Wonders of the Solar System

Latest Episodes

• Season 1 Episode 5: Aliens

  Professor Brian Cox considers whether the building blocks of life might be found on other planets by studying the required substance that is most abundant on Earth - water. He descends to the bottom of the Pacific to discover the creatures that have evolved in this most alien of environments, and flies above the American Scablands to see the effect of the geological changes wrought by water in exactly the circumstances astronomers believe occurred on Mars

• Season 1 Episode 4: Dead or Alive

  Brian Cox compares the geography of Earth and Mars to understand why life is abundant on this planet, while its neighbour is a geologically dead desert world of ice and dust. Investigating the importance of size, he contrasts the Grand Canyon and Hawaii's Mauna Kea mountain with the 27km-high Olympus Mons peak on the Martian surface and studies why Venus - so often called Earth's twin planet - was made barren by huge volcanic eruptions

• Season 1 Episode 3: The Thin Blue Line

  Brian Cox reveals how a thin layer of gas can create some of the most wondrous sights in the solar system. Taking a ride in an English Electric Lightning aircraft, he flies up 18 kilometres to witness the darkness of space above the thin line of Earth's atmosphere. In the Namib desert, he tells the story of the planet Mercury and, against the backdrop of Alaska's glaciers, explains why he has chosen Saturn's moon Titan as his fourth wonder