Airdate: The Secret Life of the Sun

BBC Earth screens The Secret Life of the Sun, a special presented by Kate Humble & Helen Czerski.

An incredible voyage from the core of the Sun through to its atom-shredding surface and out into its atmosphere. The Sun – 1.3 million miles wide, weighing 330,000 times more than Earth, containing over 99% of all the mass in the Solar System and so big that it distorts time itself. Using the latest space images and spectacular CGI, this programme peels open the Sun layer by layer, showing the working parts that make up our star. The programme reveals what lies at the Sun’s core, how its inner zones generate the most powerful magnetic field in the Solar System, and how its surface releases energy as light to power-up life on Earth. Witness the strangest sights, the most surreal landscapes and the violent chaotic side of the Sun that most of us are never aware of, but may have profound effects for us here on Earth. This is the epic story of our nearest star.

Thursday, August 20 at 9.40pm on BBC Earth.