One Strange Rock (2018) s01e03 Episode Script
Shield
The sun
Gives us warmth and light.
It is the fuel of life.
Without the energy of the sun almost
nothing grows, thrives or lives.
But the sun was not put
there for our benefit.
It is not this big jolly ball
of nice smiling down on us,
wishing us all a good day.
It is not our friend.
The sun is a monster.
A planet killer.
And we don't see that side
of the sun down here.
But eight astronauts,
with over 1,000 days
in space between them,
Can show us how being up there
helped them understand
the suns bright fury.
It's got an incredible
amount of power which you
really appreciate when
you go out in space.
Just like the gods of old,
the sun can give life
and it can destroy life.
It's a mean son of a gun.
It's exploding and it's sending
cosmic radiation at us.
Given the amount of
radiation from the sun,
there shouldn't be life on
the surface of the earth.
We shouldn't be here.
But we are here.
And we owe our lives
to this world.
I'm gonna tell you how
the earth's core
The air above us.
and life itself
work to protect us.
The earth shields us
in a suit of armour.
And the way she does it
Is one hell of a strange story.
You see that guy in the crowd?
He's just a bit different
from the rest of us.
He's a spaceman.
Once he risked his life
to fix a telescope
350 miles above the earth.
And he's spent a lifetime
studying the stars.
People still feel this
incredible fascination with,
with looking at the sun.
Twice a year
it just crosses the line of the
cross streets of Manhattan
And sets at just that right
point that it just makes a
beautiful orange glow
which permeates the city.
In some sense I suppose I
could say I saw more of the
true character of the sun
Than people who are always
on the surface of the earth.
You open the airlock
and then turn
around and look up.
It's like that great scene in
the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy
comes out of the house and it's
not black and white anymore.
All of a sudden, the
whole world is in colour.
But don't forget those visors.
They do come in handy when that
big fire ball is staring at you.
Yep.
One of my great eureka moments
was realizing for the first time
when I was in space that I was
seeing the sun in a black sky.
Think of that.
You really see the sun
as a star.
Particularly when I was
out in the space suit,
the power of the sun just
hits you in the guts.
It just goes through
your entire body.
The temperature extremes are
250 degrees in the sun
and then minus 250 in the shade.
That's pretty incredible
and that our suits can
withstand those temperatures.
But even we astronauts,
only experience a fraction
of the sun's power.
It has many weapons
it can send our way.
Heat, light
and deadly flares that can
devastate entire planets.
Look at Mars.
Billions of years ago we
think it was just like us
A potential cradle for life.
But radiation from
the sun ravaged it.
Solar flares with the
destructive power
of billions of
Hiroshima atomic bombs
helped chew away
Mars's atmosphere
and the oceans
evaporated into space.
Earth is even closer
to the sun than Mars,
so how come we're
not dust and ashes?
See, the thing is, our
planet is strong on defence.
And every player has a role.
From the edge of space
To the deepest oceans
To one of the most
hostile places on earth.
We'll be sleeping
with gas masks on.
Sometimes it'll clear
up and be beautiful
but most of the time we'll be
wearing our gas masks even to bed.
Ken Simms doesn't
do nine to five.
This is his idea of a
good day at the office.
For over 20 years he's
ventured into active volcanoes
across the globe
to collect samples
of molten lava.
Studying this stuff is one of
the best ways to understand
what's happening in the
centre of the earth
and the process that
protects us from the sun.
Pretty much that whole bottom
terrace now is completely covered
in brand new lava flow, isn't it?
Yeah.
And with the new lava flow coming
around against the wall there,
we'll have to watch out.
The lava's intensely hot,
roughly 2,000 degrees.
It will burn pretty much
anything on contact.
Okay, heading over.
I'll go over just
towards the edge here.
We'll have a look.
Whoa.
Holy
It's just opened up on
that side, hasn't it?
Yeah, totally.
Whoa.
Yeah, Ken, I'm pretty certain
that there is absolutely no
way we are going down there.
That is without doubt
mission impossible.
Okay, well, we're
cancelling this mission.
Yeah.
Just anybody with half a brain
wouldn't go down there.
The new vent means Ken can't
take samples from the lake,
but he doesn't need to.
The vent is firing fresh
lava right at him.
There's a lot of lava
bombs around here.
It's just covered with bombs.
Wow, I'm can see
the vent from here.
It's really rocking and rolling.
I'm gonna head back up, over.
