All language subtitles for one.strange.rock.s01e03.shield.480p.hdtv.x264.rmteam

The sun...

Gives us warmth and light.

It is the fuel of life.

Without the energy of the sun almost
nothing grows, thrives or lives.

But the sun was not
put there for our benefit.

It is not this big jolly ball of nice smiling
down on us, wishing us all a good day.

It is not our friend.

The sun is a monster.

A planet killer.

And we don't see that
side of the sun down here.

But eight astronauts, with over
1,000 days in space between them,

Can show us how being up there helped
them understand the suns bright fury.

It's got an incredible
amount of power which you

really appreciate when
you go out in space.

Just like the gods of old,
the sun can give life and it

can destroy life.

It's a mean son of a gun.

It's exploding and it's
sending cosmic radiation at us.

Given the amount of radiation
from the sun, there shouldn't

be life on the
surface of the earth.

We shouldn't be here.

But we are here.

And we owe our
lives to this world.

I'm gonna tell you
how the earths core...

The air above us...

and life itself
work to protect us.

The earth shields us
in a suit of armor.

And the way she does it...

Is one hell of a strange story.

You see that guy in the crowd?

He's just a bit different
from the rest of us.

He's a spaceman.

Once he risked his life to fix a
telescope 350 miles above the earth.

And he's spent a lifetime
studying the stars.

People still feel this
incredible fascination with,

with looking at the sun.

Twice a year it just crosses the line
of the cross streets of Manhattan...

And sets at just that right
point that it just makes a

beautiful orange glow
which permeates the city.

In some sense I suppose I
could say I saw more of the

true character of the sun...

Than people who are always
on the surface of the earth.

You open the airlock and
then turn around and look up.

It's like that great scene in
the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy

comes out of the house and it's
not black and white anymore.

All of a sudden, the
whole world is in color.

But don't forget those visors.

They do come in handy when that
big fire ball is staring at you.

Yep.

One of my great eureka moments was
realizing for the first time when I

was in space that I was seeing
the sun in a black sky.

Think of that.

You really see
the sun as a star.

Particularly when I
was out in the space suit,

the power of the sun
just hits you in the guts.

It just goes through
your entire body.

The temperature
extremes are 250 degrees in

the sun and then minus
250 in the shade.

That's pretty incredible and that our
suits can withstand those temperatures.

But even we astronauts only experience
a fraction of the sun's power.

It has many weapons
it can send our way.

Heat, light and deadly flares that
can devastate entire planets.

Look at Mars.

Billions of years ago we
think it was just like us...

A potential cradle for life.

But radiation from
the sun ravaged it.

Solar flares with the
destructive power of billions

of Hiroshima atomic bombs helped
chew away Mars's atmosphere

and the oceans
evaporated into space.

Earth is even
closer to the sun than Mars,

so how come we're
not dust and ashes?

See, the thing is, our
planet is strong on defense.

And every player has a role.

From the edge of space...

To the deepest oceans...

To one of the most
hostile places on earth.

We'll be sleeping
with gas masks on.

Sometimes it'll clear up and
be beautiful but most of the

time we'll be wearing our
gas masks even to bed.

Ken Sims
doesn't do nine to five.

This is his idea of a
good day at the office.

For over 20 years he's
ventured into active volcanoes

across the globe to collect
samples of molten lava.

Studying this stuff is one of
the best ways to understand

what's happening in the center
of the earth and the process

that protects us from the sun.

Pretty much that whole bottom terrace
now is completely covered in brand new

lava flow, isn't it?

Yeah. And with the new lava flow
coming around against the wall there,

we'll have to watch out.

The lava's intensely hot,
roughly 2,000 degrees.

It will burn pretty much
anything on contact.

Okay, heading over.

I'll go over just
towards the edge here.

We'll have a look.

Whoa.

Holy...

It's just opened up on
that side, hasn't it?

- Yeah, totally.
- Whoa.

Yeah, Ken, I'm pretty certain that there is
absolutely no way we are going down there.

That is without doubt
mission impossible.

Okay, well, we're
cancelling this mission.

Yeah.

Just anybody with half a
brain wouldn't go down there.

The new vent means Ken can't
take samples from the lake,

but he doesn't need to.

The vent is firing
fresh lava right at him.

There's a lot of lava
bombs around here.

It's just covered with bombs.

Wow, I'm...

can see the vent from here.

It's really rocking and rolling.

