missoula Floods The Missoula floods (also known as the Spokane floods or the Bretz floods or Bretz's floods) were cataclysmic glacial lake outburst floods that swept periodically across eastern Washington and down the Columbia River Gorge at the end of the las ...

that once occurred there, and how the tell-tale signature of water shaped the landscape geologically. The

exploration of Mars The planet Mars has been explored remotely by spacecraft. Probes sent from Earth, beginning in the late 20th century, have yielded a large increase in knowledge about the Martian system, focused primarily on understanding its geology and habi ...

has revealed possible evidence of its subterranean

hydrology Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and environmental watershed sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is call ...

, and a visit to the

Cueva de Villa Luz Cueva de Villa Luz (English: Cave of the Lighted House), also known as Cueva del Azufre and Cueva de las Sardinas, is a cave near Tapijulapa in the southern Mexican state of Tabasco. The springs within the cave are rich in hydrogen sulfide, a g ...

in Mexico shows how simple life-forms (such as

archaea Archaea ( ; singular archaeon ) is a domain of single-celled organisms. These microorganisms lack cell nuclei and are therefore prokaryotes. Archaea were initially classified as bacteria, receiving the name archaebacteria (in the Archaeba ...

and

snottite Snottite, also snoticle, is a microbial mat of cell (biology), single-celled extremophile, extremophilic bacteria which hang from the walls and ceilings of caves and are similar to small stalactites, but have the consistency of nasal mucus. In th ...

s) survive in hostile conditions beneath the Earth. Conversely, the hostile frozen topography of

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousand ...

's moon

Europa Europa may refer to: Places * Europe * Europa (Roman province), a province within the Diocese of Thrace * Europa (Seville Metro), Seville, Spain; a station on the Seville Metro * Europa City, Paris, France; a planned development * Europa Clif ...

also reveals the presence and effects of sub-surface water, and Cox visits a cave in

Vatnajökull Vatnajökull ( Icelandic pronunciation: , literally "Glacier of Lakes"; sometimes translated as Vatna Glacier in English) is the largest and most voluminous ice cap in Iceland, and the second largest in area in Europe after the Severny Island i ...

to find microbial signs of life beneath the ice. Cox concludes by stating that Europa represents the "most fascinating and important alien world we know. A true wonder of the

because it's our best hope of finding

extraterrestrial life Extraterrestrial life, colloquially referred to as alien life, is life that may occur outside Earth and which did not originate on Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been conclusively detected, although efforts are underway. Such life might ...

Merchandise

An accompanying hardcover book was released on 30 September 2010: The region 1 DVD and Blu-ray discs were released on 7 September 2010. The region 2 DVD and Blu-ray discs of the series were released on 12 April 2010. The region 4 DVD and Blu-ray discs were released on 7 April 2011.

International broadcast

* In Australia, this programme was aired by

SBS One SBS is a national public television network in Australia. Launched on 24 October 1980, it is the responsibility of SBS's television division, and is available nationally. In 2018, SBS had a 7.7% audience share. As of 2022, SBS is the lowe ...

each Tuesday at 8:30pm from 1 March 2011. * In Austria, this programme was aired by ORF 2 each Thursday at 9:05pm from 8 September 2011 with the re-worked title, ''Geheimnisse des Lebens'' (''Secrets of Life''). * In Iceland, this programme was aired by

RÚV Ríkisútvarpið (RÚV) (pronounced or ) ( en, 'The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service') is Iceland's national public-service broadcasting organization. Operating from studios in the country's capital, Reykjavík, as well as regional ce ...

each Monday at 8:10pm from 22 August 2011. * In the Netherlands, this programme was aired by NTR on

Nederland 2 NPO 2 (''NPO twee'', formerly Nederland 2 until 2014) is a Dutch television channel, sister channel of NPO 1 and NPO 3. It was established on 1 October 1964 at 20:00, initially with a 2.5 hours schedule until 22:30. NPO 2 tends to broadcast art ...

each Sunday at 6:50pm from 17 April 2011. * In New Zealand, this programme was aired by

TVNZ 7 TVNZ 7 was a commercial-free New Zealand 24-hour news and information channel on Freeview digital television platform and on Sky Television from 1 July 2009. It was produced by Television New Zealand, which received Government funding to launc ...

each Friday at 7:05pm from 15 April 2011. * In Slovakia, this programme was aired on STV1 each Tuesday at 8:15pm from 25 January 2011. * In the United States, this programme was aired by

each Wednesday at 9pm E/P from 4 August 2010.

New series

Brian Cox from his Twitter account stated that there would be a second series, "

Wonders of the Universe ''Wonders of the Universe'' is a 2011 television series produced by the BBC, Discovery Channel, and Science Channel, hosted by physicist Professor Brian Cox. ''Wonders of the Universe'' was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two from 6 ...

", with the same crew and BBC science team. It was first broadcast on 6 March 2011 in the UK. The second series has a similar basis to series one, but features the

universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the univers ...

. The new series consisted of four episodes as opposed to the previous five.

References

External links

* *
''Wonders of the Solar System''
on Eden
''Wonders of the Solar System''
on the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wonders Of The Solar System 2010 British television series debuts 2010 British television series endings BBC high definition shows BBC television documentaries about science Documentary television series about astronomy Science Channel original programming Astronomy in the United Kingdom 2010 in science Peabody Award-winning television programs English-language television shows