Episode
The Universe: Death Stars
Overview
Season 4 opens with an exploration of dying stars, the process where stars become supernovas, and, occasionally, become the biggest blast in the universe as a gamma ray burst (GRB). One death star, named WR104, lurks 8,000 light-years from Earth and some believe its GRB arrow is aimed directly at us. A death star galaxy named 3C321 is a frightening vision of what could one day befall the Milky Way galaxy: a companion galaxy's black hole being hammered with a constant blast of high-energy particles, wreaking havoc with its celestial bodies. Nearby, Death Stars Eta Carinae and Betelgeuse burn through their fuel supplies as they hurtle toward extinction...which just may be too close for comfort.
Details
- Series
- The Universe
- Season
- Season 4
- Episode
- Episode 1
- Air date
- 2009-08-18
- Runtime
- 45 min
Episode context
Death Stars is Episode 1 in Season 4 of The Universe. It aired on 2009-08-18. The runtime is 45 min.
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More episodes from this season
Episode 3: It Fell From Space
Every year, thousands of objects both natural and manmade plummet through our atmosphere and crash into the Earth. These menacing messengers from the sky provide scientists with amazing insights into the natural, and not so natural, phenomena of the cosmos. From space rocks crashing through homes to cosmic boulders triggering mass extinctions to rocket parts landing on front lawns, explore objects that fall from the heavens, such as asteroids, comets, meteor showers and space debris.
Episode 4: Biggest Blasts
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Episode 5: The Hunt for Ringed Planets
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Episode 6: 10 Ways to Destroy the Earth
Experts cook up ways you could destroy the Earth, including swallowing it with a black hole, blowing it up with anti-matter, hurling it into the Sun, and switching off gravity.
Episode 7: The Search for Cosmic Clusters
They are the one-stop-shopping places for learning all about the nature and variety of stars in the Universe. They're unique, because in clusters, all the stars were born at about the same time, from the same material and all are at the same approximate distance from Earth. This means we can be sure that any differences among them are due to their true natures and not distorted by different distances from Earth and other factors.
Episode 8: Space Wars
Outer space is already an essential part of America's ability to fight wars. Our military depends on satellites for many things, such as communications, reconnaissance and targeting information. But so far, no country has put weapons into space, although the U.S. and China have both shown they can shoot down satellites with ground-based missiles. If weapons do become a part of space, how will they work, how effective will they be, and what type of damage could they do? From ground-based lasers to telephone-pole sized rods hurtling from space at two miles per second to the far out weapons of the distant future, it's time to "lock and load" for Space Wars.
Episode 9: Liquid Universe
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Episode 10: Pulsars & Quasars
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Episode 11: Science Fiction, Science Fact
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Episode 12: Extreme Energy
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