The History Channel

Asteroids, comets, gamma ray bursts and the sun all combine to make the Earth a dangerous place to live. NASA's top brass and other scientists are arming themselves with the latest technology to pre-empt an apocalyptic attack. Watch and investigate bizarre, and terrifying apocalyptic scenarios and the ways that scientists are racing against the clock to develop technology to defend our planet.

What are the latest discoveries in the deadly world of asteroids? Will a recently returned Japanese spacecraft become the first to bring an asteroid sample back to our planet? What would happen to America's East Coast if the massive asteroid impact that helped form Chesapeake Bay 35 million years ago struck today? And why did President Barack Obama choose an asteroid as the destination for the next great manned mission into space? Learning about these huge space rocks isn't just about science, it's about survival.

Comets--these celestial travelers have forever filled us with fear and wonder. Lurking in the furthest reaches of our solar system, they come close to Earth as they orbit our Sun. Could something as destructive as comets hold the key to life? Are the building blocks of carbon-based life forms frozen inside? Might they contain information about the creation of our solar system? At the conclusion of two spectacular NASA missions that sent spaceships to rendezvous with these mysterious objects, we examine the scientific and historical record of comets, including man's reaction to them. Did a comet lead the Wise Men to Bethlehem? Did they foretell the death of kings, the destruction of civilizations? How did Halley's Comet provide Isaac Newton with the clues for his theories of gravity? Finally, what comprises this "dirty snowball" and how can we protect ourselves if headed on a collision-course with one?

It's been said that our universe is a cosmic shooting gallery. Gravity is moving everything around and things are bound to collide. Astronomers are attempting to understand how these collisions occur in the dark recesses of space. Learn about collisional families, which are clusters of comets and asteroids; planetary collisions; mass extinction impacts involving asteroids and comets; stars collisions; and galaxy cluster collisions. Cutting-edge computer graphics are used to bring this series down to earth as the heavens yield their greatest secrets.

Many scientists now believe that a "killer asteroid" wiped out the dinosaurs and 70% of all living things 160-million years ago. How likely is it that a similar event can occur again? In this episode, we explore the catastrophic effects of a 2-kilometer-long asteroid hitting just off the coast of Los Angeles. Using the Chicxulub asteroid impact of 160-million years ago (the one that killed off the dinosaurs), we watch--moment by moment--as the blast annihilates not just Los Angeles, but communities within 100 miles of the coast. A firestorm consumes much of southern California and tsunamis wreak havoc up and down the entire western US coast. The resultant dust cloud covers much of the Midwest, devastating crops for at least a year. Millions of people die from the direct effects of the impact, and millions suffer a famine the likes of which the world has never seen. The good news is that technology has given us the tools to--perhaps--avert such a disaster.

13,000 years ago, a large comet exploded over eastern Canada unleashing a mass of burning fragments that ignited a mega storm of fire spreading for thousands of miles. Nearly every living thing on the North American continent was destroyed, including an ancient civilization known as the Clovis. 3-D computer animations will recreate this storm and offer an idea of the level of destruction a similar comet explosion would cause today.

The cause of the Biblical Great Flood may have been a massive three-mile wide comet that crashed in the Indian Ocean, 4,800 years ago. It is believed to have decimated over 60% of Earth's population. A similar comet, crashing into the Pacific Ocean near San Francisco, could cause millions of casualties followed by a lethal mega tsunami, earthquake, torrential rains and a nuclear winter. Is the next massive impact just around the corner?

These giant mountain-sized boulders from space have wrought death and destruction throughout the millennia but until recently geologists could find no evidence that they had actually struck the earth. Follow the remarkable detective story that begins at Meteor Crater in Arizona as mining engineers desperately try to unearth the billion dollar iron boulder they thought was lying there. It's a detective story that also uncovers immense riches; the world's biggest nickel deposit in Sudbury, Canada, vast oil reserves in the Gulf of Mexico and a gold mine in South Africa--all the result of asteroid impacts. Evidence is also unearthed of violent impacts that decimated some of the first people to live in America. What clues do asteroids, and their smaller cousins, meteorites, hold in the formation of the early Earth and perhaps life itself?

It sounds like a Hollywood blockbuster: a deadly asteroid is on a collision course with Earth. But in reality, it's only a matter of time before a giant space rock threatens to wipe out civilization. An asteroid took out the dinosaurs sixty-five million years ago. Are we next? This episode analyzes the threat and explores the many ways--from a nuclear bomb to ingenious new technology--that experts are proposing to stop Armageddon.

