Plot Synopsis

In each hour-long (and occasionally longer) documentary, scientists demystify everything from the latest breakthroughs in technology to the deepest mysteries of the natural world, helping viewers of all ages explore the underlying science while highlighting the people involved in these scientific pursuits.

NOVA returned for its 40th season on Wednesday, January 2, 2013 at 9pm ET with an episode, "Doomsday Volcanoes," revealing that Iceland has two giant volcanoes that could erupt without warning, with more severe consequences than the 2010 eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano that stopped air travel.

PBS broadcast the Season 41 premiere of NOVA on Wednesday, January 8, 2014 at 9pm ET/PT (check local listings) with an episode, "Alien Planets Revealed," in which expert astrophysicists and astrobiologists explore exo-planets and the possible creatures we might one day encounter there.

NOVA returned for its 42nd season on Wednesday, January 14, 2015 at 9pm on PBS (check local listings). The season opener, "Big Bang Machine," chronicles CERN scientists as they prepare to restart the history-making Large Hadron Collider.

Season 43 of NOVA premiered on Wednesday, January 6, 2016 at 9pm on PBS (check local listings). In the season opener, "Secret Tunnel Warfare," archaeologists reveal traces of WWI's most devastating, ultra-secret tunneling operation. During World War I, the Allies and Germans repeatedly struggled to break the hideous stalemate of trench warfare. In the winter of 1916, Allied engineers devised a massive surprise attack on the German army. Their weapon of choice: 600 tons of explosives, hidden in secret tunnels driven under German lines. Building the tunnels was desperate work, with tunnelers at constant risk from flooding, cave-ins and enemy digging teams; German sappers would listen for telltale sounds and explode counter-mines, or sometimes break through into Allied tunnels and grapple in primitive, face-to-face combat in the dark. At 3:10 AM on June 7th, 25 mines at Messines were simultaneously triggered in what was probably the single biggest non-nuclear explosion of all time, heard clearly in London 150 miles away. 10,000 German troops were killed instantly -- but the stunning success was just the beginning of another wartime nightmare. Now, archaeologists are revealing the extraordinary scale and risks of the Allied tunneling operations in the biggest excavation ever undertaken on the Western Front. NOVA follows bomb disposal experts as they clear topsoil packed with shrapnel and unexploded shells and probe one tunnel system connected to what is probably the world's largest unexploded bomb -- a mine consisting of 22 tons of explosives that was flooded by German engineers before the attack.

On Wednesday, January 4, 2017 at 9pm (check local listings), PBS premieres the 44th season of NOVA. The season opener, "Secrets of the Sky Tombs," highlights the towering Himalayas, which were among the last places on Earth that humanity settled. Scaling sheer cliff sides, a team of daring scientists hunts for clues to how ancient people found their way into this forbidding landscape and adapted to survive the high altitude. They discover rock-cut tombs filled with human bones and enigmatic artifacts, including gold masks and Chinese silk dating back thousands of years, and piece together evidence of strange rituals and beliefs designed to ward off the restless spirits of the dead.

Season 45 of NOVA premiered on Wednesday, January 10, 2018 at 9pm on PBS (check local listungs). In the season opener, "Black Hole Apocalypse," join astrophysicist Janna Levin on a mind-bending journey to the frontiers of black hole research. Discover how scientists may soon be able to "see" a black hole and are revealing new clues to the strangest and most extreme objects in the universe.

PBS premiered the 46th season of NOVA on Wednesday, January 2, 2019 at 9pm (check local listings). The season opener, "Pluto and Beyond," chronicles the New Horizons spacecraft, which flies by a mysterious object known as Ultima Thule, believed to be a primordial building block of the solar system. Three years after taking the first spectacular photos of Pluto, New Horizons is four billion miles from Earth, trying to achieve the most distant flyby in NASA's history. If successful, it will shed light on one of the least understood regions of our solar system: the Kuiper Belt. NOVA is embedded with the New Horizons mission team, following the action in real time as they uncover the secrets of what lies beyond Pluto.

The 47th season of NOVA premiered on Wednesday, February 5, 2020 at 9pm on PBS (check local listings). In the season opener, "Polar Extremes," paleontologist Kirk Johnson explores the dynamic history -- and future -- of ice at the poles. Following a trail of fossils found in all the wrong places -- beech trees in Antarctica, redwoods and hippo-like mammals in the Arctic -- NOVA uncovers the bizarre history of the poles, from miles-thick ice sheets to warm polar forests teeming with life.

PBS premiered NOVA's 48th season on Wednesday, January 13, 2021 at 9pm (check local listings). In the season opener, "Secrets in Our DNA," some 30 million Americans have sent their DNA to be analyzed by companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA. But what happens once the sample is in the hands of testing companies, and how accurate are their results? NOVA explores the power of genetic data to reveal family connections, ancestry, and health risks -- and even solve criminal cold cases.

Season 49 of NOVA debuted on Wednesday, February 2, 2022 at 9pm on PBS (check local listings). In the season opener, "Arctic Sinkholes," scientists investigate colossal explosions in Siberia and other evidence that rapidly melting soil in the Arctic is releasing vast amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. What are the implications for our climate future?

NOVA returned for its 50th season on Wednesday, February 1, 2023 at 9pm on PBS (check local listings). New installments continue to demystify science and technology for viewers of all ages and spotlight people involved in scientific pursuits. In the season opener, "London Super Tunnel," thousands of engineers, technicians and workers race to build Europe's biggest construction project -- London's new railroad, the Elizabeth Line.
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The 52nd season of NOVA debuted on Wednesday, January 31, 2024 at 9pm on PBS (check local listings). The season opener, "When Whales Could Walk," heads to Egypt's Sahara Desert, where massive skeletons with strange skulls and gigantic teeth jut out from the sandy ground. This fossil graveyard, millions of years old, is known as the "Valley of the Whales." Now, paleontologists have unearthed a whole new species of ancient whale dating to 43 million years ago, and this predator wasn't just able to swim -- it also had four legs and could walk. Follow scientists as they search for new clues to the winding evolutionary path of mammals that moved from the land into the sea to become the largest animals on Earth.