All language subtitles for The Life of Earth 1of2 1080p EN SUB_Subtitles01.ENG

♪

Narrator:
Since the dawn of humanity,

We have asked the question,

How did our wondrous home
come to be?

Today, space technology
casts light on this mystery.

Thanks to intrepid astronauts

And data beamed
from hundreds of satellites,

We are gaining new insight
into earth's epic history.

Woman: Going to space,

We have a different lens
to look at the whole planet.

Narrator:
We're finding fresh evidence

To answer age-old questions

About the formation
of our solar system.

Man: We can only understand
the big picture

When we study
all these bodies

And learn everything
they have to tell us.

Narrator:
We're asking how life begins

And how it evolves
through times of peril.

Man: All of these stories

Are intensely interesting
murder mysteries

In our planet's past.

Narrator: We're going
on a 4.5-billion-year journey

Through eons of fire
and meteor storms,

From the arrival of oceans

And freezing global ice sheets,

Through epic eruptions

And mass extinctions,

To where, against all odds,
life finds a way.

♪

This is the story of the life
of earth from space.

♪

♪

[radio chatter]

250 miles over our heads orbits
the international space station.

♪

The astronauts who live here

Constantly monitor
the world below.

♪

Cady coleman:
Our vantage point from space

Gives us a view of the planet

That is
about collecting information

That can't be collected
any other way.

Narrator: But they can
also observe phenomena

That provide clues
to earth's distant origins,

The countless tiny meteors
bombarding our atmosphere.

Coleman: Every single day,

There are thousands
and thousands of pounds

Of space rocks
pummeling the earth,

And it becomes very clear
that we live in a neighborhood.

It's made up of pieces
of the universe,

Some of which come crashing
down onto our earth.

Narrator:
As they enter the atmosphere,

Most of these space rocks
burn up,

But those that don't

Can help us understand
where our planet came from.

♪

50,000 years ago,

A large meteor
punches through the atmosphere.

The impact site is today
visible from space--

Arizona's barringer crater.

When the 30-ton meteorite hit,

It exploded
into thousands of pieces.

At the national museum
of natural history,

A major fragment is on display--

The canyon diablo,

One of the oldest objects
you'll ever see.

Radiometric dating
reveals its oldest parts

Formed almost four
and a half billion years ago.

Hakeem oluseyi:
These meteorites hold in them

A history of our solar system.

They're sort of
like fossil relics

That have a story to tell
about the birth of earth.

Narrator: It's a story that
starts with the building blocks

Of everything on earth,

Elements that are forged in
the hearts of long-dead stars.

♪

Under its own gravity,
an enormous star collapses.

♪

[explosion]

The explosion creates elements
like iron, oxygen, and carbon.

Oluseyi: The materials
that we're made of,

The materials that everything
around us is made of,

That earth is made of,
these materials, these elements,

Are created
in the centers of stars,

And so we are made up
of the ashes of exploding stars.

Narrator: As gravity
pulls on the stardust,

It forms
a hot, spinning disc.

A new star grows in its center--
our sun.

Around it, hot, dusty materials
clump together.

These small masses will become
comets, asteroids, or meteors,

Like the canyon diablo.

The largest of them
become planets, like our own.

♪

The infant earth is born.

Its surface is a hellish ocean
of molten rock,

And it's missing
a crucial companion.

For humanity,

The moon has always been
a source of wonder...

A timepiece to chart
the months and seasons.

Modern scientists
are also captivated

By our closest
celestial neighbor.

For them,
it is the moon's origins

That remain
the greatest mystery.

Is it a smaller body formed
in parallel with the earth

Or a passing planet
captured by earth's gravity?

♪

Nasa's apollo missions
provided a unique opportunity

To find the answer.

December 1972,
the launch of apollo 17.

On board
is dr. Harrison schmitt.

On this last mission
to the moon,

Nasa sends
their first geologist.

♪

Man on radio:
25 feet. Down at 2.

Feels good. 20 feet.

10 feet.

Engines stopped. Ok, houston,
the challenger has landed.

Narrator: Scientists believe
the secret to the moon's origins

May be hiding in its rocks,

If they can identify
the right ones.

Harrison schmitt: My mission
was a little bit different

Because we built in
some time for me,

As a geologist,
to look around

And try to understand
more than a pilot astronaut--

However well-trained
they might be,

They didn't have
the experience that I did.

Astronaut: Let's see
if I can't crack the corner

And get that contact.

