The BEST episodes of NOVA season 46
Every episode of NOVA season 46, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of NOVA season 46!
Helps viewers of all ages explore the science behind the headlines.
#1 - Pluto and Beyond
Season 46 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/2/2019
Since it explored Pluto in 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft has been zooming toward NASA’s most distant target yet. Join the mission team as the probe attempts to fly by Ultima Thule, an object 4 billion miles from Earth.
Watch Now:Amazon
#2 - The Planets: Ice Worlds (5)
Season 46 - Episode 16 - Aired 8/14/2019
Beyond the bizarre, icy worlds of Uranus and Neptune, Pluto dazzles with its mysterious ocean.
Watch Now:Amazon
#3 - The Planets: Saturn (4)
Season 46 - Episode 15 - Aired 8/7/2019
Nasa's Cassini reveals the mysteries of Saturn's rings and new hope for life on one of its moons.
Watch Now:Amazon
#4 - Animal Espionage
Season 46 - Episode 23 - Aired 11/27/2019
How do you study giant armadillos when hardly anyone has ever seen one? Or figure out if a whale is losing weight—without getting too close? Camera and drone technologies are allowing scientists to watch animals more closely than ever before, without disturbing them. Scientists in India are using thousands of camera trap photos to track tigers' movements. In Canada, caribou outfitted with collar cams show conservationists which habitats they rely on throughout the winter. Capturing everything from the unexpected to the comical, these technologies are giving wildlife managers insights that could ultimately help them fight extinction and habitat loss.
Watch Now:Amazon
#5 - Back to the Moon
Season 46 - Episode 11 - Aired 7/10/2019
Fifty years after humans first stepped foot on the moon, engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs engage in new discoveries to make life on the moon a reality.
#6 - Decoding da Vinci
Season 46 - Episode 21 - Aired 11/13/2019
A visit to Florence, Italy to explore how Leonardo da Vinci used science, from human dissections to innovative painting techniques, to create his artwork.
#7 - Inside the Megafire
Season 46 - Episode 8 - Aired 5/8/2019
From the front line of the Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in California history, NOVA tells the stories of residents who had to flee for their lives during the 2018 fire season. Scientists racing to understand what’s behind the rise of record-breaking megafires across the American West take to the forest, and even a fire lab, in search of answers. They investigate how forestry practices, climate change, and the physics of fire itself play a role in the dramatic increase in wildfires in recent decades.
#8 - The Planets: Jupiter (3)
Season 46 - Episode 14 - Aired 7/31/2019
Jupiter's massive gravitational force has made it both a wrecking ball and a protector of Earth.
#9 - Lost Viking Army
Season 46 - Episode 10 - Aired 5/22/2019
Bioarchaeologists investigate a ninth-century mass grave in a rural English village. Will the remains unlock the mystery of the “Great Heathen Army,” a legendary Viking fighting force that once invaded England?
#10 - The Planets: Inner Worlds (1)
Season 46 - Episode 12 - Aired 7/24/2019
The rocky planets have similar origins, but only one supports life. Was it always this way?
#11 - Kïlauea: Hawai'i on Fire
Season 46 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/23/2019
Journey to Hawaii's Kilauea volcano, which sent rivers of lava through communities and into the sea when it erupted in 2018. A group of scientists and locals investigate the spike in volcano activity that turned paradise into an inferno.
#12 - The Planets: Mars (2)
Season 46 - Episode 13 - Aired 7/24/2019
Before it was the dry Red Planet, Mars was a wet world that may have had the ingredients for life.
#13 - Saving the Dead Sea
Season 46 - Episode 7 - Aired 4/24/2019
The Dead Sea is dying: Since 1976, its level has dropped more than 100 feet, leaving its coastline pockmarked with thousands of sinkholes. But after more than a decade of research and debate, scientists, engineers, and political leaders have come up with a daring plan: connect the Red Sea to the Dead Sea by way of a massive desalination plant. If it’s successful, the project could not only revive the sea, but also help ease political tensions and water shortages in the region. NOVA follows this unprecedented endeavor—perhaps the world’s largest water chemistry experiment—as scientists race to save the Dead Sea and bring water to one of the driest regions on Earth.
#14 - Rise of the Rockets
Season 46 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/13/2019
With new technologies, NASA and private companies are promising a new renaissance in space travel.
#15 - Einstein's Quantum Riddle
Season 46 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/9/2019
Einstein called it “spooky action at a distance,” but today quantum entanglement is poised to revolutionize technology from computers to cryptography. Physicists have gradually become convinced that the phenomenon—two subatomic particles that mirror changes in each other instantaneously over any distance—is real.
#16 - Dead Sea Scroll Detectives
Season 46 - Episode 20 - Aired 11/6/2019
New technologies unravel the Dead Sea Scrolls’ mysteries and uncover million-dollar fakes.
#17 - The Next Pompeii
Season 46 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/20/2019
In the shadow of Vesuvius and Pompeii, a lesser-known volcano puts the city of Naples at risk.
#18 - Decoding the Great Pyramid
Season 46 - Episode 4 - Aired 2/6/2019
New archeological evidence sheds light on the stunning engineering of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
#19 - Look Who's Driving
Season 46 - Episode 19 - Aired 10/23/2019
As self-driving cars take to the streets, investigate how they work, and if they are safe.
#20 - Rise of the Mammals
Season 46 - Episode 17 - Aired 10/30/2019
Sixty-six million years ago, an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs in a fiery global catastrophe. But we know little about how their successors, the mammals, recovered and took over the world. Now, hidden inside ordinary-looking rocks, an astonishing trove of fossils reveals a dramatic new picture of how rat-sized creatures ballooned in size and began to evolve into the vast array of species
#21 - Why Bridges Collapse
Season 46 - Episode 18 - Aired 10/16/2019
In 2018, Italy’s Morandi Bridge collapsed, tragically killing 43 people. For 50 years, the iconic bridge had withstood the elements—and stress from ever-increasing traffic. What went wrong that fateful day? And how can new engineering technology protect bridge infrastructure to prevent such tragic failures in the future?
#22 - First Horse Warriors
Season 46 - Episode 9 - Aired 5/15/2019
Horse riding played a key role in human expansion and civilization. Scientists use archeology and genetics to uncover clues about the first horse riders and how they shaped the world.
#23 - The Violence Paradox
Season 46 - Episode 22 - Aired 11/20/2019
Violence is all over the news. But some say we’re living in the most peaceful time in history. Journey through time and the human mind to investigate whether—and how—violence has declined. And witness how people are working to stop violence today.