All language subtitles for First.Contact.An.Alien.Encounter.2022

RADIO: We're panning southwest.

We should be in a position to start
the survey in 20 minutes.

So we had a tip off, a breakthrough
last night that there was an unusual

transmission in the direction
of Voyager.

Nasa suspects it's a fault.

But our team here picked up
multiple narrowband signals.

I don't think we can discount
this being genuine.

Extraterrestrial life,

the scientific basis for
extraterrestrial life is so clear.

In the language of the US
Department of Defence,

unidentified aerial phenomenon,
which add fuel to the belief of

some that we are not alone.

It's looking like most stars
may, in fact, have planets.

There may be a tremendous number
of possible habitable worlds.

So you see this as a national
security issue?

Absolutely.

They're going to have to acknowledge
that there is something

there we need to be concerned about.

This is a goal of Nasa - to
understand the origin, evolution

and distribution of life
in the universe.

It's very important that the facts
are heard and fully understood,

and that this body is able to take
the appropriate decisions.

If there is a signal out there,

we're getting closer and closer
and closer to it.

First of all, your first concern
is, is the signal real? Right?

Secondly, is it coming from the sky

or coming from the local
environment?

Does it have any information
content?

Have we ever seen this before?

And you just work
through a whole lot

of different dependent questions.

If nature doesn't give
you an explanation,

then you have to be prepared
to think about non-natural,

artificial sort of technological
civilisation explanations

for the data.
You have to be open to that.

If we do detect a signal
from somewhere and it looks

like it's of intelligent origin,
what's going to happen is an alert

is going to go out and every
telescope in the world

is going to turn to that location
and start gathering data.

The transmission was picked
up at 8.4 megahertz, but extended

analysis has shown it was sweeping
through multiple frequencies.

Margaret is probably best placed
to give the details.

So our main interest is the power
required to simultaneously transmit

across so many frequencies
like this.

If it's genuine, it would rule out
any current technology we know of.

Voyager is out of sight for us now,
so we're putting together requests

for telescope time with Parkes.

We've also seen what looks like
complex modulation in the data...

..and a powerful sustained
narrowband transmission

at 1420 megahertz.

We've kept it amongst ourselves
for now, but I imagine

it's going to be pretty
common knowledge by tomorrow.

All right. Suppose that you had an
old-fashioned analogue radio

with a dial,

and you turn that dial and you hear
a lot of hiss and noise.

And suddenly that noise goes away
and you hear a very clear tone.

So that's the kind of thing
that we're looking for.

So we're trying to think, you know,
where might we all think

was a special sort of frequency
to use?

You look out in the universe,
what you see is lots

and lots of hydrogen.

And it just happens that there's
a natural process where you have

lots and lots of hydrogen.

It produces this radiation.

There's this radio emission
at this particular frequency,

1420 megahertz.

So one thought is that this is
a place that other civilisations

would observe because they will also
be doing astronomy and they will

also be looking at hydrogen
in the universe.

So 1420 megahertz, they will
have built receivers, but also

probably built transmitters
at this frequency.

So 1420 megahertz is a frequency we
know about, but it's also a

frequency that the aliens
know about.

So right away you can say, "OK,
if they're really going to try

"and get in touch with anybody,
maybe they would start out by

"broadcasting at that frequency."

CRACKLING

You sort of rendezvous
at this frequency that every

technical society in the universe
will know.

In all the time we've been
listening, we've only picked up

a handful of signals
that look promising.

Perhaps the best known of
these was back in the 1970s.

ARCHIVE: Over the last 20 years,
several groups of radio astronomers

have from time to time taken part
in this attempt to tune in

to the Galactic Club.

And for a few of them, it's become
a full-time occupation.

So 24 hours a day,
seven days a week,

the observatory computers record
the sounds of the universe,

and all they ever hear is a
hardly changing hiss.

Except once.

We were detecting signals
based on their strength.

And we didn't have enough space
to store vast quantities of data.

So the idea was we simply
printed out.

Kerchunk!

That was how the printer sounded
when it printed out

all 120 characters at once.