Schmitt: We actually collected
more than any other mission,

About 240 pounds of rocks.

Narrator: With his carefully
selected specimens,

Schmitt hits pay dirt.

These rocks prove
that the earth and moon

Are more than just neighbors.

Oluseyi: What those rocks showed
is that the moon was made up

Of pretty much
the same stuff as the earth,

And so that gave us
the big clue that we needed

To understand
how the moon formed

But also understand
the early history of earth.

Narrator: It's now widely
believed that the moon

Is the remnant
of a catastrophic collision.

♪

A newly formed planet
the size of mars

Heads straight towards
the infant earth.

♪

From the molten debris,
our moon takes form,

The same size as it is today,
but 17 times closer.

Oluseyi: It took a lot less time
to orbit the earth,

And it took a lot less time

For the earth to spin once
on its spin axis,

So the day was shorter,
the month was shorter,

The week was shorter.

♪

Narrator: The proximity
of this large circling object

Distorts the earth, causing
a tidal effect in the rock.

Oluseyi: There was
a gravitational interaction

Between the earth and the moon
that we call the tidal force,

And that has the effect

Of throwing the moon
away from earth,

So every day,

The moon moves a little bit
farther away from the earth

Than it was the day before.

♪

Narrator: Now, as the moon rises
for the first time,

Our planet begins to cool,

And a crust begins to form.

But before earth
can truly come to life,

It must survive another
harrowing challenge from space.

♪

Narrator:
The moon's barren surface

Bears the scars
of the distant past.

In 1972, in the rocks
around their spacecraft,

Harrison schmitt
and the crew of apollo 17

See signs
of an impact so intense,

It melted the moon's crust.

They'd landed inside an enormous
crater 400 miles wide.

Schmitt: We were in a valley

Deeper than the grand canyon
of the united states,

So it was really
a remarkable place to be.

Narrator: The crater
is one of many thousands

That dot the moon's surface,

And analysis
of apollo rocks reveal

Many of these epic craters
are truly ancient,

Evidence that beginning
some 4 billion years ago,

The inner solar system
suffers an intense bombardment.

Schmitt: The major thing
that we have learned

Is that the first billion years
of earth's history

Was extraordinarily violent.

♪

Narrator: Across hundreds
of millions of years,

The earth is hit by
over 22,000 asteroids and comets

From the outer solar system.

Some are over 25 miles across.

Each one inflicts
cataclysmic destruction.

[explosion]

Oluseyi:
What would that feel like?

Constant earthquakes,

Objects are streaking through
the sky, falling to earth.

You feel the ground shaking,

Giant plumes of material
being thrown up.

That would have been amazing.

There is lightning that's
created in the plume of dust.

There are rocks that are falling
and look like they're on fire.

There's going to be
a lot of molten rock

On earth's surface, as well.

You think of darkness.
You think of lava.

You think
of the smell of sulfur.

Narrator:
As this assault continues,

The earth's appearance changes.

Water starts to pool
on the earth's surface.

It's thought
that the comets bombarding earth

Are laden with ice.

This combines with water

Leaching from the earth's
own cooling rocks.

♪

The first oceans are born.

With water comes weather.

♪

1,000-year relentless storms
of unimaginable ferocity.

[thunder]

♪

Every tide like a mega tsunami.

Oluseyi: The moon
was much closer to the earth,

And this means that
the tides were much greater,

So instead of measuring
tides in feet,

Tides were measured
in kilometers or miles.

♪

Narrator: 4 billion years ago,

500 million years
after the earth was born,

It has a moon,
oceans, and weather.

It is beginning to resemble
the planet we know.

For now, it is barren,
devoid of life,

But things are about to change.

2013, chelyabinsk, russia.

A traveler arrives
from deep space.

♪

[crash]

[screaming]

[crashing]

It is the largest meteorite
impact in a century.

The hunt is on
to find its scattered remains.

♪

Scientists pull a huge fragment
from a nearby lake.

♪

They cut it open
and make a fabulous find.

The space rock contains
primitive organic materials.

♪

It's the latest evidence
to support a growing idea--

That the same comets and meteors
that carried water to earth

Also brought with them
the ingredients for life.

4 billion years ago,

Auroras illuminate
the infant atmosphere,

The visual manifestation
of the earth's magnetic field

Produced by its molten core.

It's a shield
that now protects the surface

From the ravages
of space radiation.

♪

Beneath this shield,

In shallow coastal seas churned
by the tides of the moon,

Fueled by volcanic heat

And seeded with organic
molecules from space...

