Wonders of the Solar System
| Wonders of the Solar System | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | Documentary series |
| Presented by | Professor Brian Cox |
| Music by | Sheridan Tongue |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 5 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network |
BBC Two Science Channel |
| Picture format |
SD: 576i 16:9 HD: 1080i |
| Audio format | SD: Stereo HD: DTS-HD 5.1 |
| First shown in |
BBC Two BBC HD |
| Original release | 7 March – 4 April 2010 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | Wonders of the Universe (2011) |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Wonders of the Solar System is a 2010 television series co-produced by the BBC and Science Channel, and hosted by physicist Brian Cox. Wonders of the Solar System was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 7 March 2010. The series comprises five episodes, each of which focuses on an aspect of the Solar System 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 for excellence in documentary film-making.
If you think that this is all there is, that our planet exists in magnificent isolation, then you're wrong. We're part of a much wider ecosystem, that extends way beyond the top of our atmosphere.
As a physicist I'm fascinated by how the laws of nature that shaped all this, also shaped the worlds beyond our home planet.
I think we're living through the greatest age of discovery our civilisation has known. We've voyaged to the farthest reaches of the Solar System. We've photographed strange new worlds, stood in unfamiliar landscapes, tasted alien air.
The first episode illustrates how the formation and behaviour of the Sun affects each planet in the Solar System. During this episode, Cox visits India to view and explain the workings of a total solar eclipse and the partial eclipses that occur on other planets. He travels to the Iguazu Falls to relate the causality between river levels, and sunspot fluctuations. An explanation of the Earth's exposure to the power of the Sun occurs in Death Valley, California, USA, with an experiment inspired by John Herschel's actinometer. He also travels to Norway to observe and explain the defensive role of the Earth's magnetosphere against the sun's solar wind and its role in forming the Aurora Borealis. He also 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, at the Paranal Observatory he is able to observe, with the naked eye, the myriad of stars on the Milky Way and relates the meaning of their diverse colours as mapped on the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram.
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Wikipedia