All language subtitles for The Sights of Space - A Voyage to Alien Worlds [2022]

This is the NAVIS III,

an imaginary ship that can take
you anywhere in the Milky Way.

Its maiden voyage will take you on a tour
of the wildest planets we have yet discovered.

Worlds of burning ice,

planets hotter than stars,

with clouds made of metal,

zombie worlds born from
the ashes of dead ones,

and hundreds of billions more are
waiting for us in our galaxy alone.

These worlds will give us a glimpse

into how deep nature's imagination goes

and create a map for future pioneers

who may one day plant
their flags on landscapes

we can hardly imagine.

As our journey to new worlds begins,

we set sail for the closest alien planet,

40 trillion kilometers away.

But the long road to our cosmic neighbor

is paved with strange sights of its own.

Past the distant orbit of Neptune,

we slip into a no man's land

of icy cosmic debris that
surrounds our solar system:

The Kuiper belt.

This massive disc of frozen material

contains hundreds of
millions of icy scraps,

leftovers from the formation
of our solar system.

Out here,
among the scattered bits of rock and ice,

live something strange...

Haumea.

A tumbling dwarf planet shaped like an egg.

Carrying two moons and an icy ring,
this bizarre Pluto-sized world

is the fastest-spinning object
in our Solar system.

Splashed across its surface
is a mysterious red spot,

possibly a scar from a recent impact.

And Haumea is not alone.

There is a whole eccentric family
of mini-worlds lurking out here.

Dwarf planets like Makemake

and Gonggong, a red-tinted mini-Pluto

with a thin atmosphere of methane.

The Kuiper belt could hold as
many as 200 dwarf planets,

and thousands more could be
floating in the space beyond.

Someday, these tiny worlds may serve as

a cosmic base camp
for interstellar voyagers.

A final outpost still bound to our Sun.

And, when we finally outgrow our home system,

the one nearest to Earth will be waiting:

Alpha Centauri.

In this triple star system,
a tiny red dwarf star

known as Proxima Centauri,
orbits around a pair of Sun-like stars:

Alpha Centauri A and B.

As we approach Proxima,
the closets of the stellar trio,

we are greeted by two huge
dust belts that circle the star.

But further in, we come to
the real gem of this system:

Welcome to Proxima Centauri B,
the closest exoplanet to home.

With a mass almost identical to Earth's,

and a density that suggests
a rocky composition,

this distant Earth cousin orbits right
inside its star's habitable zone,

giving it potential to hold liquid water.

Given how near and similar it is to Earth,

perhaps this will be the first outpost

for mankind around another star.

Visitors can gaze up
to see Proxima Centauri

and its two sister suns.

And on a clear night, our own Sun,

a distant glimpse of home.

But there is still a lot we don't
know about our cosmic neighbor.

And its star is so volatile,

that stellar flares could shock
the planet into a lifeless state.

The only way to know for sure
is to go there ourselves.

Missions are now being proposed

that can reach this system
in as little as 20 years.

Using nanoprobes powered by light sails.

If humans ever touch down
on Proxima Centauri B,

it will become the sight of the most

transformative event in human history.

The moment mankind became
an interstellar species.

As we push farther into space,
we leave the familiar behind

and come across a world beyond
all human comprehension.

GLIESE 436-B is about as different
from Earth as you can get.

Orbiting extremely close to its star,

its surface is a scorching 438�C.

On a planet this hot, you might
expect to find vast seas of magma,

but this Neptune-sized world
is something else entirely.

A world of burning ice.

Its massive gravity compresses
water vapor in the atmosphere

into an exotic form of ice called Ice-VII.

The pressures here are so intense that

the ice can withstand burning
temperatures without evaporating.

But the atmosphere is another story.

It's been blasted into space
by the star's immense heat

and as the starlight pushes
on the escaping gas,

it's leaving behind a comet-like tail...
nine million miles long.

Most planets in the universe
will be hostile to humans.

But 39 light years away,

a tiny red dwarf star is home
to a potential planetary oasis.

This is the TRAPPIST-1 system.

A family of seven rocky planets
huddled closely around their sun.

These Earth-sized worlds
orbit so closely together

that the whole system would fit
easily inside the orbit of Mercury.

The inner two are suspected
to be Venus-like.

Searing hot and covered in dense clouds.

And the outer planet Trappist-1H

is thought to be as cold as the South pole.

But four of the middle worlds
orbit in the star's habitable zone,

making this system a
possible bonanza for life.

Trappist-1E is one of the single
most promising candidates

for habitability that we know of.

And each of these worlds
is far older than Earth,

giving potential life forms here
a 3 billion year head start.

But this system has a catch:

Each of the planets are
theorized to be tidally locked

with one side stuck facing their sun

and the other side permanently
exposed to the cold void of space.

Such temperature extremes could make it hard

for life to find a foothold.

But in the right conditions,

one of these worlds could hold
vast oceans on the sun-facing side

where the star's heat is just
enough for liquid water.

An eyeball Earth.

Appearing like a glistening
watery iris staring into space.

Others could have a habitable strip
of land between dark and light:

The terminator line, where
the temperature is just right.

A haven for life between scorched
earth and eternal winter.

The Trappist planets are now

a prime target of the
James Webb Space Telescope,

which will gaze into their atmospheres
in search of bio-signatures.

If our descendants ever reach this system,

they will look up to see the sibling
planets decorating the sky.

Each clinging to the heat
of their dim red star,

like campers around a fire.

