Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey – Wikipedia

No. Title Directed by Original air date Prod.
code US viewers
(millions) The Earth’s location within the Virgo Supercluster

Tyson opens the episode to reflect on the importance of Sagan’s original Cosmos, and the goals of this series. He introduces the viewer to the “Ship of the Imagination”, the show’s narrative device to explore the universe’s past, present, and future. Tyson takes the viewer to show where Earth sits in the scope of the known universe, defining the Earth’s “address” within the Virgo Supercluster. Tyson explains how humanity has not always seen the universe in this manner, and describes the hardships and persecution of Renaissance Italian Giordano Bruno in challenging the prevailing geocentric model held by the Catholic Church. To show Bruno’s vision of the cosmic order he uses an animated adaptation of the Flammarion engraving, a 19th century illustration that has now become a common meme for the revealing of the mysteries of the Universe.

The episode continues onto the scope of time, using the concept of the Cosmic Calendar as used in the original series to provide a metaphor for this scale. The narration describes how if the Big Bang occurred on January 1, all of humankind’s recorded history would be compressed into the last few seconds of the last minute on December 31. Tyson concludes the episode by recounting how Sagan inspired him as a student as well as his other contributions to the scientific community. 3 “When Knowledge Conquered Fear” Brannon Braga March 23, 2014( ) 103 4.25[19] 4 “A Sky Full of Ghosts” Brannon Braga March 30, 2014

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105 3.91[20] 5 “Hiding in the Light” Bill Pope April 6, 2014( ) 104 3.98[21] 7 “The Clean Room” Brannon Braga April 20, 2014

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107 3.74[24] 8 “Sisters of the Sun” Brannon Braga April 27, 2014( ) 108 3.66[25] 10 “The Electric Boy” Bill Pope May 11, 2014

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109 3.46[27] 11 “The Immortals” Brannon Braga May 18, 2014( ) 111 3.24[28] This episode covers how life may have developed on Earth and the possibility of life on other planets. Tyson begins by explaining how the human development of writing systems enabled the transfer of information through generations, describing how Princess Enheduanna ca. 2280 BC would be one of the first to sign her name to her works, and how Gilgamesh collected stories, including that of Utnapishtim documenting a great flood comparable to the story of Noah’s Ark. Tyson explains how DNA similarly records information to propagate life, and postulates theories of how DNA originated on Earth, including evolution from a shallow tide pool, or from the ejecta of meteor collisions from other planets. In the latter case, Tyson explains how comparing the composition of the Nakhla meteorite in 1911 to results collected by the Viking program demonstrated that material from Mars could transit to Earth, and the ability of some microbes to survive the harsh conditions of space. With the motions of solar systems through the galaxy over billions of years, life could conceivably propagate from planet to planet in the same manner .
Tyson then moves on to consider if life on other planets could exist. He explains how Project Diana performed in the 1940s showed that radio waves are able to travel in space, and that all of humanity’s broadcast signals continue to radiate into space from our planet. Tyson notes that projects have since looked for similar signals potentially emanating from other solar systems. Tyson then explains that the development and lifespan of extraterrestrial civilizations must be considered for such detection to be realized. He notes that civilizations can be wiped out by cosmic events like supernovae, natural disasters such as the Toba disaster, or even self-destruct through war or other means, making probability estimates difficult. Tyson describes how elliptical galaxies, in which some of the oldest red dwarf stars exist, would offer the best chance of finding established civilizations. Tyson concludes that human intelligence properly applied should allow our species to avoid such disasters and enable us to migrate beyond the Earth before the Sun’s eventual transformation into a red giant. Princess Enheduanna’s animation is modeled on CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, who also did Enheduanna’s voice. 12 “The World Set Free” Brannon Braga June 1, 2014( ) 112 3.52[29]