Our Journey Begins At The Center Of The Solar System, With The Sun.
An Enormous Sphere Of Unimaginably Hot Plasma.
This Is Where We Will Start Our Grand Tour, With The Star That Allows All Life On Earth
To Exist, The Only Star Out Of Trillions Scattered Across The Universe That Provides Us With
Warmth And Light.
The Light We Feel And See Every Day Is Created Deep Inside The Sun, Within Its Violent
Core, Until, After Thousands Of Years, It Escapes From The Only Layer We Can See, This
Layer, The Photosphere.
It Takes Sunlight Over 8 Minutes To Reach Earth, But The Closest Planet To The Sun, Mercury,
Is Bathed In It Within Just 3 Minutes.
That Bright Dot Straight Ahead Is Mercury, Our First Stop On Our Epic Journey Throughout
The Solar System.
As You Can See, The Planet Mercury Is A World Of Extremes That Bares The Scars Of A Violent
History.
This Is, Small, Moonless World Is Often Thought Of As An Insignificant Barren Rock, But Mercury
It Is A Fascinating Planet Full Of Bizarre Mysteries That Are Only Just Beginning To Be Unraveled.
Resembling Our Moon, Its Surface Is Scarred By Many Impacts Resulting From Collisions
With Asteroids And Comets.
But It's Not Just Enormous Craters That Dominate Its Landscape, If You Look Carefully At The World
Is Also Wrinkled.
Mercury Has Steep, Cliff like Ridges That Stretch All Over Its Surface.
Possibly A Feature That Occurred As It Cooled After Its Formation, Causing The Planet To
Shrink And Its Crust To Slightly Crumple.
Despite How Close It Is To The Sun, Mercury Is Not The Hottest World In Our Solar System.
But It Does Experience Some Extreme Temperature Swings, Unlike Those Found On Any Other Planet.
On The Day side, The Sun Penetrates The Planet’s Thin Atmosphere And Bakes The Surface.
But Because There Isn’t Much Air To Distribute That Heat, The Temperature On The Planet’s
Night side Plunges To Hundreds Of Degrees Below Zero.
Where Mercury's Scarred Surface Is Fully Exposed, Our Next Stop Is Shrouded In A Thick Blanket
Of Mystery.
This Bland-looking, The Moonless World Is Venus.
But Don't Be Fooled, Because, Below That Thick Cloud Cover, This Planet Is Anything But Boring.
Venus Is A Hot, Hellish World Unlike Any Other In The Solar System.
That Dense Atmosphere Enveloping The Planet Traps The Sun's Heat, Like Panes Of Glass
In A Greenhouse, Creating A Process Known As The Runaway Greenhouse Effect.
Because Of This Extreme Global Warming, Venus Is The Hottest Planet In The Solar System,
At The Surface, It Is Hot Enough To Melt Lead.
But Venus May Not Have Always Been The Scorching Hellish World That We See Today, As Certain
Studies Have Revealed That Possibly Only 700 Million Years Ago, This Deadly Planet May
It Has Been Covered With Flowing Shallow Oceans Of Liquid Water.
If This Is Correct, Then Venus Could Have Been Briefly Habitable Over A Few Hundred
A Million Years, Possibly Even Long Enough For Life To Begin.
Where Venus Is No Place For Life As We Know It, Our Next Target Is A Paradise For Life.
Our Beautiful Home, Earth.
As It Stands, Earth, Is The Only Planet Out Of Thousands Discovered Beyond Our Solar System
To Host Living Organisms.
In Some Ways, Earth Is An Embarrassment Of Riches.
Abundant With Persistent And Persuasive Lifeforms That Can Be Found In Almost Every Nook And
Cranny.
Earth May Well Be The Rarest Place In The Universe.
And We Get The Privilege Of Calling It Home.
Our Entire History Can Be Traced Back To This Single Blue Marble.
It Is The Place Where Billions Of People Have Lived And Died And Where Many More Billions
Will Be Born.
This Is The World Where It All Started For Us, The Cradle Of Humanity.
Today We Can Observe The Wonders Of This Magnificent Planet In Many Different Ways, Which Is Possibly
The Most Bizarre Part Of Its History.
An Intelligent Being That Can Ponder Its Own Existence And Appreciate The Majestic Nature
Of A Rare World, That We Call Home.
Where Earth Is A Wet, Warm Paradise For Life As We Know It, Our Next Location Is A Dry,
Cold And Dusty Place, That Holds The Potential For Future Life.
For Many Years We Have Sent Space Probes, Landers, And Rovers To Mars Which Have Discovered
Incredible Things About The Red Planet.
We Now Know This Rusty World Was Not Always As Arid And Inhospitable As It Is Today.
It Once Was A World Rich With Flowing Water That Ran Through A Network Of Valleys And
Deltas Feeding Long-lost Lakes And Seas.
But As Time Went On, Dramatic Changes Caused The Martian Lakes And Seas To Disappear.
Today, As You Can See, There Is No Flowing Water, But Instead Drifting Sand, Moving Across
Dry Rocks, All Of Which Are Concealed Within A Thin, Frigid Atmosphere.
Evidence For Vast Amounts Of Liquid Water Having Once Flowed On Mars Is Largely Why
NASA's Latest Rover, Perseverance, Is Currently Down There Searching For Signs Of Ancient
Martian Life.
But The Possibility Of Past Life Isn’t The World’s Only Appeal.
Compared To Mercury, Venus, And The Giant Planets That We Will Soon Be Visiting, Mars
Could One Day Offer A Suitable Place For
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