Is there life on Mars? Much is made of the search for intelligent entities on other worlds. How about the settling of human beings on other planets? Or the creation of an alternative planet for human life if and when Earth becomes uninhabitable? An interplanetary back-up plan?
Cosmic questions like these are the subject of “Sci Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible” (9 p.m., Science), now in its second season.
Host Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist and popular author and public radio personality, takes viewers through various scenarios for off-planet colonization and evaluates the strengths and weakness of each plan in a thoughtful yet easy-to-understand manner.
One expert presents the notion of creating floating cities that could hover in the forbidding atmosphere of Venus. Another scientist plans to heat up the chilly atmosphere of Mars by creating a mylar solar reflector roughly the size of Texas created from minerals mined from far-flung asteroids.
Kaku mulls and rejects these potential planetary fixes before coming up with a scheme of his own and presenting it before a convention of sci-fi buffs, some fully decked out in “Star Wars” regalia. These folks are ready to colonize Mars right now. A fun science class with a little Comic-Con thrown in for good measure, “Impossible” and its genial host do a great job inviting viewers to stretch their mental horizons and envision new worlds.
• Tim McGraw hosts “CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock” (7 p.m., ABC). This end-of-summer special was actually filmed in mid-June in Nashville during a four-day concert event featuring some of country music’s top artists. This marks McGraw’s first appearance at the event since 2001.
The CMA Awards will air Nov. 10, hosted by Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood.
• “Great Performances” (7 p.m., PBS, check local listings) teams America’s favorite soprano with Russia’s greatest baritone for an operatic tour of the palaces of the Czars on “Renee Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky: A Musical Odyssey in St. Petersburg.”
• PBS invites viewers to a musical event in the Lone Star State that has nothing to do with country music. “A Surprise in Texas: The Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition” (8:30 p.m., PBS, check local listings) follows 29 of the world’s best young pianists from 14 countries over the course of a rigorous three week contest held in Fort Worth in May 2009. This features all the backstage drama and youthful exuberance of more popular musical talent search contests. And there’s a surprise ending to boot.
Tonight’s other highlights
• Contestants leave the confines of the studio kitchen to cater a posh wedding on a two-hour “Masterchef” (7 p.m., Fox). Things do not end happily ever after for some competitors.
• Five semifinalists move into the top 10 on “America’s Got Talent” (8 p.m., NBC).
• A radical makeover involves a 100-pound weight loss on the season finale of “Plain Jane” (8 p.m., CW).
• A murder on the hip-hop scene on “CSI: NY” (9 p.m., CBS).
• After making an arrest, a rookie cop’s past is held up to scrutiny on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (9 p.m., NBC), guest-starring Sharon Stone.
• Shawn uncovers an organ donor scam on “Psych” (9 p.m., USA).
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