The Universe: Mars The Red Planet

Season 1 Episode 2

"Yet as awe-inspiring as the Martian surface appears, it is a brutal, inhospitable zone for human beings." - Narrator

"It goes down to a hundred degrees below zero at night. Every night." - Steve Squyres, Mars Expedition Rover Mission

"...and what they find at the bottom of every Antartica lake bed is a testament to the stubborn tenacity of life. Mats of microbial organisms are thriving in frigid environments the receive virtually no sunlight" - Narrator

"Missions to the red planet are only feasible once every two years during a specific short window of time.

The launch must be timed so that the spacecraft and Mars arrive at a specific point in the planet's orbit at the same time.

The journey across the 34 million mile distance can take up to 7 months. And the trajectory must be perfect." - Narrator

"The accuracy required to go from Earth to Mars and to hit the spot you want to be at on Mars is equivalent to Shooting a basketball from Los Angeles to New York and have it go through without hitting the rim..." - Steve Squyres, Mars Expedition Rover Mission

"It is of course, all about the search for life.

When all is said and done, the engine driving all of the astonishing scientific effort to explore the red planet is the burning desire of humankind to know if life exists elsewhere in the vast reaches of space." - Narrator

"We find evidence for life on Mars and, we know there's life on Earth of course. Then, there's probably life all over the place. The universe is probably teeming with life. And if it didn't then, it makes us feel, I think a little bit more special." - ...

The Universe: Secrets of the Sun

Season 1 Episode 1

"Imagine that you're sitting in the movies watching very happily something going on on the screen and then somebody in a row in front of you comes across and blocks your view. In the movie theater you might not want that person to come across in front of you but at an eclipse, we're very lucky that the moon come across the sun and we're lucky to have come right across the middle." - Jay M. Pasachoff, Williams College

"We're also lucky that the moon, although it's 400 times smaller than the sun is also 400 times closer to us. This cosmic coincidence means that the two objects just happen to have the same apparent size in our sky, which allows the one to completely block out the other.

This magnificent cosmic event only happens when the path of the moon intersects the line between the earth and the sun. The moon's orbit is tilted slightly, about 5 degrees. If it wasn't we would have an eclipse every month ." - Narrator

"And then, we'll be bored. But we're not bored because most months the moon goes above or below the place where the line goes from the earth to the sun." - Jay M. Pasachoff, Williams College

"So instead of one every month, we get a total eclipse somewhere on earth about once every year and a half." - Narrator