A Traveller's Guide to the Planets
What would it be like to leave Earth? To lose sight of our home planet and go where no human has gone before? A Traveller's Guide to the Planets is a National Geographic documentary series hosted by Bray Poor, exploring the pleasures and pitfalls of travel to the planets of our Solar System. Using highly detailed images captured by today's ultra high-tech telescopes and stunning CGI, the series takes us on an ultimate tour of our Solar System beyond Earth's boundaries - from Mercury and Venus to Pluto and Beyond. A stunning view of solar flares on Mercury, but the planet's extreme temperature variation ranging from 450 degrees celsius in the sun to minus 170 celsius in the shade; diving into an atmosphere of acid smog to visit Venus; the mighty canyons of Mars; Jupiter's churning red eye; Saturn's glittering rings; the icy terrain of the dwarf planet Pluto, etc.
| Episode 1 - Venus and Mercury |
Episode 1 - Venus and Mercury
Temperatures on tiny Mercury can reach a blistering 800 degrees Fahrenheit. And on Venus, temperatures are hot enough to melt lead.
Episode 2 - Mars
Named Mars in honor of the Roman god of war, the Red Planet has captivated earthlings for thousands of years.
Episode 3 - Jupiter
A dive below the clouds reveals the planet's strange secret: It's really more like a star in composition.
Episode 4 - Saturn
From Earth, Saturn's rings appear solid, but they are actually made up of chunks of rock and ice. They look spectacular, but navigating around them - and the planet's more than 60 moons - would be a nightmare for travelers.
Episode 5 - Neptune and Uranus
Uranus, an icy gas giant with an atmosphere composed of a cosmic cocktail of hydrogen, helium and methane, is so distant from the sun that it takes 84 years to orbit the sun. Neptune, its vibrantly blue neighbor, takes nearly twice that long.
Episode 6 - Pluto and Beyond
Pluto is so far away from Earth that it is a mere pinprick of light in our powerful telescopes. Locked in a gravitational dance with its largest moon Charon, this frozen outpost is simply the first discovered body in an unseen swarm of icy worlds.
| Related Links |
| The Planets The Planets is a BBC documentary series tracing mankind's exploration of our solar system. |
| Secrets of the Solar System This is a documentary series narrated by Jim Al-Khalili, which is the ultimate guide to humankind's exploration of our solar system, told by the passionate explorers who sent spacecraft to every major celestial body yet visited. |
| Space Race Space Race is a BBC docudrama series chronicling the major events and characters in the American/Soviet space race up to the first landing of a man on the moon. |
| When We Left Earth This is a Discovery Channel documentary series narrated by actor Gary Sinise, looking at the NASA missions about human spaceflight. |
| Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets This is a two-part BBC docudrama revealing the dangers and spectacles of exploring other planets in the solar system. |
| The Universe (History Channel) The Universe is a History Channel documentary series exploring the wonders of the universe and the advanced physics concepts in the fields of cosmology, astronomy and astrophysics. |
| Wonders of the Solar System This is a BBC science documentary series presented by Professor Brian Cox, exploring some of the most amazing features of our solar system. |