Stephen Hawking's Universe (1997) Rating: Starring: Stephen Hawking, Gregory Benford, Frank Langella, Fred M. Niell, Maria Papathanassiou Director: Category: Special Interest Studio: Warner Bros. Subtitles: [None] Length: 360 mins     Stephen Hawking, author of the best-selling book A Brief History Of Time, is one of today's most renowned scientists.This incredible series treats viewers to the latest and loftiest advances in cosmological thought in true down-to-earth Hawking fashion.The series presents an intergalactic detective story, rich with mystery, unexpected twists and astonishing revelations. Volume 1: The Big Bang Program One: Seeing Is Believing - Today we take for granted many things about the universe - that the Earth is round, that we orbit the sun.But these things are not obvious - our knowledge today is built on the foundations laid down by thousands of years of scientific inquiry and ingenuity.This program explores mathematics and how it revolutionized our view of the universe. Program Two: The Big Bang - Our sun at the center of our solar system is just one star among billions in the Milky Way galaxy.Around us are billions and billions of other galaxies.Where could this entire universe come from?Was it always this way or did the universe have a beginning?The church has always believed that the universe came from a moment of creation - a time when the universe began.Meanwhile, scientists developed two theories: the Big Bang and the Steady State theories. Volume 2: On The Dark Side Program Three: Cosmic Alchemy -In the beginning, the universe started as a single point.Yet from this tiny beginning came all the matter that we can see around us today.How could pure energy become matter.Over the past century a series of discoveries have shed light on our understanding of matter. Program Four: On The Dark Side - When we gaze up at the night-time sky, we see the shining stars in the blackness of space.But is the space empty?In the 1950s a young American scientist discovered that the stars in rotating spiral galaxies seem to be held together by an unseen force.Vera Rubin proposed the idea that the space between the stars was filled by invisible stuff she called dark matter.Scientists now believe that dark matter could make up an unbelievable 990f the universe. Volume 3: Black Holes And Beyond Program Five: Black Holes And Beyond - The invention of radio astronomy over 50 years ago opened new horizons for astronomers.It led to SETI - the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence - looking for stray alien communications.And it also led to astronomical discoveries.Among these were black holes and quasars, bizarre objects billions of light years away, the same size as our solar system, with a power output greater than all of the stars in our galaxy put together.Quasars shine incredibly brightly as matter is sucked in a black hole and heats up due to friction. Program Six: An Answer To Everything - Over the last hundred years our understanding of the universe has advanced farther than in previous centuries.We now know the universe had a beginning and how all the matter formed, but there is still one outstanding question - how did the Big Bang begin?Stephen Hawking is joined by other leading scientists as they try to answer this most important question.