Sure, I'll come back.
The solid lava samples we've
collected are radioactive.
They have uranium and
thorium in them.
Those elements are
really important
for maintaining the
heat of the earth.
But wait a second.
What does any of this have to do
with keeping us safe from the sun?
Radioactive lava up here
proves there's a
raging nuclear furnace
at the heart of our planet.
It is one big ball
of incredible heat.
I mean, a very big ball.
But that's not all.
These molten insides are
full of iron and nickel.
Rising, falling, spinning in a
constantly melting furnace.
And all that churning metal
creates its own magnetic field.
This magnetic field stretches as
far as 400,000 miles into space
surrounding the entire planet.
It is a massive force field
and it helps deflect
the deadly radiation
that destroyed Mars.
For the most part our
magnetic field is invisible.
But when the sun flares up,
we get to see it in action.
We call it the aurora.
It's pretty much on
everyone's bucket list
but in space,
you see it in an
entirely different way.
I saw this green glow.
It's almost like a
person dancing. It was a shape
and these forms that were moving
as we went over.
And the greens and reds and
all of the faint colours,
like this enormous
ghost of a curtain.
You're not just seeing
it with your eyes.
It, you're feeling it.
You're feeling it with
your heart as well.
It's a part of you.
When we look down at the aurora,
it's all the more beautiful,
because we know that we're
looking at our planet
keeping us safe from the sun.
But you know what?
It takes more than that one
shield to keep us alive
because the sun has
another weapon.
A silent assassin.
The assassin's name?
Light.
Everything revolves
around the sun.
Literally.
It's the big boss
of the solar system
but its most deceptive weapon
is something we usually
think of as our friend.
Light.
It's a hazard astronauts need
special protection from.
We see the visible
light from the sun
but there's also
ultraviolet light.
That can actually do
significant damage.
Every porthole window has special
layers, different UV filters.
On space station MIR there
was one that was not.
But when I floated
over that thing,
if you sat there and had
those rays of sun hit you,
in less than a minute,
you'd see your skin reddened.
The power of UV light in space,
means that without
our gold visors,
our eyesight could be
damaged permanently.
For almost all life on earth,
facing the sun as
we do in space,
would ultimately be fatal.
It's crazy, right?
In space you need a
$12 million spacesuit
to protect you from the sun
whereas on the surface
of the earth,
just some lotion does
the job perfectly fine.
We're quite fortunate.
Only about 2% of the really
damaging ultraviolet radiation
from the sun actually
gets down to the surface.
If every bit got
down to earth
skin would burn in a
matter of seconds.
That's just the start.
UV radiation breaks down DNA
and turns healthy
cells cancerous.
If we were hit by the
full force of the sun,
plants would be sterilized
microscopic life would
be sterilized
life couldn't be sustained
on the surface of the earth.
Ultraviolet light
is vicious.
So how come we're not
burned to a crisp?
The answer is high above us.
The sun slings deadly
UV light at us
but most of it is stopped in
its tracks by a thin blanket
of molecules that we
call the ozone layer.
The ozone layer is our
second shield in the sky
but it's fragile,
extremely fragile.
30 years ago, we discovered
man made chemicals
had punched a hole
in the ozone layer.
Is that hole here to stay?
Waiting around to kill us?
Today we're trying
hard to find out.
Morgan Sandercock
is about to test
an experimental plane
perfect for sampling ozone.
Go ahead, go, pressurizing.
We think we can go as
high as 90,000 feet.
Jim, you're ready to go.
I'm ready.
That's the big boy territory.
That's where things can
wrong very, very quickly.
If we lose cabin pressure,
then the pilots
could very easily pass out
and we don't have any automatic
systems to recover from that.
Getting ready to roll.
Now a glider might sound like a
dangerous choice so high up,
but gliders don't have engines
which means they can't
pollute the team's samples.
Got a firm count, dolly off.
Count, dolly is off,
wing wheel is off.
Okay, rolling at 11:32.
11:32, written down, if
you can get us the time.
Airborne.
The Perlan glider uses air
rising over the southern Andes
to reach extraordinary heights.
Air speed, 70 knots.
Looking beautiful,.
-Traffic.
-Yeah.
52,000 feet up makes this the
highest glider flight ever.
But you've gotta get this high to get
a great picture of the ozone layer.
The good news is that
thanks to a global ban
on ozone harming chemicals,
it looks like the
hole is healing up.