The whole system was working
without anybody

being at the radio observatory.

SLIGHT RUMBLE

There's always background noise.

When this radio signal came through,

starting out at six, that meant
six times the background noise.

Now, the next letter E, the E
represented a signal strength

of 14 times the background noise.

Q is 26 times the background noise.

At the peak, U was 30 times the
background noise.

WHOOSHING, ELECTRONIC NOISES

Then we dropped off J,
and then five.

And then the signal was gone.

I recognised immediately,

we've got something
very interesting.

I wrote the word "wow"

in the margin of the printout.

Wow, of course, indicates something
very interesting, and this turned

out to be the strongest narrowband
signal that we ever detected.

So why was the wow signal
considered to be a good candidate

for an ET signal?

Because it moved across the sky
with the speed of the stars.

And so that tells you that anything
that's, you know, a transmitter

up there, it also will move
across the sky at the same speed

that the stars apparently
move across the sky.

And this did all that,
so it looked good.

The director of the observatory
wrote a letter after the detection.

He said, "The wow signal is highly
suggestive of extraterrestrial

"intelligent origin, but little
more can be said until it returns

"for further study."

It was not explained by something
on Earth.

It is not explained by something
that we know about stars.

It was not explained by something
else that we know about in space.

So, as far as we know, this was
an anomalous discovery.

It matches many of the hallmarks
that scientists expect alien signals

to have, and we still have no
other explanation for it.

I've talked to people at Ohio State
about this and asked them, what do

they think it is? And they basically
sort of throw up their hands.

Nobody knows. Nobody knows.

And that's the problem
with finding something only once.

It's very hard to study something
that you only see once.

If the wow signal were to come
through now, it would be much

different than what we saw.

Technology has changed tremendously.

Well, I'm hoping we actually
do discover signals

from extraterrestrial
civilisations.

I'm hoping I live long enough
to see that.

I've only got a few years left
since I'm 82,

and I would like to see something
during my remaining lifetime -

however short that may be.

What does this sound like to you?

Random noise?

Radio static?

Maybe a muffled voice.

I'm Anita Kay.

Welcome to The Insight.

Are we alone in the universe?

A new discovery revealed this week
has many thinking maybe we aren't.

So Richard Southern joins us...

A mysterious radio signal...

..from outer space? No, Francis,
mysterious radio signals

haven't picked up strong radio
signals about...

They saw one area that had a signal,

but the signal...
..rhythm, too.

So can we imagine that it's likely
that this signal we're picking up

was sent by thinking beings?

Just the idea of intelligence
elsewhere in the universe

has set the Twitterverse
all a-twitter.

WHINING

That was filth.

Let's turn now to our science
editor, David Shukman.

David, these seem like intriguing
reports. What do we actually know?

Well, there's a lot of excitement
about this around the world.

And with that, a great deal
of speculation.

Some of it, frankly, pretty
far-fetched,

some sounding more plausible.

What we're pretty certain about
is that the signal did indeed

come from space, and that
it was really powerful.

But beyond that, frankly,
no-one's got much of a clue.

During the course of the day,

I've been talking to a lot
of different scientists,

and a few of them are floating
the notion that the signal

may contain some kind of data -
information, but in a form

that we've never encountered before.

And if that's the case -
and it's a massive if - obviously

it may take years before we get to
grips with what this is all about.

The question about deciphering
messages is always so complicated

if you don't know what you're
looking for.

WHALES CALL

Whales are a really good
study object.

They are in some ways the closest
thing that we have to aliens

here on Earth.

Whales are highly intelligent

and their environment is entirely
different from ours.

The patterns that we hear
are clearly patterns

that we recognise as music.

They're repeated patterns.

They are pitched.

It is a form of vocalising

that we would think of as
the equivalent of singing.

But even at that level, we don't
really know what it's for.

Is it music? Is it language?
What does it mean?

How is it used? Who responds?

I think at the best of times,
it can give us a sense of

how difficult the task at hand is!

And how many layers we have to cut
through in order to get somewhere.