- I'm gonna head back up, over.
- Sure, I'll come back.

The solid lava samples we've
collected are radioactive.

They have uranium
and thorium in them.

Those elements are really important for
maintaining the heat of the earth.

But wait a second.

What does any of this have to do
with keeping us safe from the sun?

Radioactive lava up here
proves there's a raging

nuclear furnace at the
heart of our planet.

It is one big ball
of incredible heat.

I mean, a very big ball.

But that's not all.

These molten insides are
full of iron and nickel.

Rising, falling, spinning in
a constantly melting furnace.

And all that churning metal
creates its own magnetic field.

♪ ♪

This magnetic field stretches as
far as 400,000 miles into space...

surrounding the entire planet.

It is a massive force field
and it helps deflect the

deadly radiation
that destroyed Mars.

♪ ♪

For the most part our
magnetic field is invisible.

But when the sun flares up,
we get to see it in action.

We call it the aurora.

It's pretty much on everyone's bucket
list but in space you see it in an

entirely different way.

I saw this green glow.

It's almost like
a person dancing.

It was a shape and these forms
that were moving as we went over.

And the greens and reds
and all of the faint colors,

like this enormous
ghost of a curtain.

You're not just
seeing it with your eyes.

It, you're feeling it.

You're feeling it with
your heart as well.

It's a part of you.

When we look down at the
aurora it's all the more

beautiful because we know that
we're looking at our planet

keeping us safe from the sun.

But you know what?

It takes more than that one
shield to keep us alive...

because the sun
has another weapon.

A silent assassin.

The assassin's name?

Light.

Everything
revolves around the sun.

Literally.

It's the big boss of the solar
system but its most deceptive

weapon is something we usually
think of as our friend.

Light.

It's a hazard astronauts
need special protection from.

We see the visible light
from the sun but there's

also ultraviolet light.

That can actually do
significant damage.

Every porthole window has special
layers, different UV filters.

On space station MIR there
was one that was not.

But when I floated over that
thing, if you sat there and

had those rays of sun hit
you, in less than a minute,

you'd see your skin reddened.

The power of UV light in
space means that without our

gold visors our eyesight
could be damaged permanently.

For almost all life on earth facing
the sun as we do in space would

ultimately be fatal.

♪ ♪

It's crazy, right?

In space you need a $12 million spacesuit
to protect you from the sun...

whereas on the surface of the earth just
some lotion does the job perfectly fine.

♪ ♪

We're quite fortunate.

Only about 2% of the really
damaging ultraviolet radiation

from the sun actually
gets down to the surface.

If every bit got
down to earth...

skin would burn in
a matter of seconds.

That's just the start.

UV radiation breaks down DNA and
turns healthy cells cancerous.

If we were hit by the
full force of the sun,

plants would be sterilized...

microscopic life
would be sterilized...

life couldn't be sustained
on the surface of the earth.

Ultraviolet light
is vicious so how come we're

not burned to a crisp?

The answer is high above us.

The sun slings deadly
UV light at us...

but most of it is stopped in
its tracks by a thin blanket

of molecules that we
call the ozone layer.

The ozone layer is our second
shield in the sky but it's fragile,

extremely fragile.

30 years ago, we discovered
manmade chemicals had punched

a hole in the ozone layer.

Is that hole here to stay?

Waiting around to kill us?

Today we're trying
hard to find out.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Morgan Sandercock is about to test an
experimental plane perfect for sampling ozone.

Go ahead, go, pressurizing.

We think we can go as high as 90,000 feet.
Jim, you're ready to go.

I'm ready.

That's the big boy territory.

That's where things can
wrong very, very quickly.

If we lose cabin pressure,
then the pilots could very

easily pass out and we don't
have any automatic systems to

recover from that.

Getting ready to roll.

Now a glider might sound like a
dangerous choice so high up,

but gliders don't have engines
which means they can't pollute

the team's samples.

Got a firm count, dolly off.

Count, dolly is off,
wing wheel is off.

Okay, rolling at 11:32.

11:32, written down, if
you can get us the time.

Airborne.

♪ ♪

The Perlan glider uses air
rising over the southern Andes

to reach extraordinary heights.

- Air speed, 70 knots.
- Looking beautiful,.

Traffic, yeah.

52,000 feet up
makes this the highest glider

flight ever but you've gotta get this high
to get a great picture of the ozone layer.

The good news is that thanks
to a global ban on ozone

harming chemicals, it looks
like the hole is healing up.

