Secrets of the Sun with Dara Ó Briain (2024- )

While the Sun is critical to life, looks can also be deceiving. In this episode Dara is going to explore how our solar system's star has a darker side.

Dara's journey takes him to Space City, Houston. Here he meets ex-NASA astronaut Colonel Terry Virts a former commander on board the Space Shuttle. Terry got skin cancer because of the Sun and explains that monitoring the Sun's energy is extremely important to astronauts.

In Houston, Dara is invited to the central hub of NASA, the Johnson Space Centre to meet the scientists behind the Space Radiation Analysis Group. This is where NASA monitors solar flares, ejections from the Sun that can head towards the earth. They also discuss the so-called ‘Bermuda Triangle of Space' – the South Atlantic Anomaly – an area in space the Sun makes so dangerous that satellites and even the International Space Station need to power down when travelling through it.

Monitoring the Sun is critical, and Dara next explains that there are numerous missions from many countries across the world sending spacecraft to study the Sun at close quarters.

Dara's journey ends in the South of France, where he witnesses the Sun's extraordinary power first hand, at the world's largest solar furnace. Here, solar power is concentrated in huge amounts in order to generate power, and astrophysicist Dr Orlagh Creevey reveals how there's so much power generated it can vapourise rock.

Orlagh reveals this is actually much like how the story of our Sun will end. Our star will turn into a ‘Red Giant' and completely engulf the Earth. There is absolutely nothing we can do about this – it is the natural life cycle of a star. The Sun – the giver of life – will one day destroy us.