When I look at how Hollywood
portrays science fiction, connecting

to contacts and so on, one of the
things that I think is unreal

is the fact that we so often talk
to people like ourselves.

People that can readily communicate,
have similar ambitions,

similar responses.

But when I think about intelligent
life and the variety of it,

when I think the fact that,
you know, intelligent life on Earth,

we've got dogs, we've got apes.

We've got octopi
that have their intelligence

in their arms, not in their head.

We can't talk to most
of the creatures on Earth

in an intelligent way.

How are we going to talk
to the intelligent civilisations?

I'm not sure we'll ever
understand them.

That is a big challenge.

You know, one of the things that we
often forget is that a sense

of timescale might be incredibly
different

for a technological civilisation
that evolved somewhere else.

They might think in a much faster
time or a much slower time,

and the rate at which things change

and present information, as humans,

we just might not be able
to appreciate it at all.

It's not, you know,
"Here's a movie!" Right?

It's not going to be that way.
It's not going to be,

"Here's a movie of the aliens!"

"Oh, you want to Facetime
with the alien?" Right?

That's not what's going to happen.

So it's going to be a mixture
of responses.

But for those who are, you know,
on team science, it's going to

be incredibly exciting because
now we have new stuff

to study that is unlike anything
we've seen before.

Hello to everyone new
who's joining us today.

So our teams have been running
multiple scenarios over the past few

days, and it's looking increasingly
unlikely that the signal

would have originated
from the Voyager craft itself.

Our best guess is that we picked up
a reflection from another source,

or maybe something that actually
crossed Voyager's line of sight.

We just started to model different
potential transmitting bodies.

But it's too early to draw
any conclusions.

I'd say there's decades
of work to be done here.

What's the point? I mean, what if
the aliens

are living here on Earth already?

Here's my theory.
First of all, I love how they say

they also deny it's part of any
secret government operation.

Well, it's secret.
They're not going to tell us!

Even Nasa people, ex-Nasa
people that come out and say,

"Look, mate, aliens..." They retire
and they're like,

"Aliens are real, bro.

"Like, they just are. Like, we're
fully aware of them." But they don't

tell people because it would cause
too much of an uproar.

Anyone that says that in the
entire un...

It's been days now,

and the so-called Voyager signal
is still puzzling scientists

around the world. Where it came
from and what it might mean

are being studied intensely
right now.

And in the absence of anything
concrete, all kinds of unfounded

ideas - some of them quite
unsettling - are being stirred up.

Can everyone please chill out
about this alien signal?

Freaking out that they're coming to
get us... Call the Avengers...

I hate to break it to you guys,
but it's a hoax.

Alexa, do you believe in aliens?

This is one of those things
that some people

like to decide for themselves.

I feel like, you know, it's their
language we don't really understand

but they're trying to make contact.

And they are coming for us.

We need to be prepared.

Make sure you have enough supplies
and get ready for Armageddon,

because this is going to be all out

intergalactic war.
Full-scale alien apocalypse.

With such an unclear signal,
without a very obvious intent

and message, I think there
would be a lot of uncertainty.

And uncertainty breeds anxiety.

We do see disturbance in people's
day-to-day routines when big events

happen. We saw this certainly with
the global pandemic,

that people rushed out because
they foresaw

that there would be circumstances
in which supplies would be limited.

I think you'll see an increase
in people feeling that there

has to be something I can do,
so what can I do to prepare?

And I will go out and I will buy
tinned food, I will buy toilet

paper, I'll stock up on water
just in case.

And that's a way of reassuring
yourself that you still have some

control over the situation.

I'm sure a lot of things
would be happening

and many different reactions.

But I can assure you the scientific
community would be really focused

on trying to understand
the nature of that signal

and its characteristics,
and where it was coming from.

Is it far away? Or, you know, maybe
it's even in the solar system

or passing through the solar system.

So, you know, we'd be working hard
and trying to understand

those kinds of things.

We've had a number of automatic
warnings over the last few hours.

It's coming from multiple
observatories.

