The Wonder of the Solar System - A Five Part Documentary by Brian Cox

Brian Cox is an English particle physicist, a Royal Society University Research Fellow and also a professor at the University of Manchester. He was the keyboard player for the pop band D:Ream and currently works on the ATLAS experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. He is best known for presenting science programs for the BBC. One such program is the 'Wonders of the Solar System'. The show contains of five episodes, each focusing on a facet of the Solar System.

A spot of astonishing beauty and complexity.  "We live on a world of wonders. A place of astonishing beauty and complexity. We've vast oceans and unbelievable weather. Giant breathtaking landscapes and mountains. You're wrong should you believe this is all there is, that our planet exists in isolation that is brilliant, then. We are a part of a much wider ecosystem that goes way past the top of our atmosphere. I think we're living through the best age of discovery our civilization has understood. We have voyaged to the farthest reaches of the Solar System. We've voyaged to the farthest reaches of the Solar System.  We've photographed strange new worlds, stood in unknown landscapes, tasted alien atmosphere."

Episode one, named' Empire of the Sun' starts with Professor Brian Cox travelling to India, to witness the complete Solar eclipse on the 22nd of July, 2009. The episode illustrates the formation and behavior of the Sun and the way that it affects each planet in the Solar System. He goes about describing how the energy might be harvested and the power of our Sun. We get to see the Aurora Borealis in Norway as the solar storms and their effects on our planet's magnetosphere are shown; a site really magnificent on high definition.

'Order From Chaos'; Brian Cox, the second episode tells concerning the second law of thermodynamics. The seasons caused by the Earth's tilt and the retrograde motion of the planet Mars are discussed, the episode ends with a briefing in regards to the rings of Saturn along with the geysers of a Jovian moon, Enceladus as well as pictures in the Cassini Huygens probe.

Cox takes a journey in a English Electric to an elevation of about sixty thousand feet where the thin and fragile atmosphere of the Earth transits from light blue to dark blue. The 3rd episode, 'The Thin Blue Line' is about an other Jovian moon, Titan and the atmospheres of Mars. About the moons atmosphere in detail, Brian Cox talks with footage of the Huygens descend to Titan's surface.

Comparing the Valles Marineris of Mars concerning the geological activities using the Grand Canyon of Arizona, the fourth episode, 'Dead or Alive' conversations. Professor Brian Cox travels to Hawaii and again, a comparison is created between the planet Earth as well as Olympus Mons. Its own effects and gravity will also be discussed in this episode. He sent it on a collision course with all the Earth and goes about explaining the tremendous gravity Jupiter has and how it could potentially alter the trajectory of an asteroid that's strayed into the inner Solar system. The episode finishes with him describing about the geological activities on Io.

The concluding episode, 'Aliens' covers life living in extreme environments. To draw comparisons between space travel, a sub is taken by Brian Cox to the deep oceans. Focusing on a Jupiter's moon Europa, and on Mars, he describes how hunt for life by seeking for water.

The planets solar system are able to possibly be found over at http://planetfacts.org/the-solar-system/