Dive into the most dramatic events in Earth’s 4.5-billion-year history, from its birth to the emergence of humanity. How did a hellscape of molten lava transform into a lush, green, watery planet filled with life?

With dazzlingly realistic animation based on the latest research, each of these five episodes in NOVA’s Ancient Earth documentary series brings to life long-lost worlds that ultimately led to the one we know today.

Chapter 1: Birth of the Sky

Early Earth was a hellscape of molten lava and barren rock, bombarded by meteors, with no atmosphere at all. How did our familiar blue sky – the thin, life-giving band of gasses protecting our planet – come to be?

READ: Why Is the Sky Blue?

Chapter 2: Frozen Planet

700 million years ago, Earth was a giant snowball cloaked in ice from pole to pole. How did life manage to hold on through this deadly deep freeze, find creative ways to bounce back, and thrive in the dramatically different world that emerged?

Chapter 3: Life Rising

For billions of years, life teemed in Earth’s oceans while the land was desolate and inhospitable. See how life made the leap to land, transforming a barren, rocky landscape into the lush, green world we call home.

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Chapter 4: Inferno

252 million years ago, a devastating mass extinction wiped out about 90% of all species on Earth. Follow scientists as they piece together evidence to discover how life survived and set the stage for a new dominant life form: the dinosaurs.

Chapter 5: Humans

How did Earth give rise to humans? With stunningly realistic animation, witness the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs, the spread of primates across the planet, and the geologic events that made our species’ existence possible.

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