8.8/10196 votesLoading...#1 - Beyond the Big Bang
Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 9/4/2007
The universe began with a massive expansion, billions and billions of years ago, and it continues to expand with every passing second. The idea that the universe, and man's very existence, began with a "Big Bang" is no longer a topic of debate among most scientists--it is essentially taken as fact.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.5/1034 votesLoading...#2 - Alien Worlds
Season 9 Episode 4 - Aired 5/9/2015
The ancients believed that the universe consisted of countless worlds we could not see, and argued endlessly over the nature of these distant, invisible planets and whether they might be inhabited. Until recently many scientists thought we would never discover the truth, believing that extra-solar planets were simply too far, too small and too dim to detect. But new technologies have suddenly revealed thousands of distant planets, opening up the most exciting period in astronomy in decades. Some believe we're on the verge of answering the ancient question: are we alone in the universe?
Director: N/A
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8.4/10161 votesLoading...#3 - Alien Galaxies
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 7/31/2007
Our galaxy is one of hundreds of billions in the universe. View of universe through the Hubble telescope and go back almost all the way to the Big Bang.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.4/10142 votesLoading...#4 - Life and Death of a Star
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 8/7/2007
Ignited by the power of the atom, burning with light, heat and wrath, stars are anything but peaceful. They collide, devour each other, and explode in enormous supernovas--the biggest explosions in the Universe.
Director: N/A
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8.2/10150 votesLoading...#5 - Saturn: Lord of the Rings
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 7/24/2007
Are the rings of Saturn a real celestial phenomenon or merely a cosmic Illusion? Technology allows the experts to get closer to the furthest planet visible to the naked eye. Old questions are answered and new ones arise. Does Saturn hold the key to Earth's weather and will one of its moons supply us with all the oil we'll ever need?
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.2/1060 votesLoading...#6 - Microscopic Universe
Season 7 Episode 5 - Aired 6/3/2012
An examination is conducted into the world of miniature particles, as microscopic objects like neutrinos MACHOs, WIMPs and many others may ultimately lead to understanding more about the mysteries surrounding the cosmos.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.1/10210 votesLoading...#7 - Mars: The Red Planet
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 6/5/2007
Visit the planet most like Earth. There is a discussion of what life on Mars would be like and about the life forms that could've evolved there.
Director: N/A
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8.0/10253 votesLoading...#8 - Secrets of the Sun
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 5/29/2007
Behold the sun and all of it's glory. Learn all things about the sun ranging from its beginning to its death. Also learn about how stars work in general and MUCH MUCH more.
Director: N/A
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8.0/10178 votesLoading...#9 - Jupiter: The Giant Planet
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 6/19/2007
Jupiter poses many questions about our solar system. It is a powerful planet of gas whose flowing colors and spots are beautiful, but contain violent storms and jet streams. A mini solar system of over sixty moons rotate around Jupiter--a half billion miles from earth. Could one of these moons contain life under its icy crust?
Director: N/A
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8.0/101 votesLoading...#10 - Alien Planets
Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 11/27/2007
Have planet hunters finally found proof of other Earthlike worlds? Astronomers have now discovered over two hundred alien worlds, beyond our solar system, that were unknown just a decade ago
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.0/101 votesLoading...#11 - The Milky Way
Season 2 Episode 4 - Aired 12/18/2007
We used to think that Earth was at the center of the universe, but now we know we're not even at the center of our own galaxy. Countless wonders exist between where earth is situated and the massive black hole at the galactic center of our solar system. Within the Milky Way can be found the debris of old, dying stars fueling the birth of new stars and at the galactic center hypervelocity stars get catapulted clear beyond the Milky Way's outer rim at unimaginable speeds. Come along for a guided tour of 100,000 light-year-wide family of stars and stellar phenomena we call The Milky Way.
Director: N/A
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8.0/101 votesLoading...#12 - Wildest Weather in the Cosmos
Season 2 Episode 15 - Aired 4/8/2008
Imagine a tornado so powerful, it can form a planet or how about rain made of iron.
Director: N/A
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7.9/10190 votesLoading...#13 - The End of the Earth: Deep Space Threats to our Planet
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 6/12/2007
Asteroids, comets, gamma ray bursts and the sun all combine to make the Earth a dangerous place to live. NASA's top brass and other scientists are arming themselves with the latest technology to pre-empt an apocalyptic attack. Watch and investigate bizarre, and terrifying apocalyptic scenarios and the ways that scientists are racing against the clock to develop technology to defend our planet.
Director: N/A
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7.9/10163 votesLoading...#14 - The Moon
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 6/26/2007
The moon has comforted man for thousands of years. It's been everything from a god to a compass, and the only cosmic body human beings have ever visited. NASA is planning to build a permanent outpost there. Discover how the moon came to be--if you don't already know, you will be astounded.
Director: N/A
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7.9/10150 votesLoading...#15 - The Inner Planets: Mercury & Venus
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 7/17/2007
Examining Mercury and Venus. Included: exploring how the damages they've suffered from cosmic collisions and acid rain may serve as a warning for Earth.
