Episode
NOVA: Solar System: Volcano Worlds
Overview
All around our solar system, volcanoes are powerful shapers of worlds. Next door on Mars is Olympus Mons, a giant volcanic mountain more than twice the size of Mt. Everest. And closer to the Sun, thousands of volcanoes produce the toxic atmosphere that keeps Venus boiling. Then there’s Jupiter’s moon Io, the most volcanically active world in the entire solar system, and Saturn’s moon Enceladus, where clues in its watery eruptions hint at the possibility of life. Discover the explosive forces that molded each of these worlds – and what makes the volcanoes right here on Earth so special.
Details
- Series
- NOVA
- Season
- Season 51
- Episode
- Episode 11
- Air date
- 2024-10-16
- Runtime
- 54 min
Episode context
Solar System: Volcano Worlds is Episode 11 in Season 51 of NOVA. It aired on 2024-10-16. The runtime is 54 min.
Previous / Next
Episode 10: Solar System: Strange Worlds
From a dwarf planet that looks like a deflated football, to a tiny moon with cliffs taller than Mt. Everest, to the spectacular rings of Saturn, discover how the effects of gravity produce the amazing variety of weird worlds in our solar system.
Episode 12: Solar System: Icy Worlds
Ice might seem familiar to us on Earth, but out in the solar system, it can get quite exotic. From Uranus’s ultra hot superionic ice, to glaciers of nitrogen ice on Pluto, to carbon dioxide snow on Mars, ice is a fundamental building block throughout our cosmic neighborhood. Visit some of the strange, frozen worlds of our solar system to discover why the ice here on Earth so special – and why we wouldn’t be here without it.
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