Our shield is regenerating.
Our planet is not an
inanimate object.
It's a living thing and
it can heal itself.
When we discovered the
hole in the ozone layer,
mankind did come together on that
one and we banned those substances.
You look down and you
see this fragile planet
which supports life
on its surface
in the face of the
incredible hostility
and so you become
much more sensitive,
I think, to the
need to protect it.
Any way you look at it, the
ozone layer is pretty special.
This shield has looked after
us for millions of years,
even before mankind came
down from the trees,
even before the dinosaurs
walked the earth.
Without the ozone layer,
there would be no human race.
Life on earth would be
trapped under water.
In Earth's battle with the sun,
the sun has often
had the upper hand.
Today the ozone layer
protects us from UV,
but once upon a time,
it wasn't there.
The only safe place for
life was under the waves.
Life would probably
still be down there
if it wasn't for something new
that emerged nearly three
billion years ago,
and found a way to use
sunlight to its advantage.
Billions of years ago,
as ancient organisms first
harnessed the energy of the sun,
they began producing
a waste product.
Oxygen.
At first it was just
a few individuals,
but thousands became millions.
Millions became trillions.
All bubbling up oxygen.
When oxygen gas rises
high into the atmosphere,
something very special
happens to it.
It transforms into
protective ozone.
Under the shelter of
this ozone layer,
first microbes,
then fungi and plants
migrated out of the water.
And this meant even more
oxygen was being produced,
further strengthening our shield
against the sun's UV light.
And this would
help make possible
one of our planet's
most defining moments.
Protected by a thicker ozone
layer than ever before,
a whole new world of possibilities
opened up for life on earth.
We think it was about
400 million years ago,
when simple vertebrates
first took their tentative
steps onto dry land.
It's probable that
these early animals
were moving around
using something
that was still pretty much like
the fins that they used to
get around in the water.
With that one small step
from water to dry land
life on earth changed forever.
That was one small
step for animal kind
and one giant leap
for life on earth.
Life spilled out of the water
in a billion different ways
taking on a host of forms.
All because of that special
layer of oxygen up in the sky.
Right, so that's two shields
that our planet gives us.
But the sun has a final weapon.
Heat.
It's pumping out millions
of degrees of powerful burn
and that powerful
burn is intensified
by an ally down here on earth,
one feared by people everywhere.
Volcanoes make
terrible neighbours
but even if you live
far away from one,
like on the other
side of the planet,
a volcano could still
make you feel the heat.
Much of this gas cloud is CO2,
carbon dioxide,
and CO2 is a killer.
It traps heat in the atmosphere.
If you wanna know how
dangerous CO2 can be,
just try taking a walk on Venus.
The surface of Venus is
hotter than hell.
Surprisingly the planet with
the hottest temperature
at the surface in our
whole solar system
is Venus,
even though it's not the
planet closest to the sun.
That is purely the effect
of having too much carbon
dioxide in your atmosphere.
On earth volcanoes
have been firing
CO2 into the sky for
billions of years.
So, here's the question.
How come it's pretty
cool here on Earth,
while Venus is fully baked?
Well, the earth
has its own way of
dealing with CO2,
unique to this planet.
But it can easily go wrong.
The sun threatens us
with solar explosions
and ultraviolet light
but its most dangerous weapon
could be plain old heat.
It can cook planets,
especially ones wrapped
in a warm blanket
of carbon dioxide gas.
But the Earth has its
own very elegant way
to stop itself from being
boiled dry by the sun.
The best way to see it in action
is from 250 miles straight up.
Just like the human body
has ways of keeping all
of our systems in check,
similarly the earth has its
own regulatory system
and it's kept just
about the right amount
of carbon dioxide
in the atmosphere.
From space you got a
unique perspective.
The process starts
with something no other planet
in the solar system has.
An air conditioning system
made possible by rain.
Normally we think of the
rain as being pure water
coming down out of the sky
but actually it's carrying
dissolved carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere and
this makes it acidic
enough to dissolve rocks.
Ultimately this water, silt
and locked-up carbon dioxide
will all get washed into
the planet's rivers.
This process goes on right
under our noses every day
but sometimes,
it can make itself visible in
a truly spectacular fashion.
These people get to take
a small peek at the way
our world keeps itself cool
and, wow, is it impressive.
Hidden in all that
water is carbon
pulled from the sky.
This great river is forcing
it into the ocean.
Seen from above,
its raging majesty is laid
out for the stars to see.