Comes the very first life
on earth.

♪

Just how it begins
remains a mystery.

But at some point
in this distant time,

Chemistry becomes biology.

♪

For years, no one believed
life could exist

In toxic
volcanic environments,

But life is full of surprises.

Today our planet
is much changed,

But there remain
some environments

Bearing similarities
to early earth--

Iceland,

One of the most volcanic regions
of earth.

Just off its southern coast

Lies an isolated volcano
named surtsey.

♪

Surtsey is one of earth's
newest strips of land.

♪

In 1963,
it exploded from the sea,

Erupting continuously
for four years.

♪

It is now a world heritage site,

Off-limits to all except
a few research scientists.

Surtsey's hot volcanic
cracks and seams

Closely reproduce
the environment of early earth.

The team drills cores of rock
from hundreds of feet below.

♪

They search
for the fingerprints of life,

Marks made in the rock by
deep-dwelling microorganisms.

♪

Despite temperatures exceeding
250 degrees fahrenheit,

Without oxygen,
and in acidic, salty water,

The rocks are clearly scarred

By single-celled organisms
feeding off the rock.

Scientists are now finding
these extremophile cells

In volcanic zones
across the globe.

Steffen jørgensen:
It's mind-blowing, to be honest,

Because the number of microbial
cells found in this system

Outcompete the number of stars
in the universe.

Narrator: Dna indicates
some underground microbes

Relate closely to cells
that were ancestors

Of all life on the surface.

Jørgensen:
It dawned on me at that time

Just how important they are.

These are the type of cells

That evolved into
a more complex cell structure,

Which eventually
turned into you and I.

♪

Narrator: 3 billion years ago,

Simple single-celled life forms
are now colonizing the planet.

The oceans swirl
with blue-green cyanobacteria.

♪

These have now evolved

To harness
the energy of sunlight...

Through photosynthesis,

The process still used
by modern plants.

This revolution in energy supply
has massive consequences...

Because the byproduct is oxygen.

Over the next billion years,

Cyanobacteria turn
carbon dioxide into oxygen

In such volumes that
the entire ecosystem alters.

The crust of the earth and
the oceans are filled with iron.

As oxygen leaches
into the system,

This iron is transformed.

Kirk johnson: There's lots
of iron on the planet's surface,

But it had never
been oxidized before,

So, fundamentally,
cyanobacteria created oxygen,

Which created rust,
and the earth became red.

♪

Narrator:
By 2 billion years ago,

The countless tiny microbes
that fill the earth's oceans

Alter the chemistry
of the planet.

♪

But as it slowly evolves
over the next billion years,

Life will face a new challenge
to its existence,

As changes in climate

Plunge the planet
into deep freeze.

720 million years ago,

Earth is set
for an explosion of life,

But for now,
life remains primitive and rare,

And some scientists
believe they know why.

Satellite and ground surveys

Across a 2,000-mile stretch
of northern canada

Capture evidence of an ancient
continent-sized volcanic field.

This is the franklin large
igneous province.

Many scientists now believe

It's the sign of a series
of enormous volcanic eruptions

That threatened life on earth
by blotting out the sun.

[rumbling]

1991, the philippines.

Mount pinatubo explodes.

It's one of the biggest volcanic
eruptions of the modern era.

Pinatubo pumps over 10 million
tons of sulfur into the skies.

Satellites later record a change

In reflectivity
of the atmosphere.

So much heat energy
bounces back into space,

The whole earth cools
by one degree fahrenheit.

Imagine the impact
of multiple pinatubo eruptions

All going off at once.

♪

Northern canada.

Across 2,000 miles,
the earth tears open.

♪

Billions of tons of sulfur
and ash clog the air.

♪

The earth plunges into darkness.

[explosion]

The eruption
continues for decades.

♪

Global temperatures plummet
to minus 50 degrees fahrenheit.

One theory suggests
the freeze is so intense,

The planet is encased in ice--

Snowball earth--

Entombing earth's fragile
microbes beneath miles of ice

For 80 million years.

♪

But eventually the ice thaws.

Somehow, life on earth survives,

And now it will thrive.

Across the next
200 million years,

New generations
of bacterial blooms

Raise oxygen levels again,

Creating an atmosphere
rich in oxygen.

Coleman: Looking at the earth,
especially at sunrise or sunset,

Which for us
happens 16 times a day,

Which is pretty wonderful,

That's when you can really see

That, that layer,
that, that thin atmosphere,

And it's like a little bubble

That encloses
everything you know and love.