Our shield is regenerating.

Our planet is not
an inanimate object.

It's a living thing
and it can heal itself.

When we discovered
the hole in the ozone layer,

mankind did come together on that
one and we banned those substances.

You look down and you see this
fragile planet which supports life

on its surface in the
face of the incredible

hostility and so you
become much more sensitive,

I think, to the
need to protect it.

Any way you look at it, the
ozone layer is pretty special.

This shield has looked
after us for millions of years,

even before mankind came down
from the trees, even before the

dinosaurs walked the earth.

Without the ozone layer
there would be no human race.

Life on earth would be
trapped under water.

In Earth's battle
with the sun, the sun has

often had the upper hand.

Today the ozone layer protects
us from UV but once upon a time,

it wasn't there.

The only safe place for
life was under the waves.

Life would probably still be down
there if it wasn't for something

new that emerged nearly three
billion years ago and found a way

to use sunlight
to its advantage.

♪ ♪

Billions of years ago as ancient organisms
first harnessed the energy of the sun,

they began
producing a waste product.

Oxygen.

At first it was just a few individuals,
but thousands became millions.

Millions became trillions.

All bubbling up oxygen.

When oxygen gas rises high
into the atmosphere something

very special happens to it.

It transforms into
protective ozone.

Under the shelter of this
ozone layer, first microbes

then fungi and plants
migrated out of the water.

And this meant even more
oxygen was being produced,

further strengthening our shield
against the sun's UV light.

And this would help make
possible one of our planet's

most defining moments.

♪ ♪

Protected by a thicker
ozone layer than ever before,

a whole new world of possibilities
opened up for life on earth.

♪ ♪

We think it was about 400
million years ago when simple

vertebrates first took their
tentative steps onto dry land.

It's probable that these early animals
were moving around using something that

was still pretty much like the
fins that they used to get

around in the water.

With that one small step
from water to dry land...

life on earth changed forever.

That was one small step for animal kind
and one giant leap for life on earth.

♪ ♪

Life spilled out of the water
in a billion different ways

taking on a host of forms.

All because of that special
layer of oxygen up in the sky.

Right, so that's two shields
that our planet gives us.

But the sun has a final weapon.

Heat.

It's pumping out millions of
degrees of powerful burn and that

powerful burn is intensified
by an ally down here on earth,

one feared by people everywhere.

Volcanoes make terrible
neighbors but even if you live

far away from one,

like on the other
side of the planet,

a volcano could
still make you feel the heat.

Much of this gas cloud
is CO2, carbon dioxide,

and CO2 is a killer.

It traps heat in the atmosphere.

If you wanna know how
dangerous CO2 can be,

just try taking a walk on Venus.

The surface of Venus
is hotter than hell.

Surprisingly the planet
with the hottest temperature

at the surface in our whole
solar system is Venus,

even though it's not the
planet closest to the sun.

That is purely the effect of
having too much carbon dioxide

in your atmosphere.

On earth volcanoes have been
firing CO2 into the sky

for billions of years.

So, here's the question.

How come it's pretty cool here on
Earth while Venus is fully baked?

Well, the earth has its own way of
dealing with CO2, unique to this planet.

But it can easily go wrong.

The sun threatens us with solar
explosions and ultraviolet light

but its most dangerous
weapon could be plain old heat.

It can cook planets,
especially ones wrapped in a

warm blanket of
carbon dioxide gas.

But the Earth has its own very elegant
way to stop itself from being

boiled dry by the sun.

The best way to see it in action
is from 250 miles straight up.

Just like the human body has ways of
keeping all of our systems in check,

similarly the earth has its
own regulatory system...

and it's kept just about the
right amount of carbon dioxide

in the atmosphere.

From space you got a
unique perspective.

The process starts with
something no other planet in

the solar system has.

An air conditioning system
made possible by rain.

Normally we think of the rain
as being pure water coming

down out of the sky but
actually it's carrying

dissolved carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere and

this makes it acidic enough
to dissolve rocks.

Ultimately this water, silt
and locked-up carbon dioxide

will all get washed into
the planet's rivers.

This process goes on right
under our noses every day but

sometimes it can make itself visible
in a truly spectacular fashion.

These people get to take a small
peek at the way our world keeps

itself cool and, wow,
is it impressive.

♪ ♪

Hidden in
all that water is carbon

pulled from the sky.

This great river is
forcing it into the ocean.

Seen from above its raging majesty
is laid out for the stars to see.

