Solar.System.2024.S01E02.1080p.BluRay.x264-DRCOX_track3_[eng] Subtitles

00:00:06,80 --> 00:00:08,- (THUNDER ROLLS)
- (WIND WHISTLES)

00:00:16,360 --> 00:00:18,It's midsummer.

00:00:21,720 --> 00:00:23,A storm is breaking...

00:00:31,00 --> 00:00:33,... Unleashing torrents
of rain...

00:00:38,600 --> 00:00:43,... forming floods that drain
into raging rivers...

00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:51,..and giant lakes.

00:00:57,200 --> 00:01:00,This is the only world
in our solar system

00:01:00,520 --> 00:01:03,where raindrops
fall to the ground...

00:01:10,760 --> 00:01:13,.. apart from our own planet.

00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:21,1.4 billion kilometres
from the sun

00:01:22,00 --> 00:01:25,lies Earth's strange,
stormy twin.

00:01:32,480 --> 00:01:34,Saturn's moon Titan is,
in some ways,

00:01:35,80 --> 00:01:36,more like a planet than a moon.

00:01:36,920 --> 00:01:39,It is larger than Mercury,

00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:43,and it is also, in some ways,
more like the Earth

00:01:43,120 --> 00:01:45,than any other place
in the solar system.

00:01:45,680 --> 00:01:50,| could stand on the surface
of Titan in a spacesuit

00:01:50,400 --> 00:01:53,and look out over lakes,

00:01:53,360 --> 00:01:55,and | could look into the sky,

00:01:55,720 --> 00:02:02,and | could experience droplets
of rain landing on my visor.

00:02:02,160 --> 00:02:05,But appearances can be
deceptive.

00:02:12,200 --> 00:02:13,Temperatures on Titan

00:02:14,40 --> 00:02:17,hover around
minus 180 degrees Celsius,

00:02:17,320 --> 00:02:19,far too cold for liquid water.

00:02:24,320 --> 00:02:28,Instead, these clouds are made
of a chemical that, on Earth,

00:02:28,960 --> 00:02:30,is a flammable gas.

00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:33,Methane.

00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:41,Titan is a world sculpted
by methane storms.

00:02:43,840 --> 00:02:45,Titan is the only moon
in the solar system

00:02:45,800 --> 00:02:47,with a thick atmosphere,

00:02:47,520 --> 00:02:51,and that atmosphere is the
stage for the methane cycle,

00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:55,an arena within which liquid
can evaporate from lakes,

00:02:55,160 --> 00:02:58,condense as clouds,
and fall as rain.

00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:03,But Titan is certainly not
the only storm world.

00:03:07,440 --> 00:03:09,Among the most dynamic
and violent worlds

00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:10,in our solar system...

00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:18,..are the handful that,
like Titan,

00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:20,have a thick atmosphere.

00:03:23,840 --> 00:03:27,Planets where
sulphuric acid storms rage...

00:03:31,360 --> 00:03:34,... giant dust vortices dance...

00:03:35,520 --> 00:03:39,..and lighting ten times
more powerful

00:03:39,960 --> 00:03:43,than anything found on Earth
lights up the sky...

00:03:45,880 --> 00:03:48,...and worlds whose storms
grow so large,

00:03:48,600 --> 00:03:51,they are entirely engulfed.

00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:04,(THUNDER ROLLS)

00:04:15,760 --> 00:04:18,On a perfectly still morning
like this...

00:04:19,800 --> 00:04:22,..as the sun rises
above the high plains of Utah,

00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:27,it's easy to forget
that we live in an atmosphere.

00:04:29,200 --> 00:04:32,But our atmosphere
is central to our existence,

00:04:32,200 --> 00:04:35,and central to the character
of our planet.

00:04:44,280 --> 00:04:47,Atmospheres behave like fluids,

00:04:47,280 --> 00:04:52,and that's extremely important
for a planet like Earth.

00:04:52,600 --> 00:04:54,Let me show you what | mean.

00:04:56,800 --> 00:05:01,You can see that
I'm a very experienced camper!

00:05:02,280 --> 00:05:06,Now, if | build a model
of the Earth's atmosphere -

00:05:06,600 --> 00:05:08,which is coffee -

00:05:08,240 --> 00:05:11,and then,
if | put some milk in...

00:05:11,680 --> 00:05:15,...which is a denser fluid
than the coffee,

00:05:15,280 --> 00:05:19,and so it's sinking down
to the bottom of the pan.

00:05:19,440 --> 00:05:21,And the reason
| want to do that

00:05:21,480 --> 00:05:26,is to show you something that
happens when | heat a fluid.

00:05:28,720 --> 00:05:31,You think about a planet
like the Earth,

00:05:31,320 --> 00:05:33,then it's heated from the sun.

00:05:33,800 --> 00:05:36,That means that there are
temperature differences

00:05:36,520 --> 00:05:38,naturally occurring
in our atmosphere,

00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:41,and it's what happens
in nature

00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:44,when there are temperature
differences that matters.

00:05:44,440 --> 00:05:47,So what you see here
is that that milk

00:05:47,920 --> 00:05:49,at the bottom of the pan

00:05:49,440 --> 00:05:52,is getting hotter
than the coffee at the top.