Chile and the Canaries both
flagged objects of interest.

We'll keep you updated on the
situation.

With the Spaceguard Survey,
Congress mandated that we study the

sky and find at least 90% of all
asteroids a kilometre or greater.

So because of this, a number
of surveys have started.

Right now, there's about seven
looking at the entire sky

every night in an automated format
to search for moving objects.

Without these surveys, I think
it's fair to say that we would

have never made the discovery
that we made back in 2017.

We've never seen anything
like this before.

We've never seen anything like it.

And we don't really have any idea
of how you'd make it.

There's lots of theoreticians
scratching their heads

and coming up with ideas.

But at the moment, we've only got
a very small amount of data,

so it's difficult to tell
what it is.

Could it be aliens?

It could be. Um...

STATION RETUNES, STATIC

It was a visitor from elsewhere
in our galaxy.

A relic from another
planetary system.

My colleague called me at home
and said, "Karen, I think

"we have found an
interstellar object."

I was silent for a minute.

I was thinking, "Oh, shit!
This shouldn't be today.

"I just want to relax!"
But then I got very excited.

So we had about five or six days
in which to do all of the science.

You're pulling in long days -
18, 19-hour days.

Everybody was. And I was
coordinating everyone,

bringing in the data,
analysing the data.

And what this meant was
I lived in my office.

Air mattress, sleeping bag -
it's quite cosy.

You wake up after a few hours
of sleep and get back to the data.

But the first really big
surprise, I think, was

how much it changed in brightness.

If you have reflected light coming
from the big side of an object,

it will be bright.

And then as it rotates, you will get
a small amount of reflected light.

So you can use this brightness
measurement as a measurement

of effectively how elongated
something is.

I think it is a really unusual
object.

The shape, you know, is so extreme.

You know, it's sort of ten times
longer than it is broad.

I don't really know what you call
the thing because it didn't

really have the normal properties
you would expect from a comet.

We were rather shocked.

There's nothing in our solar system
that is that elongated.

Typically, if you have elongated
things, eventually they'll hit

something and break.
So it's just very unusual

to have something that long.

We contacted two people
who were specialists in the Hawaiian

language, and we said,

"You have two days to devise a
Hawaiian name for us."

And so they did. By Sunday, they
came up with a name

and they suggested Oumuamua,
which means scout or messenger

from the distant past,
reaching out to us.

It came in going very fast,
and there were two things

that were different about it
that made it quite puzzling.

One was its shape, and it also moved
in such a way that it appeared

that there was another force
on it other than gravity.

Now, what might that have been?

Comets do this all the time,
and the other force is the material

being ejected from their surface.

So was it cometary in nature?

Well, there was no evidence
for a cometary tail.

So what was happening
was a bit of a mystery.

Not everybody thought it was,
you know,

just a natural thing -
just an old rock.

Some people thought maybe it was
part of an alien craft.

And in particular, it was the fact
that it didn't sort of,

you know, move smoothly.

It seemed to be slightly
accelerating.

It was picking up speed.

It was moving like it had some
sort of engine

connected to it or something.

The jury is out on what 'Oumuamua
really was.

Observatories around the world
discovered that the object

was a lowly voyager.

Was 'Oumuamua an alien artefact?

Observatories all around and above
the world

focused on this approximately
half-mile long object

to learn as much as possible
about this cosmic visitor

before it moved too far away to see.

The Breakthrough Project
decided to take

one of the big radio telescopes -
the Green Bank Telescope -

and listen in case there were
signals coming from 'Oumuamua.

And several of the press asked me,
"Isn't this a silly experiment?"

And I said, "No.

"You know, what if it's alien
technology?

"Wouldn't you want to have done
the experiment?

"This is your one chance.

"It's a simple, easy experiment."

But nothing was detected from any
of the radio experiments.

The idea of aliens, here,
is so scary.

I will be very curious and with
many questions.

How they think, how they see us.

This thing was terrifying.

I trust no alien.

You know, I think is it time for me
to move to another planet yet?

What else is this alien race
maybe capable of?