Looking at rivers from space
you really get a sense
of the movement of huge
amounts of material.
It's unforgettable.
You can see the brown
colour which goes way,
way out into the ocean.
As rivers spit out huge
quantities of sediment
and locked-up CO2,
carbon that was once
in our atmosphere
gets buried at the
bottom of the ocean
and that helps cool
down our planet.
Over millions of years,
the cycle of rain,
rivers and volcanoes
has helped balance the
CO2 in our atmosphere,
keeping us warm in the
coldness of space
while preventing us from being
boiled alive by the sun.
I had studied earth science
but when you actually
go into space
you feel it on a visceral level.
You realize it's
the living Earth.
All of these systems
on the planet
whether it's, you know,
volcanoes, whether it's
currents in the ocean
are shaping and moulding
this planet that we see.
It looks like it's
its own organism.
Like it's living, it's
breathing, it's
the as the clouds move, I
mean, it's almost like it's
it looks alive.
Nature's ancient systems
have kept our planet safe
for billions of years
but now they're changing
in a very big way.
Right now humans are
pumping 60 times more CO2
into our atmosphere
than volcanoes
and there isn't enough time
for the Earth's air conditioning
system to correct the problem.
The planet is getting hotter.
How much hotter?
That depends on us.
It's not gonna be easy.
But my hope is that just as
we fixed the ozone hole,
humans are ultimately gonna
be able to fix this.
Human beings don't
have to just stand by
and watch Earth's
war with the sun.
We can help.
We have to.
For almost four billion years,
our planet has held off
the power of the sun,
but that fire ball will
get us in the end.
And thanks to Jeff Hoffman,
we've been given a terrifying
glimpse into the future.
A very bright future.
For almost four billion years,
our planet has shielded
us from the sun.
But those shields won't
protect us forever.
Ask Jeff Hoffman.
He was part of the team
who allowed us to see
our ultimate fate
when he helped fix the
Hubble telescope.
Hubble couldn't see straight.
It was the butt of jokes
of late night comedians.
It was denounced in the halls of the
US Congress as a techno turkey.
It was a disaster.
So fixing Hubble
was critical for the
future space activities
that NASA wanted to carry out.
We are inspired. We are ready.
Let's go fix this thing.
Both as an astronomer and an
astronaut to take my two hands and
put them on the Hubble space
telescope and actually fix it
Endeavoured motion of
the aperture door.
Roger, we're alive.
That's been a great
source of satisfaction.
We have a good release.
Copy. And we very
much appreciate it.
I do have some good
news for you, Jeff.
The payload folks have gone
through a complete checkout
and are fully functional.
Great news.
Thanks to Jeff and the team,
Hubble went from
turkey to triumph.
Some of these images are almost
biblical in their intensity.
They still give me goosebumps
when I look at them.
So many different
forms and colours,
it looks like the work of
some psychedelic artist
but it's the universe
that we live in.
I mean, it's extraordinary.
The work on Hubble meant we
could capture the exact moment
when a star like the sun dies.
Around five billion
years from now,
the sun is going
to grow in size,
swallowing up the earth.
And in those final moments,
all matter on our planet,
all traces of life
will be torn apart
as the Earth is
enveloped by the sun.
When I came back on Earth
and looked up at the sun,
it looked the way
it had always looked before
except I knew
that I had seen it
like it really was.
It's like
seeing somebody's true nature
very briefly when they
let their guard down
and then you never
see that again.
Earth's protected us from the
sun for billions of years.
It's been one of the
main reasons that life
has been able to thrive
here on the surface.
As a biological creature we
need the Earth to protect us
and these shields provide
sort of a blanket over us
to just keep us secure
and sort of carefree
on the planet.
Were we just lucky
that all these things
happened to be in place?
Well, of course if
they weren't in place,
we wouldn't be here and I
wouldn't be talking about this.
Next time you take a
walk outside when
the sun is high in the sky
take a moment and
think about the iron
churning at the Earth's core,
the oxygen bubbling out from
under the sea, the rain
crashing onto the rocks,
all these things
that came before us
and made this world possible,
those chance events,
those planetary systems
that allow our little moat of
dust to survive in a sunbeam.
You, me and everyone
we know, we're lucky,
lucky to get as far as we have
and lucky to be here now.
But this is not the
end of the story.
What's up? How are you doing?
Next time how all life
on Earth got started.
