NOVA: Finding Life Beyond Earth

This ambitious documentary series seeks to answer one of the great scientific questions - "Are we alone?" - with systematic investigations into the possibility of life beyond Earth. It takes as its central thesis the idea that man is now closer to knowing the truth than he has ever been in the past. With this in mind, the program plunges audiences into the splendor and majesty of enigmatic alien worlds. Contributing astrobiologists explain in detail how such places have changed human thinking about our solar system - from perceptions of it as a vast, empty place populated by barren, rocky planets, to a sense of it as a network of dynamic, potentially life-supporting habitats, with such elements as enormous saltwater seas, live volcanoes, and organic molecules. The program then explains how such shifts in perception have forced scientists to speculate about what type of interstellar environments could theoretically support and nurture life outside of our own world.