Our Sun has served Earth well for almost five billion years. It's bathed us with heat and energy. But like humans, our home star is mortal. In five billion years, it will stop nurturing its planetary offspring. The aging star will bloat out beyond the orbit of our planet incinerating all living things--including humans if we're still around.

Take a tour of the cosmic hot zones--black holes, galaxy mergers, gamma ray bursts and magnetars. Super black holes can literally lasso Earth out of the solar system. A clash between two galaxies can result in a ritual called galactic cannibalism. Magnetars are a cosmic magnetic force so strong it could wipe out data on every credit card.

Have planet hunters finally found proof of other Earth like worlds? Astronomers have now discovered over two hundred alien worlds, beyond our solar system, that were unknown just a decade ago. Discover planets that rage with fiery hurricanes and bizarre planets covered by water so dense that it forms a kind of hot ice. Among these weird worlds, Earth actually seems like the oddball.

Travel from the inner solar system to the Kuiper Belt and explore the moons surrounding the planets of the solar system. Many of these moons that were once unknown are now on the cutting edge of astronomical study. Some burst with volcanic fury another spews icy geysers and others offer the possibility of alien life. Are these strange worlds simply hostile environments unfit for humans or do other possibilities exist? Cutting-edge computer graphics are used to bring the universe down to earth and to imagine what kind of life forms might evolve in alien atmospheres.

Some of the world's leading physicists believe they have found startling new evidence showing the existence of universes other than our own. One possibility is that the universe is so vast that an exact replica of our solar system, our planet and ourselves exists many times over. These Doppelganger Universes exist within our own Universe; in what scientist now call "The Multiverse." If proof is found it will change our lives, our minds, our planet, our science and our universe.

Right now cosmic forces prowl the universe and threaten man's very existence. They're asteroids and comets; they've left their imprint on planet Earth, literally. Initially helping to build planets through violent collisions, during this fiery bombardment period they may have even seeded Earth with water and the building blocks for life. Since the turbulent formation of the solar system, these space rocks have continued to impact Earth. Some have been so violent that they've led to mass extinctions, including one that wiped out the dinosaur. New theories suggest that asteroid and comet dust harbour deadly viruses that may have triggered some of our worst pandemics. The possibility of future collisions remains a legitimate threat yet despite their dangers, asteroids and comets may hold vital natural resources, which could actually preserve