With the most current imagery and cutting-edge science, this series explores the solar system with images so crisp it is like peering through a window at another world. These views help shape our understanding of our place in the Universe.
Two Disc Set | |
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A special offer to get all five discs from the Cosmic Vistas and Hubble's Canvas series:
Two Disc Set | Two Disc Set | Season Two | |
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Trailer for Disc One:
Trailer for Disc Two:
From its highest mountains to its deepest oceans, our world has challenged explorers of every generation to reach further and seek what lies beyond the horizon. Century upon century, the lure of the unknown has taken humans to every corner of the globe and it has given us a view of Earth that our ancestors could barely imagine.
Now, the drive to explore is leading us upward and outward - off our own planet and out into the solar system where a host of alien worlds offers us vast new terrains to uncover. We roam this territory today, not with our material bodies, but with our robot surrogates, which we have flung through the brutal vacuum and sent plunging into conditions more extreme than any astronaut could endure. Today we see the sun, moon and planets with penetrating clarity - not through human eyes, but through the eyes of the intrepid machines that are blazing a trail for us across the solar system. Their cameras have become our windows onto a bold new adventure.
The latest missions to the sun and planets are providing images so crisp and spectacular it is like peering through a window at another world. But make no mistake; these images are more than just pretty pictures of nature. The increasingly sophisticated and detailed views are shaping our understanding of who we are, where we came from and where we are going. The underlying message of this series is that we are witnessing an unprecedented new age of exploration.
This two disc set with all six 30-minute episodes of the Cosmic Vistas series presents our solar system using the most current imagery and cutting-edge scientific thinking and includes:
Disc One:
Episode 1: Windows to Other Worlds & Fountain of Creation For the first time since man explored new continents on Earth, the human race is once again on the edge of discovery. This time our sights are set on unlocking the secrets of our solar system – starting with the Sun – the most brilliant and dangerous location we can explore.
Episode 2: Rocky Shores & Silent Partner
Mercury offers us a look at a solid world and the forces that shape it. Venus tells an even more complex story, but the story of life on these rocky shores ends with our own planet - Earth. The moon, our silent partner, is our closest neighbor in space and the keeper of some of our oldest secrets.
Episode 3: Borderland & Red Dawn Thanks to a fleet of advanced spacecraft in orbit and on the surface of the red planet, a new portrait of Mars is emerging. As we look more closely at the multitude of puzzles written into the Martian terrain and the water locked within it, we are able to consider the prospects for a human presence.
Disc Two:
Episode 4: Lords of Gravity & Outer Limits The gas giants of the outer solar system, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune represent a very different kind of planet, with exotic atmospheres, liquid interiors and even rings. Looking beyond, to the outer fringe of our solar system where Pluto resides, we may find the history of the solar system preserved in a deep freeze.
Episode 5: Hidden Havens & Icy Gems The moons orbiting the giant planets are shaping up to be a fascinating scientific inquiry. Europa, Titan, Io and more: exemplifying the spectacular diversity within our own solar system, they may also offer our best chance for finding alien life in our solar system.
Episode 6: Shooting Gallery & Galactic Visions Meteorites slicing across the sky introduce us to another component of the solar system – asteroids and comets. The series concludes with a tantalizing glimpse of the alien worlds that lie far beyond our solar system and a recognition that another new horizons now beckons.