NEWSREADER: The consensus
among scientists

is that although the object is
moving extremely rapidly,

it does not pose any danger to us
here on Earth.

And while this could prove to be one
of the most important

scientific discoveries of all time,

it's triggered a frenzy
of diplomatic activity.

There have been discussions
around the clock

at the UN, and there's due to be
an emergency special session.

Debate is likely to be heated
as the world's governments

grapple with how best to react
to this unprecedented event.

..wishes to make known its support
for the proposition

to move all nuclear defences to an
elevated level of preparedness

on the condition that a new working
coalition....

Transmission is changing shortly.

China is...

Nations sharing all data connected
to Interstellar Artefact 1F2SJ U1.

The discussion on air and space
at the United Nations

started with the launch of Sputnik
by the Russians in 1957.

And there was a fear that,

between Russia and
the United States,

there would be an arms race
in outer space.

At the 188th meeting

of the Committee on Peaceful Uses
of Outer Space in 1977,

the question was asked that in view
of the tremendous impact

any contact with an extraterrestrial
civilisation would have

upon our planet, can this committee,
its asks,

continue to ignore this possible
development?

Most of the time, the Member States
do not want to discuss

extraterrestrial intelligence
or life

because it's assumed that this issue
will trivialise all the other issues

that you're talking about.

Talking about space debris,
weaponization in space -

those are very important topics.

But if there is extraterrestrial
intelligence, it will trivialise

the other discussions.

So if there was an interstellar
object,

that this was obviously emanating
radio signals,

we invite the scientists
from all over the world

to give its views to
the subcommittee

on what we should do next.

What does this mean, actually?

It's very important the facts are
heard and fully understood,

and that this body is able to take
the appropriate decisions...

You cannot have a quick solution
in the United Nations.

You can't. It has to be
extraordinary.

And if it's to be
extraordinary,

then there has to be an
extraordinary effort

from the office of the
Secretary General

to decide what to do next.

It feels so surreal to be
saying this,

but they're simply calling it
The Artefact -

an object that may contain
technology

formed somewhere other than Earth.

What's amazing is how this whole
extraordinary saga began

with just one signal.

That's all we had to go on.

It took another five or six days
before the first image appeared.

And when it did, it was
really grainy.

Now, just in the last few hours,
the first detailed pictures

have started to appear,

and they'll be vital for helping us
understand what this object is

and where it came from.

From what we've seen so far,

the object appears to be tumbling
through space.

There's no sign of it moving
under any kind of control,

an extraordinary thought given that
it's almost 200 miles long

and travelling at speeds we've
never seen before.

These images raise so many
questions.

Is this a structure in its
own right,

or could it once have been part
of something larger?

Is it genuinely artificial?

And if so, what created it?

And perhaps most important of all,
where did it come from?

If I was on a desert island and a
broken bottle washed up on shore,

that would be information that'd be
really exciting.

It would mean I am not as deserted
on this island as I thought I was,

and I think that's what this
would tell us.

It wouldn't tell us everything we
wanted to know about the aliens,

but it would tell us we're not as
alone as we thought we were.

If there was some sort of alien
artefact that would come

through the solar system,

you would do as much to
characterise it.

What is it made of? How big is it?
How dense is it?

Is it spinning?

These are the things that help
you understand what it is.

So you have to rush and get
the data first,

and then you interpret the data
afterwards.

We'd be able to look at the light
that was being reflected off it

and also being absorbed by it.

And that might tell us about
the chemical composition

of what we're looking at.

We'd be able to tell if it's
a geological object,

if it was made up of rock or if
it was made up of metal,

and what kind of material it was.

If it was artificial, we might be
able to tell what the different

chemical composition of the
artificial material is.

This is absolutely real.

It is something that they just
cannot explain.

And it's something that they
are taking seriously.

The United States military,
which is often blamed

for being the cause of UFOs,
is clueless.

They have no idea what it is either.

So the question mark is what is it?

So you see this as a national
security issue?

Absolutely.

They're going to have to acknowledge
that there is something there

we need to be concerned about from
a national security standpoint.

