FROM COSMOS
TO CIVILIZATION
All episodes/Episode 2.1

Episode 2.1 · 30 min

How the Solar System Was Made

From a collapsing cloud to a young Sun and a disk of forming planets, with meteorites preserving the chronology of the Solar System’s birth.

Watch this film on YouTube ↗

Visual credits

16 sources

Sources and credits for imagery used in this film, including material incorporated into explanatory animations.

Research references

Selected sources from the episode’s research and scientific figures.

  1. https://www.si.edu/object/allende%3Anmnhmineralsciences_1041071 ↗
  2. https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/815/SCES-0025.pdf ↗
  3. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1226919 ↗
  4. https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2512/ ↗
  5. https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1436/ ↗
  6. https://www.almaobservatory.org/en/press-releases/exoalma-survey-reveals-incredible-images-of-structures-in-protoplanetary-disks/ ↗
  7. https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2111/ ↗
  8. https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2604/ ↗
  9. https://exoplanet.ipac.caltech.edu/ ↗
  10. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016703716306226 ↗
  11. https://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo941 ↗
  12. https://academic.oup.com/nsr/article/12/9/nwaf281/8196576 ↗
  13. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016703709003287 ↗
  14. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6739091/ ↗
  15. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09163-z ↗
  16. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15556630 ↗
  17. https://public.nrao.edu/news/exoalma/ ↗
  18. https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso2111/eso2111a.pdf ↗
  19. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5414277/ ↗
  20. https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/541/4/4025/8211812 ↗
  21. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11214-024-01113-x ↗
  22. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6425492/ ↗
  23. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3228481/ ↗
  24. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11214-016-0256-1 ↗
  25. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202347716 ↗
  26. https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.11297 ↗
  27. https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.01752 ↗
  28. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103510004574 ↗
  29. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08970-8 ↗
  30. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2194-z ↗
  31. https://www.nature.com/articles/nature10201 ↗
  32. https://www.nature.com/articles/nature03539 ↗
  33. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-024-02340-6 ↗
  34. https://www.oca.eu/images/LAGRANGE/pages_perso/morby/1-s2.0-S0019103517303408-main.pdf ↗
  35. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-019-0959-9 ↗
  36. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9032962/ ↗
  37. https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.02393 ↗
  38. https://www.nasa.gov/universe/exoplanets/nasas-tally-of-planets-outside-our-solar-system-reaches-6000/ ↗
  39. https://authors.library.caltech.edu/records/nvqpf-cwf07 ↗
  40. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4156743/ ↗
  41. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-017-0129 ↗
  42. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-024-02342-4 ↗
  43. https://www.planetary.org/space-images/allende-meteorite ↗
  44. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/maps.13970 ↗

Music

  • Meditation From The Star Orion
    OctahedronMusic · Envato Elements
Footage and image usage

Credits and usage times retained from the published edition or its production credit record. Where present, times identify visual appearances, not documentary chapters. Source and licence corrections are listed in the visual credits above.

  • NASA - 6:19-6:33, Lunar Receiving Laboratory gas-analysis room, January
  • ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), NASA, ESA, N. Risinger; distributed by ESO - 4:28-4:45, Zooming in on the location of HL Tauri (eso1436b); source: Original source ↗
  • Almaobservatory - 27:33-27:47, press releases image; 28:30-28:41, press releases image
  • Art Bromage - 6:33-6:43, Murchison meteorite
  • ESO - 4:45-5:13, image; 14:34-14:45, image; 14:45-14:53, image; 14:53-15:06, image; 15:21-15:30, image; 15:40-15:52, image; 27:57-28:18, image; 28:18-28:30, image
  • James St. John - 0:00-0:22, Allende meteorite, carbonaceous chondrite (14787764392); 0:33-0:45, Allende meteorite, carbonaceous chondrite (14787764392); 15:30-15:40, Allende meteorite, carbonaceous chondrite (14787764392)
  • NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Roman Tkachenko. - 20:18-20:44, UltimaThule CA06 color 20190516
  • Smithsonian Institution - 0:45-1:06, Allende
  • Steve Jurvetson - 0:22-0:33, Allende meteorite (52803099125); 6:07-6:19, Allende meteorite (52803099125)
  • Custom animations and figures: From Cosmos to Civilization. Third-party material incorporated into animations is credited on the linked sources page.

How this film was made

Created and editorially directed by Anders Lunde using a custom production system developed over six months. AI assists research, drafting, programming, and visual production; I review and edit the material and make the final editorial decisions. Narration uses text-to-speech. Visuals combine custom-built scientific animations, AI-generated reconstructions, and credited scientific imagery.

Generated reconstructions illustrate scientific interpretations. They are distinct from photographs, specimens, and measured data.

More about the creator and production →