Narrator: 600 million years ago,
this oxygen-rich environment

Is the catalyst
for an energy revolution.

Some microbes now turn from
solar power to oxygen power.

This new energy source
is behind their evolution

Into the first multicellular
plants and animals.

Today, off the coast
of australia

Lies the great barrier reef,

An organic structure so big,
it can be seen from space.

♪

Scientists believe ancient reefs
were incubators for early life.

They are among the most
ecologically diverse places

On our planet.

♪

Johnson: Reefs are like cities.

I mean, cities, you start
with a few little houses.

Then you get buildings
and multi-story buildings.

There's lots of diversity
in a city,

So in ancient reefs,
there's just that same thing.

The more kinds of places
there were to live,

The more diversity
of life forms there were.

Narrator: In southern africa,

Scientists
have recently discovered

What they believe is one of
the oldest reefs on the planet.

It was formed in oxygen-rich
seas 550 million years ago.

♪

Evidence suggests this is a time
of rapid evolutionary change.

This is when
the blueprint of modern animals,

Of us, first emerges--

The cambrian explosion.

Johnson: What we see are a bunch
of new kinds of organisms.

Now, these were marine animals,

Small animals that looked
like crabs and shrimp

And other kinds of shellfish.

These organisms had features
that are quite familiar to us.

If you look
at a, a little tiny crab,

He's got little eyes
looking back at you.

He's got limbs,
and he crawls around,

And he eats stuff
through his mouth,

And it goes into his stomach,

And it goes out the back end
as its waste.

That sort of way
of being an animal,

We see for the first time
in the cambrian explosion.

Narrator: Over 4 billion years,

The earth evolves from a ball
of fire to a ball of ice.

And by 400 million years ago,
to this--

A blue-green planet

With life spreading to the land.

Johnson: Pretty soon after you
have the first plants on earth,

You have
the first trees on earth.

With trees come forests,

And with forests come the same
kind of diversity of habitat

That we've seen underwater
in the reef structures.

Narrator: With plant life
comes animal life.

The first surface dwellers
make their appearance.

Life now has a foothold,

Across land, sea, and the sky.

But their new oasis

Is a time bomb
just waiting to explode.

Russia.

These are the siberian traps,

An ancient lava field spread
over 2 million square miles.

In 2011, scientists here
made a crucial discovery,

Explaining one
of the most infamous events

In earth history,

The great dying.

This spot is the scene

Of the most deadly
volcanic eruption in history.

♪

This huge area
becomes an ocean of fire.

♪

But the danger
is not just the eruption.

Scientists
found the lava erupted

Through a thick layer of coal,

Generating a toxic cloud
that acidifies the atmosphere,

Leading to about a million years
of deadly acid rain.

Johnson: This eruption
happens almost precisely

When we see a lot of things
go extinct at the same time.

The lava starts erupting,
organisms start dying.

We call it the great dying
because by our best estimates,

It's pretty close to
snuffing out life on the planet.

♪

Narrator:
But not all life dies out,

And the gaps
opened up by the extinction

Generate a monstrous surge
in evolution--

The age of the dinosaurs.

♪

Argentina, 2012.

♪

Paleontologist dr. Diego pol

Uncovers the remains
of what's thought to be

The biggest land animal
that ever lived.

So large, its thigh bone alone
stood taller than a human.

♪

The 70-ton titanosaur.

Diego pol: Can you imagine 10
african elephants put together?

You know, this animal
was as long as an airplane,

You know, a boeing 737.

Narrator: But dinosaurs
were not always so enormous.

Pol: 230 million years ago,

The first dinosaurs
appear on our planet,

And they were tiny animals.

They were probably weighing
10 kilograms.

Now, 50 million years
after that...

[thud]

[roaring]

There were
the first giant dinosaurs.

This is the time
when titanosaur appeared

And when they achieved
the maximum body size,

When we started seeing
these 70-ton animals

Roaming on our planet.

Narrator: It's not yet clear

What caused dinosaurs like
titanosaur to grow so large.

But these enormous plant eaters

Now become an important part
of the global ecosystem.

They travel hundreds of miles.

They spread seeds
and trample vegetation,

Creating new opportunity
for plant species

To spread across the planet.

[roars]

Pol: We know
these giant dinosaurs migrated

From antarctica to asia
to north america, africa.

