The Worst Episodes of How the Universe Works

How and when will the Universe end? Gravity and dark matter are poised to annihilate the Universe in a big crunch. Expansion and dark energy may tear it apart. Or, a phase transition could kill us tomorrow in a cosmic death bubble.

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Beneath Jupiter's clouds lie our solar system's deepest secrets: from its violent youth, through the birth of life to the death of the sun. Scientists are discovering that the solar system, the Earth and every living thing exists because of Jupiter.

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Saturn’s secrets are out. The ferocious weather, the evolving ring system and the discovery of active geology on Saturn’s moons has rewritten the textbooks. Scientists are looking for life on Saturn’s moons and they may have found it on Titan.

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Asteroids strike, planets collide, black holes blast out death rays, volcanoes erupt and ice engulfs the planet. These are the universe’s weapons of extinction. They’ve happened before - wiping out entire species, and they will happen again. Are we next?

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What built the Milky Way? New research might now have the answer, revealing an unlikely hero. At the heart of our galaxy sits a super massive black hole, one of the most destructive objects in the Universe. Could it be our creator?

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One day, a cosmic disaster will make life on Earth impossible. To survive, we must find a new home amongst the stars. Scientists are already developing new propulsion systems to take us to these distant worlds.

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Is there another Earth out there with liquid oceans, rocky continents and life like us? Astronomers seek the answer with spectroscopy, direct imaging and telescopes. They hope to find evidence of atmospheres, magnetospheres and signs of life.

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Beneath the hood of your car lies the history of the Universe. The iron in your chassis, the gold in your stereo and the copper in your electronics all owe their existence to violent cosmic events that took place billions of years ago.

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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.

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Discovering how life on Earth came to be; the possibility that life on Earth come from another planet.

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The incredible secrets of the moon are revealed; the moon might be responsible for life on Earth.

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For years, scientists suspected that the oceans came from molecules delivered to Earth from distant stars by asteroids, but a new discovery suggests that their true origins may be more exotic.

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Scientists attempt to understand how this strange force of magnetism works.

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From the furthest reaches of space to our own cosmic backyard, we count down the discoveries that changed everything we know about our universe.

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Recent discoveries could explain how supermassive black holes grow so big, one of the universe's most mysterious questions. Neither dark matter nor cannibalism can fully explain these monsters, but the latest science might finally provide an answer.

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The universe is home to real-life Death Stars that could destroy planet Earth. The latest science reveals the terrifying secrets of NASA's six deadliest: vampire stars, supernovas that can vaporize a planet, and unpredictable stars gone rogue.

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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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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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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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New discoveries are challenging everything we know about black holes, and astronomers are beginning to question if they even exist. The latest science tries to explain how they work and what they look like, despite the fact we've never actually seen one.

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Planets that orbit two suns instead of one might be deadly hell worlds, but new discoveries reveal that sci-fi star systems with binary stars might be optimal places for alien life.

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Our solar system hides a dark and violent past, and new discoveries reveal that Earth and the planets were formed from the destruction of strange alien worlds that came before us.

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The Milky Way is dying, and using the latest science and discoveries, experts are investigating what's killing it.

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Mercury is a deadly world, facing attacks from the Sun, comets, and other planets, and even though it's the smallest planet in our solar system, it has a dangerous secret a dangerous secret that might one day threaten life on Earth.

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Quasars are the brightest and most powerful objects in our universe, and though they have shaped the cosmos, they might ultimately destroy everything that exists.

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