Breakthrough

1 season available

Deep looks at developments in physics, astronomy and other sciences.
Opportunity: A Life on Mars
S1 E1

The Opportunity rover's 15-year mission on Mars and how it revolutionized understanding of the red planet and solar system at large.

Wildfire Fighting Tools; Saber-Tooth Brawl; Mars Perseverance
S1 E2

Exploring technology for fighting wildfires; new fossil evidence shines a light on the violent lives of saber-tooth cats; Mars Perseverance Rover makes its historic landing on the Red Planet.

Greenland Is Melting
S1 E3

The Greenland ice sheet, the last remnant of the Ice Age, is melting at an unprecedented rate which could become a global catastrophe.

Touching the Sun
S1 E4

NASA's Parker Probe Plus is on a mission to fly through dangerous radiation to become the closest spaceship to orbit the enigmatic sun.

Saber-Tooth Brawl
S1 E6

New fossil evidence shines a light on the violent lives of saber-tooth cats.

Herculaneum Scrolls: Unraveling History
S1 E7

Scientists using the latest technology try to unravel papyrus scrolls carbonized when the ancient Roman town of Herculaneum was destroyed by volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79.

Escaping Rip Currents
S1 E8

Rip currents can appear without warning, turning an ideal beach outing into a horrific scene of chaos and panic. But groundbreaking new research could teach thousands of potential victims how to spot and escape these silent killers before it's too late.

Space Junk Dangers
S1 E10

With 900,000 pieces of debris currently orbiting Earth, space trash jeopardizes missions, as evidenced by a recent Indian ballistic missile test shooting down one of its own communications satellites.

Hayabusa2: Asteroid Explosion
S1 E11

The Hayabusa2 probe has taken subsurface samples from an asteroid and will begin its journey back home.

Modern-Day Killer Asteroid
S1 E12

Exploring what might happen if a killer asteroid struck Earth again.

Little Foot: Exploring Our Origins
S1 E13

An almost complete hominin skeleton dating back more than 3 million years is found in a cave near Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1994.

Fixing a Broken Heart
S1 E14

Researchers invent new ways of imaging the body and explore 3D printing of functioning heart to combat heart disease -- the No. 1 cause of deaths worldwide.

T-Rex Timeline
S1 E15

A 180 lb. deer-sized ancestor to the T. rex can be linked to the 19,000-pound Scotty, the largest T. rex ever discovered.

Private Moonshot
S1 E16

A nonprofit, private organization established in 2011 aims to land the first Israeli spacecraft on the moon.

Making Babies
S1 E17

Scientists believe that they are steps away from making healthy babies from stem cells, opening the doors for those with health limitations to become parents; examining the legal and ethical implications of this breakthrough.

Resurrecting Tasmanian Tigers
S1 E18

After Tasmanian tigers were almost wiped off the face of the earth by humans nearly a century ago, geneticists are now working on resurrecting them.

Shark Family Tree
S1 E19

Evolutionary biology unlocks mysteries about great white sharks.

The First Picture of a Black Hole
S1 E20

For the first time, scientists have captured a photograph of a black hole which verifies one of the most important theories in physics and might help unlock the greatest mysteries of the cosmos.

Recovering From Extinction
S1 E21

Scientists dig through fossil clues in Norway's Svalbard archipelago to uncover revelations about life rebounding after a major mass extinction.

Direct From an Asteroid
S1 E22

The Hayabusa2 spacecraft completes an intricate procedure.

New Horizons: The Kuiper Belt Target
S1 E23

The New Horizons spacecraft revolutionizes understanding of the solar system by rocketing past Pluto and approaching its next target: Ultima Thule.

Mars InSight: Seven Minutes to Touchdown
S1 E25

The fate of the Mars InSight lander will all come down to a fiery seven-minute free fall into the Red Planet.

Drilling for Marsquakes: Mars InSight
S1 E26

The InSight lander will dig deep into Martian soil and perhaps reveal the planet's origins.

The Mystery of the Longest Living Vertebrate
S1 E29

New information from a Greenland shark's eye confirms it is the longest-living vertebrate on Earth.

Asteroid Belt Discovery
S1 E31

New evidence from NASA's Dawn mission to Ceres, a dwarf planet the size of Texas, is changing understanding of not only the Asteroid Belt, but might also hold the key to deciphering the solar system's early life.

Reversing Alzheimer's
S1 E34

A U.K. team might have cracked a method to reverse Alzheimer's disease.

The Eighth Continent: Zealandia
S1 E35

Geologists in New Zealand create a stir by declaring their discovery of the eighth continent of the world.

Homo Naledi
S1 E36

Small-skulled fossils of Homo naledi discovered in 2013 have scientists trying to understand whether they lived at the same time as Homo sapiens.