They were everywhere,

Roaming through the landscape,

Altering and modifying
the different ecosystems

All over the planet.

It's really, really amazing.

Narrator: For 180 million years,

As the continents
slowly shift beneath them,

The giant dinosaurs
dominate the planet,

But around
65 million years ago,

Suddenly they disappear,
wiped out by a meteor strike.

Scientists believe another event

May have contributed
to their downfall.

In india today, there is
a collection of ancient temples.

These incredible structures
were cut from the soft rock

Of the deccan traps,

The remains
of a massive lava eruption

That spreads over 200,000
square miles of western india.

♪

This epic eruption begins
to poison the dinosaurs' world.

♪

But the nail in their coffin

Is the sudden impact
of an immense meteor.

Johnson:
Here you have a body of rock

That's six miles in diameter.

It's traveling at 20 times
the speed of a rifle bullet.

When it hits planet earth,

Which is
much, much, much larger,

It's like driving a truck
into a stone wall.

And it punches a hole
deep into the earth.

And then all that energy gets
blown back out of that hole.

Narrator: With a force
of a billion atomic bombs,

The explosion gouges a crater

115 miles wide
and nearly 8 miles deep.

But many now believe
that the impact alone

Wasn't powerful enough to cause
their global extinction.

♪

Satellites designed to search
for oil have recently confirmed

That the impact site
is a part of the earth's crust

Unusually rich
in hydrocarbons and sulfur.

When the meteor hits,
the volatile compounds vaporize,

Creating a cocktail
of climate-changing chemicals

That mix with the countless tons
of melted rock.

Johnson: All that energy
blows up and out.

Some of it goes
out of the earth's atmosphere.

Some of it blows sideways.

Meanwhile the earth is turning,

So you have hot stuff
flying out of the sky

On the other side
of the planet.

♪

If you were anywhere near it,
forget about it,

But if you are
on the other side of the planet,

Forget about it also.

♪

Narrator: Nearly half
of global plant life dies.

Half the life in the sea
is snuffed out.

Three quarters of all life
on the planet is made extinct.

The great dinosaurs' fate
is sealed.

Although they disappear
from history,

The catastrophe now
creates opportunity

For others to take their place.

65 million years ago...

After the devastating
meteor impact,

Over thousands of years,
the world slowly recovers.

The air clears,

The fires cool,

And new forests take root.

The great dinosaurs are no more.

[sniffing]

But some life has survived.

Anjali goswami:
The mass extinction that saw

The demise of the dinosaurs

Was terrible for everything
on the planet quite frankly.

Mammals squeaked
through that extinction.

They did not sail through it by
any stretch of the imagination.

There might be as few
as 20 different kinds of mammals

That made it
through that extinction.

But the death of the dinosaurs

Really opened up a huge amount
of opportunity for mammals,

And they took it.

They took the opportunity,
and they went wild with it.

♪

Narrator: On the northern
borders of india

Lie the himalayas,

The highest mountain range
on earth.

Today its peaks rise five and
a half miles above sea level.

♪

But by earth's standards,
these mountains are young,

Less than 55 million years old.

This epic range rose in parallel
with the rise of the mammals.

♪

55 million years ago,
after eons of continental drift,

India smashes into eurasia.

The himalayas begin their ascent
to the heavens.

♪

Recent fossil finds in india

Are adding to evidence
collected worldwide

That this is
an evolutionary turning point.

The precursors
of many key mammalian species

Are starting to emerge
and spread across the globe.

Goswami: 10 to 20 million years
after the dinosaurs go extinct,

Mammals really explore the world

And develop a huge range
of shapes and ecologies

That still define them today.

You start to see
the first real horses.

You see whales moving
into the ocean.

You start to see
early primates showing up.

But it was certainly a pivotal
moment in mammal history.

Narrator: For the next
50 million years,

As continents continue to shift
into today's positions

And the himalayas
inch upwards...

The mammals evolve.

♪

By one million years ago,

They take over the globe.

♪

And in africa,
conditions are ripe

For a new chapter
in the history of our world.

A new mammal will emerge,

A new type of primate
that walks tall,

Who in a flicker
of geological time

Will become the dominant species
on the planet.

Next time, we'll explore
the age of humans,

Using clues from space
to provide new insights

Into why we evolved
our unique human brain,

How we tamed the planet's
animals and plants

To build great civilizations,

And how we develop total command
of the earth's energy,

Giving us the power
not only to shape our future,

But also the fate of the planet
we call home.

♪