And let me tell you,
that takes strange to
a whole new level.
Gives us warmth and light.
It is the fuel of life.
Without the energy of the sun almost
nothing grows, thrives or lives.
But the sun was not put
there for our benefit.
It is not this big jolly ball
of nice smiling down on us,
wishing us all a good day.
It is not our friend.
The sun is a monster.
A planet killer.
And we don't see that side
of the sun down here.
But eight astronauts,
with over 1,000 days
in space between them,
Can show us how being up there
helped them understand
the suns bright fury.
It's got an incredible
amount of power which you
really appreciate when
you go out in space.
Just like the gods of old,
the sun can give life
and it can destroy life.
It's a mean son of a gun.
It's exploding and it's sending
cosmic radiation at us.
Given the amount of
radiation from the sun,
there shouldn't be life on
the surface of the earth.
We shouldn't be here.
But we are here.
And we owe our lives
to this world.
I'm gonna tell you how
the earth's core
The air above us.
and life itself
work to protect us.
The earth shields us
in a suit of armour.
And the way she does it
Is one hell of a strange story.
You see that guy in the crowd?
He's just a bit different
from the rest of us.
He's a spaceman.
Once he risked his life
to fix a telescope
350 miles above the earth.
And he's spent a lifetime
studying the stars.
People still feel this
incredible fascination with,
with looking at the sun.
Twice a year
it just crosses the line of the
cross streets of Manhattan
And sets at just that right
point that it just makes a
beautiful orange glow
which permeates the city.
In some sense I suppose I
could say I saw more of the
true character of the sun
Than people who are always
on the surface of the earth.
You open the airlock
and then turn
around and look up.
It's like that great scene in
the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy
comes out of the house and it's
not black and white anymore.
All of a sudden, the
whole world is in colour.
But don't forget those visors.
They do come in handy when that
big fire ball is staring at you.
Yep.
One of my great eureka moments
was realizing for the first time
when I was in space that I was
seeing the sun in a black sky.
Think of that.
You really see the sun
as a star.
Particularly when I was
out in the space suit,
the power of the sun just
hits you in the guts.
It just goes through
your entire body.
The temperature extremes are
250 degrees in the sun
and then minus 250 in the shade.
That's pretty incredible
and that our suits can
withstand those temperatures.
But even we astronauts,
only experience a fraction
of the sun's power.
It has many weapons
it can send our way.
Heat, light
and deadly flares that can
devastate entire planets.
Look at Mars.
Billions of years ago we
think it was just like us
A potential cradle for life.
But radiation from
the sun ravaged it.
Solar flares with the
destructive power
of billions of
Hiroshima atomic bombs
helped chew away
Mars's atmosphere
and the oceans
evaporated into space.
Earth is even closer
to the sun than Mars,
so how come we're
not dust and ashes?
See, the thing is, our
planet is strong on defence.
And every player has a role.
From the edge of space
To the deepest oceans
To one of the most
hostile places on earth.
We'll be sleeping
with gas masks on.
Sometimes it'll clear
up and be beautiful
but most of the time we'll be
wearing our gas masks even to bed.
Ken Simms doesn't
do nine to five.
This is his idea of a
good day at the office.
For over 20 years he's
ventured into active volcanoes
across the globe
to collect samples
of molten lava.
Studying this stuff is one of
the best ways to understand
what's happening in the
centre of the earth
and the process that
protects us from the sun.
Pretty much that whole bottom
terrace now is completely covered
in brand new lava flow, isn't it?
Yeah.
And with the new lava flow coming
around against the wall there,
we'll have to watch out.
The lava's intensely hot,
roughly 2,000 degrees.
It will burn pretty much
anything on contact.
Okay, heading over.
I'll go over just
towards the edge here.
We'll have a look.
Whoa.
Holy
It's just opened up on
that side, hasn't it?
Yeah, totally.
Whoa.
Yeah, Ken, I'm pretty certain
that there is absolutely no
way we are going down there.
That is without doubt
mission impossible.
Okay, well, we're
cancelling this mission.
Yeah.
Just anybody with half a brain
wouldn't go down there.
The new vent means Ken can't
take samples from the lake,
but he doesn't need to.
The vent is firing fresh
lava right at him.
There's a lot of lava
bombs around here.
It's just covered with bombs.
Wow, I'm can see
the vent from here.
It's really rocking and rolling.
I'm gonna head back up, over.
Sure, I'll come back.
