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NOVA airs Wednesday nights at 9PM on most PBS stations. See the national schedule or check local listings.

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Can new emission-free electric planes replace our polluting airliners and revolutionize personal transportation in our cities? NOVA takes you for a ride in some impressive prototypes that are already in the air, from speedy single-seat planes that can take off like a helicopter but are half as noisy to  “self-flying” air taxis that are already taking passengers on test flights in Chinese cities. But if electric airplanes are ever to advance beyond small, short-haul craft, significant hurdles of battery weight, energy storage, and cooling remain to be overcome. How long will it be before the dream of super-quiet, super-efficient airliners becomes a reality? (Premiered May 26, 2021)

Will electric planes replace polluting airliners and lead to flying taxis in our cities?

Great Electric Airplane Race

After years of anticipation, autonomous vehicles are now being tested on public roads around the world. As ambitious innovators race to develop what they see as the next high-tech pot of gold, some experts warn there are still daunting challenges ahead, including how to train artificial intelligence to be better than humans at making life-and-death decisions. How do self-driving cars work? How close are we to large-scale deployment of them? And will we ever be able to trust AI with our lives? (Premiered October 23, 2019)

As self-driving cars take to the streets, investigate how they work, and if they are safe.

Look Who's Driving

In this two-hour special, renowned paleontologist Kirk Johnson takes us on an epic adventure through time at the polar extremes of our planet. Following a trail of strange fossils found in all the wrong places—beech trees in Antarctica, hippo-like mammals in the Arctic—Johnson uncovers the bizarre history of the poles, from miles-high ice sheets to warm polar forests teeming with life. What caused such dramatic changes at the ends of the Earth? And what can the past reveal about our planet’s climate today—and in the future? (Premiered February 5, 2020)

Paleontologist Kirk Johnson explores the dynamic history—and future—of ice at the poles.

Polar Extremes

The sun is our life-giving source of light, heat, and energy, and new discoveries are unraveling its epic history. Join NOVA on a spectacular voyage to discover the sun’s place in a grand cycle of birth, death and renewal that makes this the age of stars. Witness how stars of every size and color came to populate our universe; how stars stage a dramatic exit when they explode as supernovae, which can outshine an entire galaxy; and how, billions of years in the future, the age of stars will lead ultimately to an age of darkness. (Premiered October 27, 2021)

Join NOVA on a voyage to discover the life and death cycle of the sun and other stars.

NOVA Universe Revealed: Age of Stars

How did NASA engineers build and launch the most ambitious telescope of all time? Follow the dramatic story of the James Webb Space Telescope—the most complex machine ever launched into space. If it works, scientists believe that this new eye on the universe will peer deeper back in time and space than ever before to the birth of galaxies, and may even be able to “sniff” the atmospheres of exoplanets as we search for signs of life beyond Earth. But getting it to work is no easy task. The telescope is far bigger than its predecessor, the famous Hubble Space Telescope, and it needs to make its observations a million miles away from Earth—so there will be no chance to go out and fix it. That means there’s no room for error; the most ambitious telescope ever built needs to work perfectly. Meet the engineers making it happen and join them on their high stakes journey to uncover new secrets of the universe. (Premiering July 13 at 9 pm on PBS)

Discover how NASA engineers built and launched the most ambitious telescope of all time.

Ultimate Space Telescope

Straddling the night sky, the Milky Way reminds us of our place in the galaxy we call home. But what shaped this giant spiral of stars and what will be its destiny? NOVA travels back in time to unlock the turbulent story of our cosmic neighborhood, from its birth in a whirling disk of clouds and dust to colossal collisions with other galaxies. Finally, peer into the future to watch the Milky Way’s ultimate fate as it collides with the Andromeda galaxy, over 4 billion years from now. (Premiered November 3, 2021)

Explore the wonders and mysteries of our galaxy—the giant city of stars we call home.

NOVA Universe Revealed: Milky Way

It’s an age-old question: are we alone? Or do other lifeforms and intelligences thrive on worlds far beyond our own? Ultra-sensitive telescopes and dogged detective work are transforming alien planet-hunting from science fiction into hard fact. Join NOVA on a visit to exotic worlds orbiting distant suns, from puffy planets with the density of Styrofoam to thousand-degree, broiling gas giants. Most tantalizing of all are the Super-Earths in the “Goldilocks zone,” just the right distance from their sun to support life, and with one of them signaling life’s essential ingredient, water, in its atmosphere. Are we on the brink of answering that haunting question. (Premiered November 10, 2021)

Visit exotic worlds orbiting distant suns as NOVA tackles the big question: are we alone?