Looking at rivers from space you really
get a sense of the movement of huge

amounts of material.

It's unforgettable.

You can see the brown
color which goes way,

way out into the ocean.

As rivers spit out huge
quantities of sediment and

locked-up CO2, carbon that was once in
our atmosphere gets buried at the bottom

of the ocean and that
helps cool down our planet.

Over millions of years the
cycle of rain, rivers and

volcanoes has helped balance
the CO2 in our atmosphere,

keeping us warm in the
coldness of space while

preventing us from being
boiled alive by the sun.

I had studied earth science
but when you actually go into

space you feel it
on a visceral level.

You realize it's
the living Earth.

All of these systems
on the planet whether it's,

you know, volcanoes, whether
it's currents in the ocean...

are shaping and molding
this planet that we see.

It looks like
it's its own organism.

Like it's living, it's
breathing, it's the...

as the clouds move, I mean,
it's almost like it's...

it looks alive.

Nature's ancient systems have kept our
planet safe for billions of years

but now they're
changing in a very big way.

Right now humans are pumping 60
times more CO2 into our atmosphere

than volcanoes and there isn't
enough time for the Earth's

air conditioning
system to correct the problem.

The planet is getting hotter.

How much hotter?

That depends on us.

It's not gonna be easy but my hope is
that just as we fixed the ozone hole,

humans are ultimately
gonna be able to fix this.

Human beings don't have to just
stand by and watch Earth's war

with the sun.

We can help.
We have to.

For almost four billion years our planet
has held off the power of the sun,

but that fire ball will get
us in the end and thanks to

Jeff Hoffman we've been given a
terrifying glimpse into the future.

A very bright future.

For almost four
billion years our planet has

shielded us from the sun.

But those shields won't
protect us forever.

Ask Jeff Hoffman.

He was part of the team who
allowed us to see our ultimate

fate when he helped fix
the Hubble telescope.

Hubble couldn't see straight.

It was the butt of jokes
of late night comedians.

It was denounced in the halls of the
US Congress as a techno turkey.

It was a disaster.

So fixing Hubble was
critical for the future space

activities that NASA
wanted to carry out.

We are inspired. We are ready.
Let's go fix this thing.

Both as an astronomer and an astronaut
to take my two hands and put them on

the Hubble space telescope
and actually fix it...

Endeavored motion
of the aperture door.

Roger, we're alive.

That's been a great
source of satisfaction.

We have a good release.

Copy. And we very
much appreciate it.

I do have
some good news for you, Jeff.

The payload folks have gone through a
complete checkout and are fully functional.

Great news.

Thanks to Jeff
and the team, Hubble went from

turkey to triumph.

Some of these images are almost
biblical in their intensity.

They still give me goosebumps
when I look at them.

So many different forms and colors, it looks
like the work of some psychedelic artist

but it's the universe
that we live in.

I mean, it's extraordinary.

The work on Hubble meant we
could capture the exact moment

when a star like the sun dies.

♪ ♪

Around five billion years from now,
the sun is going to grow in size,

swallowing up the earth.

And in those final moments,
all matter on our planet,

all traces of life...

will be torn apart as the
Earth is enveloped by the sun.

When I came back on Earth
and looked up at the sun,

it looked the way it had always
looked before except I knew

that I had seen it
like it really was.

It's like seeing somebody's
true nature very briefly when

they let their guard down and
then you never see that again.

Earth's protected us from the
sun for billions of years.

It's been one of the main
reasons that life has been

able to thrive here
on the surface.

As a biological creature we
need the Earth to protect us

and these shields provide sort of a
blanket over us to just keep us secure

and sort of carefree
on the planet.

Were we just lucky that all these
things happened to be in place?

Well, of course if they
weren't in place, we wouldn't

be here and I wouldn't
be talking about this.

Next time you
take a walk outside when the

sun is high in the sky...

take a moment and think
about the iron churning at the

Earth's core, the oxygen
bubbling out from under the sea,

the rain crashing onto
the rocks, all these things

that came before us and made
this world possible, those

chance events, those planetary
systems that allow our little

moat dust survivve in a sunbeam.

You, me and everyone we know,
we're lucky, lucky to get as

far as we have and
lucky to be here now.

But this is not the
end of the story.

What's up?
How are you doing?

Next time how all life
on Earth got started.

And let me tell you, that takes
strange to a whole new level.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Captioned by Cotter
Captioning Services.