Pluto and Beyond

After decades of amazing discoveries, spacecraft Cassini embarks on its final - and most daring - mission: a dive below Saturn's rings.

NOVA scienceNOW is a News magazine version of the long-running and venerable PBS science program Nova. Premiering on January 25, 2005, the series was originally hosted by Robert Krulwich, who described it as an experiment in coverage of "breaking science, science that's right out of the lab, science that sometimes bumps up against politics, art, culture". At the beginning of season two, Neil deGrasse Tyson replaced Krulwich as the show's host. Tyson announced he would leave the show and was replaced by David Pogue beginning season 6.

NASA launches its most ambitious hunt for traces of life on Mars, landing a car-sized rover in a rocky, ancient river delta. The rover will stow samples for possible return to Earth and test technology that may pave the way for human travel to Mars.

Engineers join the race to design cutting-edge robots capable of performing human tasks, but major technical and ethical challenges lie ahead.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, from its conception to completion.

Spacecraft OSIRIS-REx attempts to grab a piece of an asteroid to bring back to Earth so scientists can study it to learn about the planet's origins.

NOVA returns to Ground Zero to witness the completion of One World Trade Center.

In July 2022, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope released its first images, looking further back in time than ever before to show our universe in stunningly beautiful detail. But that was just the beginning. With tons of new data and spectacular images flooding in, Webb is allowing scientists to peer deep in time to try to answer some of astronomy’s biggest questions. When – and how – did the first stars and galaxies form? And can we see the fingerprints of life in the atmospheres of distant worlds – or even within our own solar system?

PBS' premier science series helps viewers of all ages explore the science behind the headlines. Along the way, NOVA demystifies science and technology, and highlights the people involved in scientific pursuits.

Pearl Randall, a 66-year-old widow, announces that she is planning to remarry, but her three grown children express conflicting emotions. Daughter Terri captures on tape the family's attempts to come to grips with Pearl's new romance.

NOVA captures New Horizons' historic flyby of Pluto, the culmination of the spacecraft's nine-year, three-billion-mile journey to reveal the first ever detailed images of this strange, icy world at the very edge of our solar system.

Treasures of the Earth: Gems, Metals, and Power is a 3-part series that will take us on a journey deep inside Earth to uncover the mysteries of how these treasures were created, and to explore how they have allowed humankind to progress and build our great civilizations. But even as that quest continues, we are discovering that some of our treasures may soon run out or have unintended consequences that bring new perils. Can our ancient treasures reveal new secrets that will help us solve the problems we face today?

For decades, UFOs have intrigued the world, but many scientists avoided studying them. In the United States, after highly publicised sightings of unidentified objects by US Navy pilots, UFOs are moving out of the shadows and into the light as NASA pledges to study them scientifically. So what does science have to say? Though some are identified as balloons, drones, weather phenomena or optical illusions, others remain mysterious. Could they be the result of secret new technology? And what would it take for alien engineers to traverse vast distances to send probes or visit Earth from other solar systems? Explore the evidence as astrophysicists and engineers use new technologies to investigate the strangest objects in our skies.

Wings Over Water tells the fascinating story of naval aviation's critical role in making the U.S. a world power. Film highlights include archival footage of some of the most terrifying and intense airspace battles fought and the intriguing interviews of the veterans who took part in them. This is the story of naval aviation from its conception to the important role it played in battles fought, won, and lost, all the while examining American foreign policy, foreign relations, and long-simmering international conflict. An evocative, powerful, and informative documentary, Wings Over Water is the story behind the story: how and why America developed maritime aviation technology, what it meant to our past, and what it means to our future.