Director: N/A
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7.9/10137 votesLoading...#16 - The Outer Planets
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 8/14/2007
This episode details outer lying planets and their moons. Included will be Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Using CGI, we will also see what alien life might look like on other worlds.
Director: N/A
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7.9/10131 votesLoading...#17 - The Most Dangerous Place in the Universe
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 8/21/2007
Take a tour of the cosmic hot zones--black holes, galaxy mergers, gamma ray bursts and magnetars. Super black holes can literally lasso Earth out of the solar system. A clash between two galaxies can result in a ritual called galactic cannibalism. Magnetars are a cosmic magnetic force so strong it could wipe out data on every credit card.
Director: N/A
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7.9/1066 votesLoading...#18 - Pulsars & Quasars
Season 4 Episode 10 - Aired 10/27/2009
They sort of sound like the same phenomenon, but Pulsars and Quasars are very different. Pulsars are tiny--only a few miles across--but they spin as fast as a kitchen blender and sweep the sky with beacons of radiation that make them appear to flash on and off. They have unbelievably strong magnetic fields, are more accurate than atomic clocks...and they can even tell aliens just where to find the Earth! Quasars are at the other end of the spectrum. Quasars are huge cores of galaxies with black holes that are called "monsters" and which spit lobes of radiating gas called "DRAGNs." Quasars are so far away, we see them as they were only in the distant past--meaning they existed only in the early universe, when they may have played a major role in the creation of the galaxies themselves.
Director: N/A
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7.8/1085 votesLoading...#19 - Light Speed
Season 3 Episode 3 - Aired 11/25/2008
According to the laws of physics we can never travel faster than the speed of light...or can we? Light speed allows us to see things instantly here on Earth, and shows us the entire history of the universe going back nearly 14 billion years. Learn all about light speed, the ultimate constant in the universe and discover ways scientists envision breaking the "light barrier" which may be the only way the star travel of our imaginations ever comes to reality.
Director: N/A
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7.8/1059 votesLoading...#20 - Liquid Universe
Season 4 Episode 9 - Aired 10/20/2009
On alien planets, they rain from the sky as scalding iron. On distant moons, even at hundreds of degrees below zero, they slosh around in pristine lakes of methane. They can cover entire planets in miles-deep oceans of electrified hydrogen metal. Or erupt on alien worlds through miles-high geysers. They churn in the interiors of dead stars and even our own planet. They're so rare in the universe, they almost don't exist, but these are the magical liquids of our Liquid Universe.
Director: N/A
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7.8/1061 votesLoading...#21 - Extreme Energy
Season 4 Episode 12 - Aired 11/10/2009
Ours is a universe of energy, from powerful jets ejected from black holes to the raw nuclear fury of our Sun. But, the total amount of energy in the universe maintains perfect equilibrium--no more can be added or taken away. Because of this, there are enormous amounts of energy being transferred...electric, thermal, kinetic and magnetic energy are just a few that keep our universe balanced--and create awesome cosmic events and stellar displays.
Director: N/A
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7.7/10146 votesLoading...#22 - Spaceship Earth
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 7/10/2007
Take a high performance ride through the formation of the third planet from the Sun, Earth... A survivor of one of the most violent "neighborhoods" in the Universe, learn how Earth was created and discover what creatures hold clues to how life began. What evil forces threaten the demise of Earth? Complex and controversial, this is the scientific detective story of all time.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.7/10130 votesLoading...#23 - Search for ET
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 8/28/2007
Are we alone? SETI--the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence--is a privately funded project using radio telescopes and optical telescopes to scan the stars for signals.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.7/1072 votesLoading...#24 - Strangest Things
Season 3 Episode 10 - Aired 1/27/2009
An exploration of mysterious phenomenon, including alcohol clouds in space, pulsar planets, the possibility of a planet beyond Neptune, and dark matter.
Director: N/A
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7.7/1061 votesLoading...#25 - The Hunt for Ringed Planets
Season 4 Episode 5 - Aired 9/15/2009
They are breathtaking, lethal and a constant source of surprise. The stunning rings of Saturn have mesmerized countless scientists over the centuries. With particles the size of a house shooting at 53,000 miles per hour around the planet, any spacecraft passing through would meet an instant and catastrophic end. Inside the rings is like a NASCAR race - with bumping, jostling and frequent collisions that can cause a massive spin-out. Lesser known are the other planets that have rings - Uranus, Jupiter, Neptune, possibly Pluto and Mars. Even Earth has a ring. Comprised of some 200 satellites in a geosynchronous orbit, it is the only known man-made ring in the universe. But the most remarkable thing about rings is that they contain the story of the birth of our solar system, and entire distant galaxies. Rings are more than a wonder of the universe - they reveal the secrets of our own origins.
Director: N/A
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The Best Episodes of The Universe
Every episode of The Universe ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of The Universe!
From the planets to the stars and out to the edge of the unknown, history and science collide in a wondrous yet deadly adventure through...
Genre:Documentary
Best Episodes Summary
"Beyond the Big Bang" is the best rated episode of "The Universe". It scored 8.8/10 based on 196 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 9/4/2007. This episode scored 0.3 points higher than the second highest rated, "Alien Worlds".