Further beyond, 64 light years away,

lies a world that looks
deceptively peaceful.

A world where pasty white clouds

float above lush deep shades of blue.

But as we get closer,

this gas giant is anything but friendly.

The winds here are
the fastest know in space.

25 times faster than the
strongest recorded hurricanes.

And those cool blues you saw from space,

they're shards of silicate
particles as sharp as glass

and they're being blown sideways
across the world with you

at 7 times the speed of sound.

if that wasn't enough to kill you

then the extreme heat would do the trick.

The atmosphere here is so hot
that it can melt solid gold.

And that intense heat is
causing it to evaporate

at a rate of up to 1.3
billion pounds a second.

On this world from hell,
even the sky wants to escape.

As we journey the dark cosmic highways,

400 light years from Earth,

out of the darkness comes
a truly brilliant sight:

This newborn planet might look
familiar at first.

But compared to Saturn,

this massive world is
the true Lord of the Rings:

Its ring system is 200 times larger,

nearly 120 million kilometers wide,

almost the distance
from the Earth to the Sun.

If Saturn's rings were this massive,

they would be easily visible at night

and appear far larger than the Moon.

Researchers suspect
that within a gap in the rings,

there lies a huge moon,
bigger than Mars,

where the views would resemble
something from an acid trip.

Over time,
the surrounding rings will condense

to form a whole family of moons.

Possibly hundreds of them.

But for now, they offer a sight
unlike any we've ever seen.

Evidence that our home Solar
system has not prepared us,

for how varied and dazzling
others systems can be.

By some estimates,
nearly half of all Sun-like star systems

contain more than one sun.

Implying billions of worlds
that are home to poetic twin sunsets:

Worlds that orbit not just two
or three but even four stars.

Lands where your body casts multiple shadows.

And you can gaze up at
sunsets and sunrises at the same time.

This is an actual image of a
three-star system in the Orion Nebula,

revealing massive rings of gas and dust

whirling around a triplet of newborn stars,

and within this twisted swirl of debris,

there is evidence of a hidden planet,

carving out a gap in the gas and dust,

the first planet known
to orbit three stars at once.

And then there are worlds that seem

more like stars themselves than planets.

This huge scorching gas giant is
tidally locked to its star

with the day side that reaches
a blistering 3000 degrees Celcius,

hotter than the surface of some stars.

In the extreme heat,
heavy metals are lofted

into the atmosphere
from the planet's interior.

As violent winds blow these metals
to the night-facing side,

something incredible happens:

in this cooler atmosphere,
particles of iron, magnesium,

and other heavy elements condense
into clouds made of metal.

Huge metallic dust storms could rage

from one hemisphere to the other,

unleashing a torrential
rain of liquid gemstones.

And this isn't the only planet
of riches out there.

21 light-years from Earth,
this supermassive rocky planet

could be the ultimate piece of cosmic bling.

High concentrations of aluminum and calcium

pressurize under its extreme atmosphere,

possibly forming vast deposits
of rubies and sapphires.

And scientists believe,

there could even be planets
of pure diamond out here.

With its equal ratio of carbon to oxygen,

WASP-12B could potentially
hold a diamond core.

But even if it does
you'd never see it from space.

It's shrouded in dark clouds
of methane and carbon monoxide

that trap 94% of light,

making it darker than black coal.

And its proximity to
its star is causing gravity

to stretch the planet
into the shape of an egg.

But this diamond space egg has a death sentence:

Its star's intense gravity is pulling it
towards a fiery extinction,

giving it only three million years to live.

But for some worlds,
death is not the end of the story:

When massive stars go supernova,

the ensuing blast wipes out
any planets in the vicinity.

But the death of one world

can sometimes lead to the birth of another.

In a wake of this explosion,
certain stars

collapse into rapidly spinning cores,
called pulsars,

sucking up huge amounts of stellar debris.

But what's left on the
outer edge can cool and condense,

until finally,
a new world is formed:

A zombie planet,
build from the ashes of the dead.

Worlds like this are exceedingly rare.

But 2300 lights years away,
this billion-year-old pulsar

is the keeper of not one
but three potential zombie planets.

The closest in is Draugr.

A tiny rocky world,
smaller than Mercury,

likely stripped bare
from intense X-ray radiation.

Then, we come to the first
two exoplanets ever discovered,

a pair of zombie super-Earths
known as Poltergeist

and Phobetor,

Each more than triple the mass of the Earth.

Soaked in the strobing
of light of their dead stars,

the view from these planets would be utterly alien.

Charged particles from
the pulsar would rain down on the surface,

which could light up the
night skies with brilliant auroras.

Drenched in deadly x-rays
with no living star for warmth,

it may seem impossible for
worlds like this to sustain life.

But on planets with extremely thick atmospheres,

those X-rays could convert into heat,

supporting liquid water on the surface

and maybe even life itself.

thriving on a zombie planet,

circling the spinning
corpse of an exploded star.

As we reach the farthest
point of our journey,

over 2000 light years from Earth,

we have still only scratched
the surface of what's out there.

700 quadrillion other
worlds are still waiting.

Planets that are drenched in light

from the blazing center of the galaxy.

Worlds circling the rims
of supermassive black holes,

giant water planets with oceans

that reach thousands of kilometers deep,

to visit these far-off lands is a dream

only our descendants can realize.

If they ever set foot on alien soil
and feel the heat of new suns,

they will remember us,

as the first generation
to know these worlds,

to study their formation and their nature,
and to dream of one day,

calling some of them,

Home.