Prehistoric Astronomers

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, from its conception to completion.

The Faraway Nearby follows the tragic life of pioneer physicist Joseph Weber, whose pursuit of gravitational waves takes him on a dizzying journey from the height of acclaim to the depths of despair and disdain when he breaks the cardinal rule of science and clings to his ideas though his results can't be duplicated. Physicists, artists, and other creatives explore the emotional side of discovery and question whether the risk is worth the journey.

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CERN and the University of California-Santa Barbara are collaborating in the search for the elusive substance that physicists and astronomers believe holds the universe together -- dark matter. Where is this search now in the realm of particle physics and what comes next?

In 1872, in the cave of Cavillon in Monaco, archaeologist Émile Rivière (1835-1922) unearthed an apparently very old human skeleton, at least 24,000 years old, a discovery that changed the modern image of prehistoric men and women.

Chaco Canyon, located in northwest New Mexico, is perhaps the only site in the world constructed in an elaborate pattern that mirrors the yearly cycle of the sun and the 19-year cycle of the moon. How did an ancient civilization, with no known written language, arrange its buildings into a virtual celestial calendar, spanning an area roughly the size of Ireland?

Woolly Mammoth: Secrets from the Ice is a documentary presented by English anatomist Dr. Alice Roberts that reveals some of the secrets of one of the most widely known extinct animals ever. Humans have been transfixed by the Wolly Mammoth since the end of the last ice age when there were still herds of them roaming the continents of Asia and Europe. Despite many people knowing about the great Woolly Mammoth until recently very little was known about them despite ancient humans living along side them for so long; few documented accounts exist.

An exploration of the territorial complexities of the emerging astro-industry in the Chilean Desert.

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A picture about the fine art of prehistoric times, the remains of which have been found in various places on the European continent.

A giant ball of gas and raw energy with a temperature of up to 15 million degrees, the sun is the origin of life on earth and influences an infinite number of natural phenomena. This documentary is dedicated to the search for the significance of our home star for mankind, science and nature. Researchers at the American Space Agency NASA, the Canary Islands observatories, and the hottest and coldest places on earth share their insights. We can expect an emotional journey through science and history, peppered with human stories, at the end of which the complex bandwidth of life is revealed. Never before in the history of mankind has it been more important to uncover the secrets of the sun. Because for our earth, the sun is not just any star. It is the ultimate star.

Content creator Paleo Analysis explores the Precambrian and the Paleozoic era on his quest to evolve back into a human.

Partly adapted from cosmologist Stephen Hawking's popular book about his theories of the universe, this in-depth documentary also presents Hawking's daily life as he deals with the ALS that renders him virtually immobile and unable to speak without the use of a computer. Hawking's friends, family, former classmates and peers are interviewed about not only his theories but the man himself.

European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst and his NASA colleague Reid Wiseman are launched into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Gerst and Wiseman spend six months in humanity's outpost in space and film many of their activities.

Part of the Almost Famous series. Jocelyn Bell was a graduate student at Cambridge in 1967 when she pushed through the skepticism from her superiors to make one of the greatest astrophysical discoveries of the twentieth century. While Jocelyn was belittled and sexually harassed by the media, the Nobel Prize was awarded to her professor and his boss.

214 million years ago a gigantic meteorite broke up and impacted Earth. 65 million years ago, the impact that killed the dinosaurs occurred where the country of Belize stands today. 200 thousand years ago early humans were walking and died when they were hit by a 40 meter wide meteorite hit South Africa creating a 1.4 km wide crater. This meteorite fragment, the largest ever found hit Namibia 80 000 years ago and more recently a major impact occurred in Toungouska, Russia in 1908. Every year 10 000 tons of meteoritic matter fall onto Earth in much smaller but not necessarily less influential pieces. This film will explore how the impact of these meteorites big and small through the ages have changed our world and what they brought from outer space with them that may have been the seed of life itself on Earth.

To celebrate its 50th anniversary year, ESO in 2012 released the documentary Europe to the Stars — ESO's first 50 years of Exploring the Southern Sky. The movie tells the story of ESO — what scientific discoveries it has been making and how it designs, builds and operates some of the most powerful ground-based telescopes.

Documentary about the Griffith Observatory, shown at their Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater

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