Geologist Scott Wolter visits a Minnesota farmer who wants to investigate the possible existence of bones from a giant he unearthed in his yard. The bones raise the question of whether Vikings could have traveled all the way to America.

A man shows up at Scott Wolter's lab with a 500-pound discovery. In the flatbed of his truck is a large boulder he pulled from the Arkansas River, inscribed with a mysterious bull symbol. Wolter's investigation into who carved the stone and for what ritualistic purpose ultimately reveals a connection between the ancient Egyptian cult of the Apis bull, the mysterious religion known as Mithraism and a party of pre-Columbian explorers to Oklahoma's panhandle. In the end, carvings in a cave in America's Heartland shed light on an ancient connection that could prove a group of religious outcasts made it to America in pre-Columbian times.

Geologist Scott Wolter has reason to believe America has its very own Stonehenge in New Hampshire. With the help of a young man who discovered an amazing connection between America's Stonehenge and Stonehenge in England, Wolter explores the possibility that the ancient Phoenicians are connected to both of these megalithic sites. At America's Stonehenge, he uncovers many clues, including a sacrificial table and a mysterious message carved on a stone in ancient script that helps advance this provocative theory. He also discovers both sites are accurate astronomical calendars and that alignments with the heavens are incorporated into their design.

We experience the birth of a barbarian empire in the Franks, as Merovius, a legendary leader said to be half-man, half-monster descends upon Gaul, setting the stage for his sons' conquest over both Roman and Visigoth armies. His grandson, Clovis, will relinquish his fierce pagan ways only when it seems that the Christian god grants him greater victory in battle. It is Clovis who leads his people to conquest over France, and builds the bridge between barbarian and statesman that the future king, Charlemagne finally embodies.

Informational programming.

Informational programming.

Informational programming.

Informational programming.

Explore the primal pagan rites of the Lombard's, as they fight for land and for a barbarian bride. We travel with the brutal Lombard leader, Alboin, as he breaks through the Roman defenses in Italy, and forces his captured wife to drink from her murdered father's skull. The skilled Lombard king Liutprand will face both Roman and Frankish attacks, as he vies for supremacy on the crowded peninsula. He will create laws, linking bloody barbarian rites with ancient Roman justice and establishing a new culture in the former center of the fallen Roman Empire that will last for centuries.

Many scientists now believe that a "killer asteroid" wiped out the dinosaurs and 70% of all living things 160-million years ago. How likely is it that a similar event can occur again? In this episode, we explore the catastrophic effects of a 2-kilometer-long asteroid hitting just off the coast of Los Angeles. Using the Chicxulub asteroid impact of 160-million years ago (the one that killed off the dinosaurs), we watch--moment by moment--as the blast annihilates not just Los Angeles, but communities within 100 miles of the coast. A firestorm consumes much of southern California and tsunamis wreak havoc up and down the entire western US coast. The resultant dust cloud covers much of the Midwest, devastating crops for at least a year. Millions of people die from the direct effects of the impact, and millions suffer a famine the likes of which the world has never seen. The good news is that technology has given us the tools to--perhaps--avert such a disaster.

13,000 years ago, a large comet exploded over eastern Canada unleashing a mass of burning fragments that ignited a mega storm of fire spreading for thousands of miles. Nearly every living thing on the North American continent was destroyed, including an ancient civilization known as the Clovis. 3-D computer animations will recreate this storm and offer an idea of the level of destruction a similar comet explosion would cause today.

The cause of the Biblical Great Flood may have been a massive three-mile wide comet that crashed in the Indian Ocean, 4,800 years ago. It is believed to have decimated over 60% of Earth's population. A similar comet, crashing into the Pacific Ocean near San Francisco, could cause millions of casualties followed by a lethal mega tsunami, earthquake, torrential rains and a nuclear winter. Is the next massive impact just around the corner?

These giant mountain-sized boulders from space have wrought death and destruction throughout the millennia but until recently geologists could find no evidence that they had actually struck the earth. Follow the remarkable detective story that begins at Meteor Crater in Arizona as mining engineers desperately try to unearth the billion dollar iron boulder they thought was lying there. It's a detective story that also uncovers immense riches; the world's biggest nickel deposit in Sudbury, Canada, vast oil reserves in the Gulf of Mexico and a gold mine in South Africa--all the result of asteroid impacts. Evidence is also unearthed of violent impacts that decimated some of the first people to live in America. What clues do asteroids, and their smaller cousins, meteorites, hold in the formation of the early Earth and perhaps life itself?