

Ancient Earth: Birth of the Sky Preview
Preview: Season 50 Episode 11 | 30sVideo has Closed Captions
See how Earth transformed from a barren hellscape to a planet capable of sustaining life.
Early Earth was a hellscape of molten lava and barren rock, bombarded by meteors, with no atmosphere at all. How did our familiar blue sky – the thin, life-giving band of gasses protecting our planet – come to be?
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
National Corporate funding for NOVA is provided by Carlisle Companies. Major funding for NOVA is provided by the NOVA Science Trust and PBS viewers.

Ancient Earth: Birth of the Sky Preview
Preview: Season 50 Episode 11 | 30sVideo has Closed Captions
Early Earth was a hellscape of molten lava and barren rock, bombarded by meteors, with no atmosphere at all. How did our familiar blue sky – the thin, life-giving band of gasses protecting our planet – come to be?
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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NOVA Labs
NOVA Labs is a free digital platform that engages teens and lifelong learners in games and interactives that foster authentic scientific exploration. Participants take part in real-world investigations by visualizing, analyzing, and playing with the same data that scientists use.Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- [Announcer] On "NOVA: Ancient Earth."
- We have never found another planet that has an atmosphere like ours.
(thunder booming) - We don't know how life started.
- How did our planet transform from this barren rock into somewhere capable of supporting life?
- [Speaker] Water allows clouds to form and rain to fall.
It changes the surface of a planet.
- [Announcer] "Birth of the Sky" on "NOVA".
♪ Wish I could go ♪ ♪ Back in time ♪
Ancient Earth May Have Had Red Oceans
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: S50 Ep11 | 3m 34s | On Ancient Earth, rust deep in the oceans played a critical role in the formation of Earth (3m 34s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: S50 Ep11 | 3m 9s | For millions of years, Earth was a fiery hellscape, inhospitable to life. (3m 9s)
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship
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Capturing the splendor of the natural world, from the African plains to the Antarctic ice.


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National Corporate funding for NOVA is provided by Carlisle Companies. Major funding for NOVA is provided by the NOVA Science Trust and PBS viewers.