The Earliest Americans
S1 E37

New evidence suggests humans arrived in North America far earlier than previously thought, and that they might have traveled paths now submerged.

World's Best Dinosaur Fossil
S1 E39

The discovery of a pristine and complete dinosaur fossil reveals a new species that roamed during the late Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

The Corona Virus Epidemic
S1 E42

Examining how the corona virus developed and how close doctors are to creating an effective vaccine.

Coronavirus: Combating the Outbreak
S1 E44

Experts share the methods currently in place to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Coronavirus: Race for a Vaccine
S1 E45

How vaccines are developed and exploring the current state of the coronavirus landscape.

Coronavirus: Treating the Disease
S1 E46

Delivering new information about what the COVID-19 virus does to the human body and touching bases with medical experts searching for techniques to treat the illness.

Coronavirus: Psychology of a Pandemic
S1 E47

With countries racing to combat COVID-19 and communities across the world on lockdown, the world's attention has been directed towards medical solutions to this disease outbreak. However, there's another largely unseen health factor currently at play: our mental well-being.

World Without Water
S1 E48

The recent discovery of a massive fresh water aquifer hidden beneath the U.S. coastline may offer hope for humanity.

Flight of the Dragon
S1 E49

On May 30, 2020, NASA launched SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule from Cape Canaveral - the first manned flight from American soil in nearly a decade.

Coronavirus: Don't Blame Bats
S1 E50

Examining whether bats are to blame for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Return of the Wolves
S1 E51

Capture teams from the U.S. National Park Service track down and relocate wolves to Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior to restore balance.

Raising Dinos From the Dead
S1 E52

Scientists try to unlock DNA from a 75 million-year-old dinosaur skull that has been sitting in a museum for more than 20 years.

Saturn: The Moon King
S1 E53

With new moons recently spotted orbiting Saturn, the gas giant has taken the lead in our cosmic neighborhood's moon count.

Hunting for Martian Life: The Perseverance Rover
S1 E54

NASA's Perseverance rover heads to Mars to determine whether life has existed on the red planet.

OSIRIS-REx: Asteroid Hunter
S1 E55

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is designed to land on an asteroid to collect samples.

Peru's Mysterious Cloud Warriors
S1 E57

Archaeologists and geneticists uncover surprising details about one of the most mysterious civilizations in pre-Incan South America; while many are familiar with the Incas, few have heard of the Chachapoyas, the people known as the Cloud Warriors.

The West Is Burning
S1 E58

The history of forest management coupled with climate change behind how the Western United States has become a hotspot for devastating forest fires.

Saving the Right Whale
S1 E59

The North Atlantic Right Whale is on the verge of extinction; the leading cause of death and injury to the whales is from ship strikes or entanglement in fishing lines.

Decoding Megalodon
S1 E60

By examining countless megalodon teeth from around the world, scientists have concluded that the prehistoric shark was able to achieve its gargantuan proportions by starting its carnivorous diet early in the womb.

Noah's Ark for the Humans
S1 E61

Human bodies are habitats for bacteria, and many of the microbes are beneficial to us.

Drones in Space: Mars to Titan
S1 E62

Drones head into outer space with the Mars Helicopter's success paving the way for Dragonfly, a daring future mission to Titan.

Mars Perseverance: The Hunt Begins
S1 E63

Mars Perseverance Rover makes its historic landing on the Red Planet; inside the harrowing Feb. 18, 2021, landing, the science mission and the cutting-edge technology including the first-ever Martian helicopter.

Super Spider Silk
S1 E64

Science reveals new understanding of spiders, their super strong and flexible silks, and their predatory behavior.

Egypt's Lost City
S1 E65

Archaeologists uncover ancient Egypt's lost city of Luxor.

Secrets of a Dog's Nose
S1 E66

A dog's sense of smell can do amazing things; Dogs can help humans sniff out all kinds of things that improve our lives, explosives, missing persons, illegal drugs; now the latest research is revealing that dogs can detect disease, even cancer.

ICARUS: Tracking Creatures From Space
S1 E68

The ICARUS system monitors the movements and behaviors of Earth's creatures by using an antenna mounted on the International Space Station to collect tracking data, opening the door to new discoveries that might warn of natural disasters.

Voyage to Venus
S1 E69

For the first time in decades, NASA is sending two new missions to Venus designed to study and explore the planet's atmosphere, Earth-like composition and history.

Building the James Webb Telescope
S1 E70

Scientists recount the challenges of developing the James Webb Space Telescope, the most expensive, largest and most advanced ever built.

Immortal Alligators
S1 E71

New research reveals how incredible these ancient reptiles are, partly because of what's called negligible senescence; this means that alligators show almost no signs of aging, they are "biologically immortal."

Capturing a Black Hole in Our Milky Way
S1 E72

Exploing a supermassive black hole in the heart of our own Milky Way Galaxy.