That we don't even understand
how you could build something

that would do that. We don't even
understand the science behind it.

This is a whole difference
of kind, not degree.

In the language of the US Department
of Defense,

unidentified aerial phenomena,

which add fuel to the belief of some
that we are not alone.

You're back with Anita Kay.

America tonight is split
down the middle.

Gun sales have more than doubled
across the country,

with many convinced of
impending invasion.

For many others, however,

the events of the last few days
have been cause

for intense celebration

and represent one of the most
significant moments

in human history.

Oh, nice!

Tonight, enthusiasts from all over
the state are out in force

with their telescopes attempting
to become part of history.

The race is on to identify
new features

of this strange object.

Wow!

Amazing! It's...

As you can see, it's a party
atmosphere,

but everybody is just enjoying
the thrill.

CHANTING

NEWSCASTER: Tonight, the first
studies into the Artefact

are being released.

One suggests it could be made of
a kind of metal,

supporting the claim that it
is indeed artificial.

Another intriguing line of inquiry
is working out

where it's come from.

And because Nasa and the
European Space Agency

have developed ways of studying
distant stars,

it is possible that we could peer
back along the object's path

to look for evidence of
habitable worlds.

When I started studying science,
we didn't know about exoplanets.

The idea that we can detect planets
around other star systems

is something within just the last
20 or 30 years

that we've been able to do.

The fact that exoplanets
actually exist,

their reality is incredibly recent.

It's in the '90s that we found
the first such planet.

BILL CLINTON: I did not have sexual
relations with that woman.

America's Hubble Space Telescope
has taken the first pictures

of a planet outside the
solar system.

It was found near two
developing stars,

450 lightyears from Earth.

Astronomers believe it's the first
concrete evidence

there are other planets
in deep space.

Up until the last couple of decades,

we didn't know that exoplanets
even existed.

We thought they might.

We hoped they might.

And looking at our own solar system,
we thought,

"Well, surely they must."

But we didn't have the technology
to be able to identify them.

And then Kepler came along,
and now we do.

When I was thinking of Kepler
and building a mission,

one of the things I recognised
was that NASA

had a strategic objective -

determine the extent of life
in our universe.

And how would you do that?

Well, if you had planets,

lots of planets in the
habitable zone,

Earth-sized planets,

you could have life throughout
the galaxy.

When I speak of the
habitable zone,

what we're talking about is,

if we take a planet, we move it
close to the star,

it's too hot.

If you had water on a planet,
it would boil off.

It would evaporate. It would be lost
to space. It's too hot.

If you go very far from the star,
it's too cold.

Any water there is frozen forever.

So the intermediate region,
the Goldilocks zone,

we could have liquid water
on the surface,

where we think it would be conducive
to the evolution of life.

That's what we call
the habitable zone.

Kepler was designed to find out -

are Earth-like planets frequent
in our galaxy?

Are they in the habitable zone?

T-minus ten, nine, eight, seven,

six, five, four, three, two.

Engine start. One, zero.

And liftoff of the Delta II rocket
with Kepler

on a search for planets in some way
like our own.

Chamber pressures are building.

Ground-lit solid motors are building
and chamber pressure.

Can you see separation?

And we have ignition of the
air-lit solid motors.

When a telescope was launched,

the thing was tumbling in space,

pointing the antenna this way
and that way.

It couldn't operate properly.

It's a real cliff-hanger.

We were really worried that mission
might not work

if we couldn't get it
to stop spinning.

When they found the electronic
system was in difficulty,

it shifted to a different system.

It was able to stop the spinning
and point the antenna

toward the Earth.

Throw off the cover and what you
see is this magnificent image.

82 detectors showing hundreds of
thousands of glowing stars.

Every detector working.

It meant that the mission
was certain to succeed.

We would find thousands of planets.

It was a beautiful,
magnificent image.

I'll never forget it.

So, as the Kepler Space Telescope
continuously stares at the stars,

you can see planets moving
around these stars.

You can see that the light dips
slightly in its brightness,

and we can measure that dip.

