Solar.System.2024.S01E01.1080p.BluRay.x264-DRCOX_track3_[eng] Subtitles

00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:17,So far, we've set foot on
one world beyond our own.

00:00:21,720 --> 00:00:24,We discovered
a desolate, barren rock...

00:00:26,240 --> 00:00:29,..an ancient, unchanging
cratered world.

00:00:33,80 --> 00:00:35,And the footprints
we left there

00:00:35,520 --> 00:00:37,could last
for millions of years.

00:00:41,240 --> 00:00:42,Our only direct
personal experience

00:00:43,40 --> 00:00:45,of an alien world
is of our Moon -

00:00:45,720 --> 00:00:50,beautiful, but a dead, inactive
world, frozen in time -

00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:53,whereas our planet
is active and alive.

00:00:55,840 --> 00:00:57,If you come to the right places
on Earth,

00:00:58,00 --> 00:01:03,it's literally seething
with energy beneath our feet.

00:01:12,840 --> 00:01:16,For a long time, we wondered
if all this activity

00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:18,is unique to our planet.

00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:23,But now, thanks to a fleet
of spacecraft,

00:01:23,600 --> 00:01:26,we know our world is not alone.

00:01:33,240 --> 00:01:35,We currently have
over 40 probes

00:01:35,280 --> 00:01:36,exploring the solar system...

00:01:38,920 --> 00:01:42,.. relaying a stream
of information to Earth...

00:01:43,400 --> 00:01:45,...allowing us to see
our sister worlds

00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:47,in unprecedented detail.

00:01:55,520 --> 00:01:59,They're revealing planets and
moons covered with volcanoes,

00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:02,dwarfing anything
seen on our planet.

00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:09,Alien landscapes
bursting with fire...

00:02:13,240 --> 00:02:14,...and ice.

00:02:18,360 --> 00:02:22,Eruptions so violent,
they reach into space.

00:02:28,680 --> 00:02:30,So, why are some worlds
vibrant and alive...

00:02:33,240 --> 00:02:35,...while others are cold
and dead?

00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:40,Now, that question is deeper
than it first sounds,

00:02:40,920 --> 00:02:43,because answering it will have
profound implications

00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:46,for our understanding
of our place in the universe.

00:02:46,840 --> 00:02:48,See, geological activity,

00:02:48,840 --> 00:02:52,the flow of energy from the
interior of a world outwards,

00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:54,is necessary
for the origin of life.

00:02:56,360 --> 00:02:59,And that's why finding and
understanding those worlds

00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:01,is a necessary first step

00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:05,in the search for life
beyond Earth.

00:03:19,40 --> 00:03:21,(CRASHING AND RUMBLING)

00:03:31,560 --> 00:03:34,Let's begin a journey
to the volcano worlds...

00:03:36,120 --> 00:03:37,... by leaving Earth...

00:03:39,600 --> 00:03:41,.. heading away from the sun...

00:03:43,960 --> 00:03:47,..and setting a course
to the planet next door -

00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:49,the most visited of them all.

00:04:10,120 --> 00:04:11,For almost two decades...

00:04:13,240 --> 00:04:16,... the Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter has pointed its cameras

00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:18,at the Red Planet.

00:04:26,320 --> 00:04:27,And the images it has sent back

00:04:27,960 --> 00:04:31,have revealed volcanoes
on a staggering scale.

00:04:36,520 --> 00:04:38,One So wide...

00:04:40,680 --> 00:04:42,..[t would span the UK.

00:04:47,280 --> 00:04:49,And one so fall...

00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:53,../t rises up through
Mars's atmosphere,

00:04:53,560 --> 00:04:55,almost to the edge of space.

00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:07,Over time, these mega volcanoes

00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:09,have flooded
the Martian surface

00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:12,with a billion billion tonnes
of lava...

00:05:19,240 --> 00:05:23,...so much that they've tipped
the entire planet over

00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:25,by 20 degrees.

00:05:34,360 --> 00:05:37,So, what drives
a planet's volcanism?

00:05:53,680 --> 00:05:56,Iceland's one of the most
volcanically active

00:05:56,600 --> 00:05:57,places on Earth.

00:05:58,40 --> 00:06:00,This is the Icelandic
Met Office,

00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:02,so this is the weather
forecasting site.

00:06:02,840 --> 00:06:05,But it also gives you
a real-time update

00:06:06,00 --> 00:06:07,on earthquakes,

00:06:07,640 --> 00:06:10,and earthquakes are precursors
for volcanic eruptions.

00:06:10,320 --> 00:06:14,These dots are all earthquakes
that have happened

00:06:14,280 --> 00:06:16,in the last few hours,
actually.

00:06:16,520 --> 00:06:20,And we, at the moment,
are driving along a road...

00:06:20,240 --> 00:06:24,(LAUGHS) ...in there!
So, there's...

00:06:24,480 --> 00:06:26,Is that OK, by the way?

00:06:26,600 --> 00:06:28,- Oh, yeah, that's normal.
- It's normal?

00:06:28,600 --> 00:06:30,- Yeah.
- Yeah?

