As science and space ventures learn new ways to explore our universe, the more the mysteries deepen. Out there: strange bodies with diamonds, lava, pulsars, and small lumps, called planemos, sailing forever in darkness without a sun.
Using CGI animation and latest discoveries--and conjectures that would challenge Sherlock Holmes--the National Geographic Channel presents Alien Earths at 9 p.m. EDT tonight. Astronomers serve as your tour guides of the back alleys and haunted sections of the universes, where curious bodies follow paths that sometimes are as strange as their makeup.