So we can tell, potentially,
by how big the dip is,

what size the planet is.

We can also look at the orbit
of the planet,

how long it takes to go around
its star,

and maybe how close it is
to its star.

When we combine those with the
temperature of the star,

we can start to estimate
the temperature

of the planet itself.

And once we know that, we can
actually estimate

its habitability potential and
whether it's somewhere

that could be capable of supporting
life as we know it.

I think the Kepler telescope has
been tremendously exciting

because of the number and variety
of exoplanetary systems

that have been discovered.

With Kepler, it's - at least
in my opinion -

showing that we probably have
a potential

for a lot of habitable worlds.

The probability that we have life
in the universe goes up.

We know for a fact -

not speculation, for a fact -

our galaxy is full of Earth-sized
planets in the habitable zone.

It might very well be full of life.

NEWSREADER: Despite assurances
from Nasa

that there are no other artificial
objects in the solar system,

the last 24 hours have seen
air forces around the world

increase their state of readiness.

Meanwhile, troops have been
mobilised in parts

of mainland Europe to help alleviate
some of the mounting food shortages

and supply chain issues.

Good morning, and thank you for
inviting us to present today.

I'd like to start by reiterating
what many of you have probably

already heard from your contacts.

We do not believe there are any more
of these objects approaching us,

at least not within the timeframe
of weeks and months.

So our main focus in the last
few days

has been on narrowing down
a point of origin.

We'd like to present today
what we consider to be

the best candidate star systems.

Using speed and trajectory data,
we were able to narrow down

over 5,400 potential candidates.

Then we discarded any systems
without an abundance

of the elements seen in
the Artefact.

Leaving us with these eight.

Of these, only one we believe
might be old enough

to be a potential home
to complex life.

21 Sagittarii.

A star system we believe is nearly
eight billion years old.

Well, it's quite probable

that something that we would find
will be older.

You have to realise that, in our
region of the galaxy,

the sun is about a billion years
younger

than the surrounding stars.

So our neighbours are quite a bit
older than we are.

Well, I think older stars
would be interesting

just because they've been
around for a longer time.

So there's been a longer sort of
period for life to evolve.

And if it takes a long time for
intelligent life to evolve...

We know it was something like
four billion years

here on our planet.

You know, if you give it another
four billion years,

so you have a star that's maybe
eight billion years old,

then it's had twice the amount
of time to, you know,

potentially produce an intelligent
civilisation.

So old stars, I think,
are interesting.

When we think about looking
for alien technology

or alien life elsewhere
in the galaxy,

we're almost certainly going to find
things that have been around

a really long time.

Really long time means millions
to hundreds of millions

to billions of years old.

If we found technology that was
a billion years old,

that means, when Earth was covered
with microbes and slime,

there's technology operating
on some other planet.

I mean, that to me is
quite profound.

Science Q.

This is Anita Kay.

Welcome back to The Insight.

So what exactly is this thing
and what do we do now?

Well, based on its erratic
and uncontrolled spin,

many now suspect we've likely
discovered some kind

of technological debris.

A piece of cosmic junk that
originated somewhere

in the Sagittarii system.

The question some are now starting
to ask is...

..should we attempt to send
a message there?

And if so,

what should we say?

Good evening, and welcome to
the 699th meeting

of the Security Council...

An unacceptable risk...

So I think we'd need to gather
as much information together

before we transmit.

You know, we've got this thing
in our head.

It's sort of limited, you know,

by the physical scale of it.

But, you know, there might be other
things out there

that just has a capacity that
is completely beyond

what we can even imagine.

And so it's a bit like,
you know, ants.

You know, trying to communicate
with ants.

The gulf might be enormous
between ourselves

and other intelligences.

You'd have to think really hard
about that

before you pressed the send button.

It's been decided that space is the
common province of all humankind.

And so, when you talk about
extraterrestrial life,

then that obviously relates
to space,

and therefore no one country in the
world should decide on what to do.

Well, it turns out that there
actually is a protocol

for what you're supposed to do.