00:06:30,280 --> 00:06:32,KARL:
When you have a collection

00:06:32,960 --> 00:06:34,of earthquakes like this,

00:06:34,240 --> 00:06:36,a lot in the same place,
at the same time,

00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:38,it's called the Jardéfreedingur.

00:06:38,440 --> 00:06:39,- Jar6...?
- ...freedingur

00:06:39,960 --> 00:06:41,...reedingur.

00:06:41,720 --> 00:06:43,Yeah, so it's basically
stirring the Earth.

00:06:44,40 --> 00:06:45,- Stirring the Earth.
- Yeah, yeah.

00:06:53,200 --> 00:06:57,But recently, the land here
did more than stir.

00:07:13,880 --> 00:07:18,Just last year, over ten
million Cubic metres of lava

00:07:18,240 --> 00:07:20,flowed out down this valley,

00:07:20,520 --> 00:07:22,creating brand-new land.

00:07:22,720 --> 00:07:25,This is planet-building
in action.

00:07:33,440 --> 00:07:35,Activity so recent,

00:07:35,720 --> 00:07:38,you can still see
the afterglow.

00:07:46,520 --> 00:07:49,So, there's the old volcano
in the distance,

00:07:50,00 --> 00:07:51,which is old and cold,

00:07:51,560 --> 00:07:53,and then there's
all this new land.

00:07:53,920 --> 00:07:56,And look, it's glowing!

00:08:00,320 --> 00:08:02,To drive volcanism
on this scale

00:08:02,240 --> 00:08:04,takes an enormous amount
of energy.

00:08:06,520 --> 00:08:08,So, where does it all
come from?

00:08:11,880 --> 00:08:13,Think about
what was happening here

00:08:13,600 --> 00:08:16,about 4.5 billion years ago.

00:08:21,80 --> 00:08:22,So, this would have been

00:08:22,240 --> 00:08:24,a cloud of gas and dust
and rocks,

00:08:25,00 --> 00:08:26,and all those rocks

00:08:26,960 --> 00:08:29,falling together under
the influence of gravity

00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:32,ultimately to form
the primordial Earth.

00:08:36,80 --> 00:08:38,During our planet's formation,

00:08:38,400 --> 00:08:42,that gravitational energy
was transformed into heat...

00:08:44,160 --> 00:08:45,...adding to the heat released

00:08:46,40 --> 00:08:48,by the decay
of radioactive elements.

00:08:50,760 --> 00:08:52,Heat is a form of energy.

00:08:53,00 --> 00:08:56,Now, there's a law of physics,
a law of thermodynamics -

00:08:56,800 --> 00:08:59,it's called the first law
of thermodynamics -

00:08:59,160 --> 00:09:02,and it says that energy is
neither created nor destroyed.

00:09:02,320 --> 00:09:05,So, all the energy released
when all those rocks

00:09:05,600 --> 00:09:08,were smashing together to form
the primordial Earth

00:09:08,240 --> 00:09:09,is still here.

00:09:09,560 --> 00:09:13,It's stored - trapped -
ever since.

00:09:19,840 --> 00:09:22,Just below the surface there,
down in that crack,

00:09:22,960 --> 00:09:25,it's just glowing hot!

00:09:35,160 --> 00:09:38,Mars formed at the same time,
and in the same way -

00:09:38,680 --> 00:09:42,the planet trapping enough heat
to raise the largest volcanoes

00:09:42,440 --> 00:09:43,in the solar system.

00:09:52,160 --> 00:09:53,But unlike the Earth,

00:09:53,840 --> 00:09:58,these giant volcanoes fell
silent millions of years ago.

00:10:07,680 --> 00:10:11,Something happened
to Mars's inner heat.

00:10:23,00 --> 00:10:24,And in the north
of the planet...

00:10:27,440 --> 00:10:29,... Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

00:10:29,960 --> 00:10:31,spotted a clue.

00:10:33,560 --> 00:10:34,An impact crater...

00:10:38,440 --> 00:10:41,...Whose walls appear
to be built

00:10:41,240 --> 00:10:43,from an intricate array
Of pillars...

00:10:53,240 --> 00:10:56,...SO perfect they look
almost engineered.

00:11:00,240 --> 00:11:03,They aren't, of course,
the work of Martian sculptors.

00:11:06,920 --> 00:11:09,They're also found
here on Earth.

00:11:15,600 --> 00:11:19,Just look at these beautiful
geometric shapes.

00:11:19,480 --> 00:11:23,They look almost carved
into the rock.

00:11:25,240 --> 00:11:29,They are a beautiful example
of one of...

00:11:29,720 --> 00:11:31,...actually perhaps,
in some sense,

00:11:32,40 --> 00:11:34,the most fundamental law
of nature in action,

00:11:34,640 --> 00:11:36,the second law
of thermodynamics.

00:11:40,80 --> 00:11:41,The second law
of thermodynamics,

00:11:41,760 --> 00:11:43,put really simply, is that

00:11:43,560 --> 00:11:45,if you get a hot thing -
high temperature -

00:11:46,40 --> 00:11:48,and bring it into contact
with a cold thing -

00:11:48,560 --> 00:11:49,low temperature -...