The solid lava samples we've
collected are radioactive.
They have uranium and
thorium in them.
Those elements are
really important
for maintaining the
heat of the earth.
But wait a second.
What does any of this have to do
with keeping us safe from the sun?
Radioactive lava up here
proves there's a
raging nuclear furnace
at the heart of our planet.
It is one big ball
of incredible heat.
I mean, a very big ball.
But that's not all.
These molten insides are
full of iron and nickel.
Rising, falling, spinning in a
constantly melting furnace.
And all that churning metal
creates its own magnetic field.
This magnetic field stretches as
far as 400,000 miles into space
surrounding the entire planet.
It is a massive force field
and it helps deflect
the deadly radiation
that destroyed Mars.
For the most part our
magnetic field is invisible.
But when the sun flares up,
we get to see it in action.
We call it the aurora.
It's pretty much on
everyone's bucket list
but in space,
you see it in an
entirely different way.
I saw this green glow.
It's almost like a
person dancing. It was a shape
and these forms that were moving
as we went over.
And the greens and reds and
all of the faint colours,
like this enormous
ghost of a curtain.
You're not just seeing
it with your eyes.
It, you're feeling it.
You're feeling it with
your heart as well.
It's a part of you.
When we look down at the aurora,
it's all the more beautiful,
because we know that we're
looking at our planet
keeping us safe from the sun.
But you know what?
It takes more than that one
shield to keep us alive
because the sun has
another weapon.
A silent assassin.
The assassin's name?
Light.
Everything revolves
around the sun.
Literally.
It's the big boss
of the solar system
but its most deceptive weapon
is something we usually
think of as our friend.
Light.
It's a hazard astronauts need
special protection from.
We see the visible
light from the sun
but there's also
ultraviolet light.
That can actually do
significant damage.
Every porthole window has special
layers, different UV filters.
On space station MIR there
was one that was not.
But when I floated
over that thing,
if you sat there and had
those rays of sun hit you,
in less than a minute,
you'd see your skin reddened.
The power of UV light in space,
means that without
our gold visors,
our eyesight could be
damaged permanently.
For almost all life on earth,
facing the sun as
we do in space,
would ultimately be fatal.
It's crazy, right?
In space you need a
$12 million spacesuit
to protect you from the sun
whereas on the surface
of the earth,
just some lotion does
the job perfectly fine.
We're quite fortunate.
Only about 2% of the really
damaging ultraviolet radiation
from the sun actually
gets down to the surface.
If every bit got
down to earth
skin would burn in a
matter of seconds.
That's just the start.
UV radiation breaks down DNA
and turns healthy
cells cancerous.
If we were hit by the
full force of the sun,
plants would be sterilized
microscopic life would
be sterilized
life couldn't be sustained
on the surface of the earth.
Ultraviolet light
is vicious.
So how come we're not
burned to a crisp?
The answer is high above us.
The sun slings deadly
UV light at us
but most of it is stopped in
its tracks by a thin blanket
of molecules that we
call the ozone layer.
The ozone layer is our
second shield in the sky
but it's fragile,
extremely fragile.
30 years ago, we discovered
man made chemicals
had punched a hole
in the ozone layer.
Is that hole here to stay?
Waiting around to kill us?
Today we're trying
hard to find out.
Morgan Sandercock
is about to test
an experimental plane
perfect for sampling ozone.
Go ahead, go, pressurizing.
We think we can go as
high as 90,000 feet.
Jim, you're ready to go.
I'm ready.
That's the big boy territory.
That's where things can
wrong very, very quickly.
If we lose cabin pressure,
then the pilots
could very easily pass out
and we don't have any automatic
systems to recover from that.
Getting ready to roll.
Now a glider might sound like a
dangerous choice so high up,
but gliders don't have engines
which means they can't
pollute the team's samples.
Got a firm count, dolly off.
Count, dolly is off,
wing wheel is off.
Okay, rolling at 11:32.
11:32, written down, if
you can get us the time.
Airborne.
The Perlan glider uses air
rising over the southern Andes
to reach extraordinary heights.
Air speed, 70 knots.
Looking beautiful,.
-Traffic.
-Yeah.
52,000 feet up makes this the
highest glider flight ever.
But you've gotta get this high to get
a great picture of the ozone layer.
The good news is that
thanks to a global ban
on ozone harming chemicals,
it looks like the
hole is healing up.
Our shield is regenerating.
Our planet is not an
inanimate object.