NOVA Universe Revealed: Alien Worlds

Take a seat on the ultimate thrill ride to explore nature’s strangest and most powerful objects. Black holes can reshape entire galaxies, warp the fabric of space and time, and may even be the key to unlocking the ultimate nature of reality. A new generation of high-energy telescopes is bringing these invisible voids to light, showing that “supermassives” millions or billions of times larger than our sun lurk at the center of nearly every galaxy, including our own. But what happens if you stray too close to one? And what lies beyond the black hole’s abyss? If nothing can ever escape it, is that the end of the story? Or could they be a portal to another dimension—or another universe, full of black holes? (Premiered November 17, 2021)

Take a seat on the ultimate thrill ride as NOVA explores the universe’s strangest objects.

NOVA Universe Revealed: Black Holes

The Big Bang is when many think the universe started and time itself began. But what clues can we discover about this ultimate genesis of everything? And can we ever know what existed before the Universe’s birthday? With stunning animation based on space telescope images, NOVA explores infant galaxies filled with violent blue stars that formed just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. Before that—before the coming of visible light itself—stretch the “cosmic Dark Ages.” But scientists haven’t stopped there; instead, they’ve come up with an incredible theory for what happened billionths of a billionth of a second from the universe’s birth. If they’re right, we’re on the brink of understanding more than we could ever have hoped about our cosmic origins.

Venture back to the birth of space and time as NOVA probes the mystery of the Big Bang.

NOVA Universe Revealed: Big Bang

On the picturesque bluffs at the very tip of the island of Martha’s Vineyard, disaster looms. The historic Gay Head Lighthouse is soon to become the next victim of the persistent erosion of the island’s cliffs. Built in 1856, the more than 400-ton structure soars 175 feet above the sea. But over the years, storms and the raging ocean have eroded the headland away. With fierce storms and hurricanes only intensifying as the global climate warms, this historic landmark is precipitously close to toppling into the ocean. Now, an epic rescue is underway as a team of engineers attempts to move the iconic red brick structure 134 feet inland to safety. As they race to save this national treasure, discover the geology they encounter, the archeology they discover, and technology they employ in this Lighthouse Rescue. (Premiered May 4, 2016)

Join engineers as they race to rescue a historic lighthouse from certain doom.

Operation Lighthouse Rescue

Where would we be without the world’s alphabets? Writing has played a vital role in the development and expansion of cultures throughout history. But researchers are only now uncovering the origin story to our own alphabet, which may have gotten its beginnings in a turquoise mine 4,000 years ago. From the shape of the letter A to the role of writing in trade and storytelling, discover how the written word shaped civilization itself. (Premiered September 23, 2020)

The birth of writing and the first alphabet were among the world’s most vital inventions.

A to Z: The First Alphabet

Just as writing changed the course of human history, the evolution of paper and printing revolutionized the spread of information. While the invention of paper boosted Chinese and Islamic societies, the simple fact that the Latin alphabet could be printed using a small number of discrete, repetitive symbols helped popularize moveable type, handing Europe a crucial advantage at the beginning of the Renaissance. The printing press itself kicked off the scientific revolution that fast-tracked us to the current digital age. (Premiered September 30, 2020)

The creation of printing, the first information technology, drove empires and revolutions.

Schedule

Upcoming Episodes

NOVA Universe Revealed: Age of Stars

Ultimate Space Telescope

NOVA Universe Revealed: Milky Way

NOVA Universe Revealed: Alien Worlds

NOVA Universe Revealed: Black Holes

NOVA Universe Revealed: Big Bang

Operation Lighthouse Rescue

A to Z: The First Alphabet

A to Z: How Writing Changed the World

Recent Episodes

Great Electric Airplane Race

Look Who's Driving

Polar Extremes

Upcoming Episodes

NOVA Universe Revealed: Age of Stars

Ultimate Space Telescope

NOVA Universe Revealed: Milky Way

NOVA Universe Revealed: Alien Worlds

NOVA Universe Revealed: Black Holes

NOVA Universe Revealed: Big Bang

Operation Lighthouse Rescue

A to Z: The First Alphabet

A to Z: How Writing Changed the World

Recent Episodes

Great Electric Airplane Race

Look Who's Driving

Polar Extremes

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