00:05:54,360 --> 00:05:58,And that temperature difference
is trying to equalise.

00:05:58,960 --> 00:06:01,So it's not that
the temperature difference

00:06:01,440 --> 00:06:03,just equalises
In a nice uniform way.

00:06:03,800 --> 00:06:07,But you can see it...there.

00:06:07,400 --> 00:06:10,See? There are patterns
developing.

00:06:10,400 --> 00:06:13,A tremendous amount
of complexity.

00:06:13,520 --> 00:06:16,And it's exactly the same
in our atmosphere.

00:06:16,880 --> 00:06:20,But in our atmosphere,
we Call all those patterns

00:06:20,680 --> 00:06:23,and all that turbulence
weather.

00:06:30,920 --> 00:06:33,Wind, rain and storms

00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:35,can almost be thought of
as side-effects

00:06:35,440 --> 00:06:38,of an atmosphere
trying to move energy

00:06:38,280 --> 00:06:40,between hot and cold.

00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:46,lf a world has an atmosphere,

00:06:46,600 --> 00:06:49,it will have some form
of weather.

00:06:56,160 --> 00:06:58,But as the fleet of spacecraft

00:06:58,240 --> 00:07:01,exploring our cosmic back yard
have revealed...

00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:05,..atmospheres vary hugely

00:07:05,480 --> 00:07:09,by temperature, pressure
and chemical make-up.

00:07:12,440 --> 00:07:14,And that means that,

00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:16,while storms might be common
in our solar system,

00:07:16,840 --> 00:07:21,on no two worlds
are they ever the same.

00:07:34,160 --> 00:07:37,Journeying outwards
from our shared star,

00:07:37,320 --> 00:07:40,searching for storm worlds...

00:07:43,320 --> 00:07:46,...we dodge past a planet
with no atmosphere...

00:07:52,480 --> 00:07:55,...and arrive at a world
consumed by one.

00:08:05,880 --> 00:08:10,From a distance, Venus appears
to be a serene pearlescent orb

00:08:10,720 --> 00:08:12,floating in space.

00:08:14,400 --> 00:08:16,But get a little closer...

00:08:18,240 --> 00:08:21,..and the planet begins to
reveal its true nature.

00:08:23,640 --> 00:08:26,(WIND WHISTLES)

00:08:26,320 --> 00:08:29,All that can be seen
are clouds.

00:08:29,280 --> 00:08:32,Endless, thick,
churning storm clouds

00:08:32,800 --> 00:08:36,that conceal the entire surface
from view.

00:08:40,520 --> 00:08:45,This is just the top of a cloud
deck that's 20km deep...

00:08:47,320 --> 00:08:50,..and whipped up
by hurricane-force winds.

00:08:53,440 --> 00:08:56,Venus Is a true storm world.

00:09:02,600 --> 00:09:04,Now, those clouds on Venus

00:09:04,400 --> 00:09:06,just look like storm clouds
here on Earth.

00:09:07,00 --> 00:09:09,They're a bit foreboding,
perhaps,

00:09:09,520 --> 00:09:12,but maybe nothing too much
to worry about

00:09:12,400 --> 00:09:14,if you were sat beneath them.

00:09:14,880 --> 00:09:18,Well, they are actually
something to worry about.

00:09:18,880 --> 00:09:20,They're not made of water.

00:09:22,360 --> 00:09:23,They're made of this.

00:09:23,960 --> 00:09:26,Concentrated sulphuric acid.

00:09:26,760 --> 00:09:29,(LAUGHS) Now, even saying that
sounds nasty,

00:09:30,80 --> 00:09:33,but just wait till you see
what this stuff does

00:09:33,320 --> 00:09:36,to the stuff that I'm made of,
the stuff that you're made of,

00:09:36,920 --> 00:09:40,just organic material -
in this case, sugar.

00:09:45,920 --> 00:09:48,Now, you see that's
already starting to react -

00:09:48,760 --> 00:09:50,it's turning brown,
it's starting to bubble.

00:09:50,840 --> 00:09:53,The concentrated
sulphuric acid -

00:09:53,640 --> 00:09:55,and this is 90-odd percent
concentrated,

00:09:55,960 --> 00:09:59,which is precisely what we find
in the clouds of Venus -

00:09:59,120 --> 00:10:03,is ripping the water
out of the sugar.

00:10:03,560 --> 00:10:07,In fact, that dark material
there is carbon.

00:10:07,400 --> 00:10:08,It's what's left over

00:10:08,720 --> 00:10:10,when you rip all the water
out of the sugar.

00:10:10,920 --> 00:10:11,| can show you.

00:10:11,960 --> 00:10:15,So, C12H22011...

00:10:15,720 --> 00:10:17,So that's the sugar we've g***t.

00:10:17,640 --> 00:10:19,And then sulphuric acid,

00:10:19,480 --> 00:10:21,which is H2SO4,

00:10:21,280 --> 00:10:25,and that goes
to carbon and water,

00:10:25,360 --> 00:10:28,and... (LAUGHS)
| can smell it, actually!

00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:30,... sulphur dioxide.

00:10:30,600 --> 00:10:32,- That's it. And a lot of heat.
- (BUBBLING)

00:10:33,00 --> 00:10:34,But just think,

00:10:34,520 --> 00:10:36,that started off...