It's a living thing and
it can heal itself.
When we discovered the
hole in the ozone layer,
mankind did come together on that
one and we banned those substances.
You look down and you
see this fragile planet
which supports life
on its surface
in the face of the
incredible hostility
and so you become
much more sensitive,
I think, to the
need to protect it.
Any way you look at it, the
ozone layer is pretty special.
This shield has looked after
us for millions of years,
even before mankind came
down from the trees,
even before the dinosaurs
walked the earth.
Without the ozone layer,
there would be no human race.
Life on earth would be
trapped under water.
In Earth's battle with the sun,
the sun has often
had the upper hand.
Today the ozone layer
protects us from UV,
but once upon a time,
it wasn't there.
The only safe place for
life was under the waves.
Life would probably
still be down there
if it wasn't for something new
that emerged nearly three
billion years ago,
and found a way to use
sunlight to its advantage.
Billions of years ago,
as ancient organisms first
harnessed the energy of the sun,
they began producing
a waste product.
Oxygen.
At first it was just
a few individuals,
but thousands became millions.
Millions became trillions.
All bubbling up oxygen.
When oxygen gas rises
high into the atmosphere,
something very special
happens to it.
It transforms into
protective ozone.
Under the shelter of
this ozone layer,
first microbes,
then fungi and plants
migrated out of the water.
And this meant even more
oxygen was being produced,
further strengthening our shield
against the sun's UV light.
And this would
help make possible
one of our planet's
most defining moments.
Protected by a thicker ozone
layer than ever before,
a whole new world of possibilities
opened up for life on earth.
We think it was about
400 million years ago,
when simple vertebrates
first took their tentative
steps onto dry land.
It's probable that
these early animals
were moving around
using something
that was still pretty much like
the fins that they used to
get around in the water.
With that one small step
from water to dry land
life on earth changed forever.
That was one small
step for animal kind
and one giant leap
for life on earth.
Life spilled out of the water
in a billion different ways
taking on a host of forms.
All because of that special
layer of oxygen up in the sky.
Right, so that's two shields
that our planet gives us.
But the sun has a final weapon.
Heat.
It's pumping out millions
of degrees of powerful burn
and that powerful
burn is intensified
by an ally down here on earth,
one feared by people everywhere.
Volcanoes make
terrible neighbours
but even if you live
far away from one,
like on the other
side of the planet,
a volcano could still
make you feel the heat.
Much of this gas cloud is CO2,
carbon dioxide,
and CO2 is a killer.
It traps heat in the atmosphere.
If you wanna know how
dangerous CO2 can be,
just try taking a walk on Venus.
The surface of Venus is
hotter than hell.
Surprisingly the planet with
the hottest temperature
at the surface in our
whole solar system
is Venus,
even though it's not the
planet closest to the sun.
That is purely the effect
of having too much carbon
dioxide in your atmosphere.
On earth volcanoes
have been firing
CO2 into the sky for
billions of years.
So, here's the question.
How come it's pretty
cool here on Earth,
while Venus is fully baked?
Well, the earth
has its own way of
dealing with CO2,
unique to this planet.
But it can easily go wrong.
The sun threatens us
with solar explosions
and ultraviolet light
but its most dangerous weapon
could be plain old heat.
It can cook planets,
especially ones wrapped
in a warm blanket
of carbon dioxide gas.
But the Earth has its
own very elegant way
to stop itself from being
boiled dry by the sun.
The best way to see it in action
is from 250 miles straight up.
Just like the human body
has ways of keeping all
of our systems in check,
similarly the earth has its
own regulatory system
and it's kept just
about the right amount
of carbon dioxide
in the atmosphere.
From space you got a
unique perspective.
The process starts
with something no other planet
in the solar system has.
An air conditioning system
made possible by rain.
Normally we think of the
rain as being pure water
coming down out of the sky
but actually it's carrying
dissolved carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere and
this makes it acidic
enough to dissolve rocks.
Ultimately this water, silt
and locked-up carbon dioxide
will all get washed into
the planet's rivers.
This process goes on right
under our noses every day
but sometimes,
it can make itself visible in
a truly spectacular fashion.
These people get to take
a small peek at the way
our world keeps itself cool
and, wow, is it impressive.
Hidden in all that
water is carbon
pulled from the sky.
This great river is forcing
it into the ocean.
Seen from above,
its raging majesty is laid
out for the stars to see.
