The Thin Blue Line

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Description

It's hard to believe that only a flimsy envelope of gas protects life on our planet. But, as this program shows, Earth isn't the only world wrapped in a tenuous, constantly shifting blanket and at one time, there may have been even more. A visit to Africa's Namib Desert helps illustrate what happened to poor Mercury when, early on, it was stripped of its atmosphere and fully exposed to the Sun's heat. Aided by a stunning backdrop of Alaskan glaciers, the film segues to a study of Titan, Saturn's chief moon, which is shrouded in a thick, murky atmosphere. Earth's probes have detected massive lakes beneath the shroud, but their chemical make-up is not entirely understood-Titan's atmosphere does its job well.