How the universe and earth was created

Where did the universe come from and did a creator have a hand in making it? As scientists learn more about the universe, our ideas about exactly what God made (the earth, the universe, the multi-verse even nothing but empty space) have come into question.

A brief account of the Earth's geological progression, from its creation 4.6 billion years ago to scientists' predictions of its demise more than 2.5 billion years in the future.

Born from dying stars, it was sculpted by violent collisions in space. Yet, in an epic journey, this hostile ball of molten rock transformed itself into a nurturing environment. From it emerged forms of life, none of which have been found anywhere else in the universe. That planet is not millions of light years away either. You are standing on it right now. It is Earth.

The story of creation starts with the words, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Animated drawings illustrate the Nebular Theory for the creation of our solar system and the Earth, showing how molten masses spun off from the Sun cooled to form planets.

At 4.6 billion years old, the Solar System is our solid, secure home in the Universe. But how did it come to be? In this episode we trace the system's birth from a thin cloud of dust and gas. Shocked by a nearby supernova, the pull of gravity and natural rotation spun it into a flat disc from which the Sun and planets coalesced. It all happened in the space of 700 million years, during which the planets jockeyed for position, dodging the brutal bombardment of deadly asteroids and setting into the neat, stable system that we now realize might be a rarity in the universe.

This stunning, 30-minute voyage through space and time - a full-dome planetarium movie - conveys, through sparkling sights and sounds, the Universe revealed to us by science.