The Silent Pulse of the Universe

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

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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.

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.

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

The documentary tells two very different human fates in the 1920s Soviet Union. Nikolai Vavilov was a botanical genius, Trofim Lyssenko was an agronomist who made great promises and fake inventions. Each of them tried to solve the country's nutritional problem, but only one succeeded.

What forms might life take in the Solar System and beyond? In the Academy's newest original planetarium show, see how a deeper understanding of Earth might help us locate other living worlds, light years away.

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

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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?

The first American space station Skylab is found in pieces scattered in Western Australia. Putting these pieces back together and re-tracing the Skylab program back to its very conception reveals the cornerstone of human space exploration.

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.

Cave paintings and lunar calendars exist in the caves and remains of prehistoric hunters studied recently. What if Prehistoric Man were clever enough to develop in depth scientific knowledge? As unlikely as it may seem, new data tend to prove that Prehistoric Man actually invented Astronomy!

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.

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?

Billions of years ago, Venus may have harbored life-giving habitats similar to those on the early Earth. Today, Earth's twin is a planet knocked upside down and turned inside out. Its burned-out surface is a global fossil of volcanic destruction, shrouded in a dense, toxic atmosphere. Scientists are now unveiling daring new strategies to search for clues from a time when the planet was alive.

An incredible travel through space and time between the walls of the Paris Observatory, which is celebrating its 350th birthday. Place of discoveries such as speed of light or Neptune’s existence, it is still today one of the oldest operating observatories and the greatest hub in the world for astronomy and astrophysics researches, second only to Harvard.

This movie explores the saga of the telescope over 400 years - the historical development, the scientific importance, the technological breakthroughs, and also the people behind this ground-breaking invention, their triumphs and failures.

At the edge of our solar system supposedly lies an immense planet. Five to ten times the size of the Earth. Several international teams of scientists have been competing in a frantic race to detect it, in uncharted territories, far beyond Neptune. The recent discovery of several dwarf planets, with intriguing trajectories, have put astronomers on the trail of this mysterious planet. Why is this enigmatic planet so difficult to detect? What would a ninth planet teach us about our corner of the universe? Could it help us unlock some of the mysteries of our solar system?

The first feature from Alison McAlpine is a dialogue with the heavens—in this case, the heavens above the Andes and the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, where she alights on the desert- and mountain-dwelling astronomers, fishermen, miners, and cowboys who live their lives with reverence and awe for the skies.