NaN/100 votesLoading...#1 - Strangest Alien Worlds
Season 5 Episode 9 - Aired 2/7/2017
Discoveries of new planets have revealed countless worlds much stranger than Earth. Some of these worlds don't have stars, others are made out of diamonds. Will we ever find a planet like Earth, or are these distant worlds stranger than fiction?
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7.3/1026 votesLoading...#2 - Asteroid: Countdown to Catastrophe
Season 11 Episode 4 - Aired 3/26/2023
In a fictional scenario set in 2029, an asteroid hurtling towards Earth at 40,000 mph will reduce New York to ashes; examining the hypothetical, experts weigh in to determine what could happen, and how it might be stopped.
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7.7/1050 votesLoading...#3 - Aliens of the Microcosmos
Season 9 Episode 4 - Aired 4/14/2021
New discoveries reveal the power of microscopic alien organisms.
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7.8/10125 votesLoading...#4 - Volcanoes - The Furnaces of Life
Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 7/11/2012
Are we alone in the Universe? What makes Earth so different? Part of the answer is our volcanoes. without them we would not be here either. Today we are discovering volcanoes on alien worlds. Are these worlds where, tomorrow, we might find life?
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7.8/1099 votesLoading...#5 - Megaflares - Cosmic Firestorms
Season 2 Episode 4 - Aired 8/1/2012
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 half way across the Universe. Will we find Earth in the firing line?
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7.9/10105 votesLoading...#6 - Megastorms - The Winds of Creation
Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 7/18/2012
Destructive weather forces are symptoms of Earth's creative energy. In our quest to discover if we are alone in the universe, we shouldn't just look for worlds, we should look for weather; find that megastorm, and maybe we will find alien life.
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7.9/1030 votesLoading...#7 - Most Violent Event in the Universe
Season 11 Episode 3 - Aired 3/19/2023
The collision of two supermassive black holes is the most violent event that can occur in the universe; experts explore where a black hole's energy originates and what really happens when the two most powerful objects in the cosmos clash.
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8.0/10115 votesLoading...#8 - Exoplanets - Planets from Hell
Season 2 Episode 3 - Aired 7/25/2012
We once thought that the only planets were in our solar system. We have found many other planets but they are nothing like we expected, from deep-frozen, toxic snowballs, to scorched and boiling nightmares. Is every planet out there a planet fom Hell?
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8.0/10102 votesLoading...#9 - Extreme Orbits - Clockwork and Creation
Season 2 Episode 5 - Aired 8/8/2012
We owe our existence to the stability of earth's orbit. But we are the freaks: everywhere else we look we find orbits are chaotic, unstable, and violent. Yet on the very largest scale, orbits are also a creative force, even constructing the fabric of the universe itself.
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8.0/1066 votesLoading...#10 - Life and Death on the Red Planet
Season 5 Episode 7 - Aired 1/24/2017
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.
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8.0/1065 votesLoading...#11 - Asteroid Apocalypse: The New Threat
Season 8 Episode 1 - Aired 1/2/2020
If a massive asteroid collides with earth, it could end life on our planet as we know it; new discoveries and cutting-edge tech reveal just how close we are to apocalypse and what it would take for the world's leading space agencies to stop it.
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8.0/1058 votesLoading...#12 - NASA's Journey to Mars
Season 8 Episode 2 - Aired 1/9/2020
NASA is on a mission to send humans to Mars within just 15 years, but to reach this next frontier of space exploration, experts must discover new technology and cutting-edge science that protects astronauts from the Red Planet's deadliest killers.
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8.0/1041 votesLoading...#13 - Birth of Monster Black Holes
Season 9 Episode 9 - Aired 5/19/2021
New discoveries reveal an astonishing supermassive black hole that was born during the earliest days of the cosmos, and finding out how this giant grew so large so quickly may help to explain the very formation of the universe itself.
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8.0/1025 votesLoading...#14 - Solar System Special
Season 11 Episode 5 - Aired 4/2/2023
New discoveries have rewritten the history of the solar system, revealing a complex and violent story that begins with the birth of the Sun from the debris of a massive galactic collision, to its eventual fate as a lone zombie star.
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8.1/10256 votesLoading...#15 - Big Bang
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 4/25/2010
The programme investigates how the Universe came into existence out of nothing, and how it grew from a minuscule point, smaller than an atomic particle, to the vast cosmos we see today.
Director: N/A
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8.1/10159 votesLoading...#16 - Solar Systems
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 5/24/2010
Is our solar system unique? Since the first discovery of a planet orbiting another star, some 280 alien solar systems have been identified. It's only by looking at solar systems far beyond our own, that we can understand how remarkable our universe is.
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8.1/10101 votesLoading...#17 - Comets - Frozen Wanderers
Season 2 Episode 6 - Aired 8/15/2012
As time machines from the early universe, comets could hold the key to unlock the secrets of the cosmos, and may even be the origin of life itself. In this episode, we learn that comets are even more mysterious and fascinating than we had ever imagined.
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8.1/10105 votesLoading...#18 - Earth, Venus's Evil Twin
Season 4 Episode 2 - Aired 7/21/2015
An examination of Venus; and what it may indicate about Earth's future.
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8.1/1069 votesLoading...#19 - The Universe's Deadliest
Season 5 Episode 6 - Aired 1/17/2017
The universe is a dangerous place, and we 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.
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8.1/1070 votesLoading...#20 - The Dark Matter Enigma
Season 5 Episode 8 - Aired 1/31/2017
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.
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8.1/1061 votesLoading...#21 - Hunt for Alien Evidence
Season 8 Episode 3 - Aired 1/16/2020
The discovery of extraterrestrial life might face an impossible challenge: the physics of the universe itself; but using cutting-edge tech, experts might be on the verge of a groundbreaking find -- and the evidence could already be in hand.
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8.2/10165 votesLoading...#22 - Supernovas
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 5/17/2010
Stars are not eternal; they are dying in unimaginably large explosions called supernovas. Second only to the Big Bang, these explosions are where creation and destruction meet. Only now have we begun to understand how these wonders in our sky work.
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8.2/10156 votesLoading...#23 - Planets
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 5/17/2010
There are just eight planets in our solar system, but there could be a hundred billion planets in our Milky Way galaxy alone. This show follows the journey of planets as they grow from grains of dust to the magnificently diverse worlds we see today.
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8.2/10104 votesLoading...#24 - Asteroids - Worlds That Never Were
Season 2 Episode 7 - Aired 8/22/2012
Asteroids wiped out the dinosaurs and may be back for us but they also built the Earth and may have brought life to its barren surface. Asteroids will shape our future as much as our past and scientists are striving to unlock their secrets.
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8.2/10131 votesLoading...#25 - Journey from the Center of the Sun
Season 3 Episode 1 - Aired 7/9/2014
How does light escape from the sun? We take a journey from the centre of the sun, following the path of light. We witness its fiery birth from in the core, its 430,000 mile battle against gravity and magnetism, and its escape from the solar surface.
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The Worst Episodes of How the Universe Works
Every episode of How the Universe Works ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of How the Universe Works!
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...
Genre:Documentary
Worst Episodes Summary
"Strangest Alien Worlds" is the worst rated episode of "How the Universe Works". It scored N/A/10 based on 0 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 2/7/2017. This episode scored NaN points lower than the second lowest rated, "Asteroid: Countdown to Catastrophe".