Looking at rivers from space
you really get a sense
of the movement of huge
amounts of material.
It's unforgettable.
You can see the brown
colour which goes way,
way out into the ocean.
As rivers spit out huge
quantities of sediment
and locked-up CO2,
carbon that was once
in our atmosphere
gets buried at the
bottom of the ocean
and that helps cool
down our planet.
Over millions of years,
the cycle of rain,
rivers and volcanoes
has helped balance the
CO2 in our atmosphere,
keeping us warm in the
coldness of space
while preventing us from being
boiled alive by the sun.
I had studied earth science
but when you actually
go into space
you feel it on a visceral level.
You realize it's
the living Earth.
All of these systems
on the planet
whether it's, you know,
volcanoes, whether it's
currents in the ocean
are shaping and moulding
this planet that we see.
It looks like it's
its own organism.
Like it's living, it's
breathing, it's
the as the clouds move, I
mean, it's almost like it's
it looks alive.
Nature's ancient systems
have kept our planet safe
for billions of years
but now they're changing
in a very big way.
Right now humans are
pumping 60 times more CO2
into our atmosphere
than volcanoes
and there isn't enough time
for the Earth's air conditioning
system to correct the problem.
The planet is getting hotter.
How much hotter?
That depends on us.
It's not gonna be easy.
But my hope is that just as
we fixed the ozone hole,
humans are ultimately gonna
be able to fix this.
Human beings don't
have to just stand by
and watch Earth's
war with the sun.
We can help.
We have to.
For almost four billion years,
our planet has held off
the power of the sun,
but that fire ball will
get us in the end.
And thanks to Jeff Hoffman,
we've been given a terrifying
glimpse into the future.
A very bright future.
For almost four billion years,
our planet has shielded
us from the sun.
But those shields won't
protect us forever.
Ask Jeff Hoffman.
He was part of the team
who allowed us to see
our ultimate fate
when he helped fix the
Hubble telescope.
Hubble couldn't see straight.
It was the butt of jokes
of late night comedians.
It was denounced in the halls of the
US Congress as a techno turkey.
It was a disaster.
So fixing Hubble
was critical for the
future space activities
that NASA wanted to carry out.
We are inspired. We are ready.
Let's go fix this thing.
Both as an astronomer and an
astronaut to take my two hands and
put them on the Hubble space
telescope and actually fix it
Endeavoured motion of
the aperture door.
Roger, we're alive.
That's been a great
source of satisfaction.
We have a good release.
Copy. And we very
much appreciate it.
I do have some good
news for you, Jeff.
The payload folks have gone
through a complete checkout
and are fully functional.
Great news.
Thanks to Jeff and the team,
Hubble went from
turkey to triumph.
Some of these images are almost
biblical in their intensity.
They still give me goosebumps
when I look at them.
So many different
forms and colours,
it looks like the work of
some psychedelic artist
but it's the universe
that we live in.
I mean, it's extraordinary.
The work on Hubble meant we
could capture the exact moment
when a star like the sun dies.
Around five billion
years from now,
the sun is going
to grow in size,
swallowing up the earth.
And in those final moments,
all matter on our planet,
all traces of life
will be torn apart
as the Earth is
enveloped by the sun.
When I came back on Earth
and looked up at the sun,
it looked the way
it had always looked before
except I knew
that I had seen it
like it really was.
It's like
seeing somebody's true nature
very briefly when they
let their guard down
and then you never
see that again.
Earth's protected us from the
sun for billions of years.
It's been one of the
main reasons that life
has been able to thrive
here on the surface.
As a biological creature we
need the Earth to protect us
and these shields provide
sort of a blanket over us
to just keep us secure
and sort of carefree
on the planet.
Were we just lucky
that all these things
happened to be in place?
Well, of course if
they weren't in place,
we wouldn't be here and I
wouldn't be talking about this.
Next time you take a
walk outside when
the sun is high in the sky
take a moment and
think about the iron
churning at the Earth's core,
the oxygen bubbling out from
under the sea, the rain
crashing onto the rocks,
all these things
that came before us
and made this world possible,
those chance events,
those planetary systems
that allow our little moat of
dust to survive in a sunbeam.
You, me and everyone
we know, we're lucky,
lucky to get as far as we have
and lucky to be here now.
But this is not the
end of the story.
What's up? How are you doing?
Next time how all life
on Earth got started.
And let me tell you,
that takes strange to
a whole new level.