The universe. The complete season one
(DVD)

Beyond the big bang: produced by Workaholic Productions for History Television Network Productions ; director, Luke Ellis.

Narrator, Erik Thompson.

Disc 1: Tour the surface of Earth's life-giving star. Mars may be the future of humanity - uses data collected from probes and robotic rovers. Scars on the planet's surface and in its fossil record illustrate the threat posed by meteorites, comets, and asteroids that routinely collide with Earth. Two and a half times the size of all the other planets in the solar system combined, and half a billion miles from Earth, Jupiter is a colossal riddle.

Disc 2: Our closest celestial neighbor, the moon is the only cosmic body on which human beings have ever set foot. Learn how the place we call home formed in one of the most volatile regions of the Milky Way. Circling around the Sun in speedy orbits, Mercury and Venus are rocky, dense, and intensely hot.

Disc 3: Famous for its striking ring formations, Saturn is perhaps the most beautiful planet in the solar system. The Milky Way is only one of the over 100 billion galaxies thought to exist, and each is composed of as many as a trillion stars. The birth of a star is a spectacular events, as gravity brings together massive molecular clouds over millions of years to create these enormous galactic furnaces. The gargantuan planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune circle the edge of the Solar System.

Disc 4: Gazing up from Earth, the Universe looks like a peaceful place where placid stars pass across the night sky. Could there be other intelligent life outside our solar system, with the space suggests that the conditions for the life may not be unique to Earth. Over 13 billion years ago, from a point smaller than the size of a single atom the universe was born, and it continues to expand with every passing second.

DVD; Dolby Digital stereo.

Closed-captioned.