Into the Volcano
S1 E73

Forecasting volcanic eruptions is notoriously challenging, but teams of scientists from around the globe may soon be utilizing cosmic rays to diagnose when a volcano is about to blow.

First Images: The James Webb Telescope
S1 E74

The dawn of a new era in astronomy has begun as the world gets its first look at the full capabilities of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.

Artemis: First Launch
S1 E75

An inside look at NASA's Artemis Program, the spacecraft and the people who could bring humanity one step closer to the moon, Mars and beyond.

Year of the Asteroid
S1 E76

While humans debate which is worse, dwindling resources or planet-killing celestial bodies, new breakthroughs in extraplanetary surveying and rocket propulsion are revealing the dichotomy of asteroids.

Tomorrow's Flying Cars
S1 E77

A sleek ride, capable of circumventing the chaos of city driving, soaring above coastal roads, or even the coast itself.

Reefs of Hope
S1 E78

With new state-of-the-art tools and technologies that include curious underwater vehicles and hydrodynamic modeling, scientists have hope of better understanding the threats to coral communities while finding the source to restock reefs worldwide.

Voyage Into the Sun
S1 E79

For the first time in history, NASA's Parker Solar Probe has pierced the Sun's corona and is orbiting above its surface.

Fusion: Harnessing the Power of Stars
S1 E80

Humanity is closer than ever before to a perpetual clean power source after a team of scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory successfully produced a nuclear fusion reaction resulting in a net energy gain.

Jupiter's Moons and the Search for Life
S1 E81

A look at a new pair of missions to get closer to Jupiter's icy moons; exploring whether the conditions for life exist beyond Earth.

Forecasting the Big One
S1 E82

Earthquakes can leave a path of destruction with no warning.

The Great Seaweed Invasion
S1 E83

A giant mass of floating seaweed is invading popular beaches in the US and the Caribbean; scientists are racing to figure out how to protect the coast while tracking and studying this natural wonder.

OSIRIS-REx: The Return
S1 E84

Launched in 2016, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft returns to Earth after a 7-year journey with NASA's very first asteroid sample.

Gravitational Waves: A New Universe
S1 E85

Arguably the most significant breakthrough of the century, a new type of astronomy is detecting gravitational waves throughout our universe.

ECHO: The Penguin's Bodyguard
S1 E86

Show Description: Take a deeper look at some of the recent developments in physics, astronomy and other sciences.

Europa Clipper: Mission to an Alien Ocean
S1 E87

A look at humanity's first deep dive into an alien ocean world as NASA's Europa Clipper heads to Jupiter's icy moons to explore whether there is life beyond Earth.

Pathways to Mars
S1 E88

Sixty years ago, Mariner 4 sent back the first images of Mars. It's a trip NASA has made twenty more times since. Robots-probes, landers, rovers, and even helicopters-are searching for signs of life on the Red Planet, and paving the way for us to.

Asteroid Impact
S1 E89

Asteroids. Mountains of rock that hurtle through space, capable of mass destruction. A series of space missions are targeting them. Could these potential planet killers also reveal the origins of life itself? And can humanity protect itself.

Brain-Computer Interface: The Digital Mind
S1 E90

This is an inside look at how teams of scientists, engineers and surgeons-and their courageous test subjects-are using Brain-Computer Interfaces to bring hope and increased independence to patients living with conditions like paralysis.

Engineering Life
S1 E91

Humans are not the strongest and their senses are nothing special; their intelligence is letting them wield the power of evolution; scientists are unlocking the mysteries of the natural world to improve lives, health and the future.

Superpredators
S1 E92

For thousands-or even millions-of years, they ruled the food chain. And they still fascinate us. Creatures synonymous with the hunt: Saber Teeth, Mega Jaws, even a Tyrant King. How did they win evolution's race-and what brought their reign to an end?

Data Center Energy Crisis
S1 E93

Data centers already devour massive amounts of energy. AI is making their power consumption skyrocket. Energy bills are already rising. Brownouts will be next. Do we have the juice to power a digital world?

Artemis II: Ready for the Moon
S1 E94

Explore the rockets, landers, vehicles, and space capsule paving the way for future Artemis missions to the lunar surface. And meet the engineers-and the machines-behind NASA's Commercial Lander Payload Services (CLPS) missions.

Land of the Hobbits
S1 E95

On a faraway island ruled by giant dragons since prehistoric times, archaeologists uncover the tiny remains of ancient humans and ignite fierce controversy. These fossils reveal a long-lost world and a spellbinding chapter of human evolution...

Telescopes: The Truth is Out There
S1 E96

They have opened our eyes to the biggest breakthroughs in astronomy, from black holes to lost planets to the birth of stars.

Game Changers
S1 E97

Science breaks down boundaries and grows knowledge. Achievements build on one another and provide stepping stones to the future.