And here it is, actually.

"In the case of a confirmed
detection of a signal,

"signatories to this declaration
will not respond

"without first seeking guidance and
consent of a broadly representative

"international body, such as
the United Nations."

Personally, I don't think
that there's any reason

to be particularly concerned,

because we're broadcasting
all the time anyhow.

All our radio, all our television,
all those signals,

they just go right through
the ionosphere.

Sure, they're not intended
for aliens.

But willy-nilly, they just go
off the Earth, out into space.

Freeman Dyson is one of the people
that participated

in the past years with us.

And he says, if you ever announce
that you've detected a signal,

everyone is going to transmit

and say whatever the hell
they please.

Right? And then he chuckles,
he says,

"Hmm, and wouldn't that cacophony
be about the best

"characterisation of 21st century
Earth?"

Yo, what up, guys?

I'm starting the First Contact
Challenge.

I want to see what messages you've
got for those alien freaks.

So don't forget...

Kind of lonely.

And I would be excited for there
to be some other civilisation

out there that we might
be able to...

If we didn't contact the aliens
then maybe we could learn from them

and we would really lose out
on a good situation.

So I think we should just
send a message,

tell them that we're friends
and we won't hurt them.

OK, so everyone's been asking
me recently

what my message would be to aliens.

But some are also scary

as it's civilised enough
to send a signal.

You're listening to Talk Box
on Joy Radio.

I'm Jen Wright, and we're going to
dive straight in with the question

of the day, which is - what message
would you send to aliens?

So, my message to aliens
would be

those in power don't speak
for all of us.

You've heard the sound
that they sent us, right?

Just total garbage.
Indecipherable...

MUMBLED MESSAGES
AND INTERWEAVING VOICES

..so I would send them equally
annoying stuff back.

The hold music that
drives me mad.

RADIO STATIC,
MUFFLED VOICES

They say radio broadcasts travel
out into space forever.

Well, if anyone's out there
and listening to this,

hello from the people of Earth.

It's nice to know we've got some
company at last.

Anyway, here's one of our best,
Claude Debussy.

MUSIC: Clair de lune
by Claude Debussy

Let us know what you think.

Nasa is sending commands up to
the James Webb Space Telescope

to align it perfectly with the
21 Sagittarii star system.

It's a delicate operation
a million miles above us,

directing the telescope's
intricate mechanisms

to get it into
just the right position.

Now, once it's there, it'll deploy
what's called a coronagraph

to gather just a few thousand
of the photons being emitted.

It's a little bit like the amount
of light you'd get from a candle

four-and-a-half-thousand miles away.

But by analysing that light,

it should be possible to see
if there are planets there

and to gather clues about what kind
of worlds these might be.

If life is out there,
the James Webb Space Telescope

is going to increase our probability
of finding it

because it's way more sensitive
than previous telescopes.

It's in space, which gives
it this clear view,

unobstructed by our atmosphere.

And it has the most modern
technologies.

What I'm most interested in

is the fact it's going to study
exoplanet atmospheres,

and we're going to be looking
for biosignature gases.

So a biosignature is effectively
a signature of biology.

We use it as a sign of finding
something -

it could be a molecule in a rock

or it could be a gas
in an atmosphere,

but something that can only be
created by life.

It's only there because
there is life existing.

You might look for water vapour,
oxygen and methane -

that's a classic biosignature

because on Earth those things derive
from life.

So on an exoplanet, it would
at least suggest to us

the presence of life.

A technosignature is any remotely
detectable evidence of technology.

So CFCs are chlorofluorocarbons.

They have a very long residence
time in the atmosphere.

There are no sources of these kinds
of chlorofluorocarbons on Earth

other than our own industry.

If you go all the way to thinking
about a technological civilisation

that creates smog, CFCs,
then with a lot of hours

you might in fact be able to detect
that smog

and in fact deduce that there was
some sort of a technology

on that planet.

For 12 days, the world has held
its breath.

Now, finally, we are beginning
to get some answers.

The James Webb data has revealed
something extraordinary.

Well, there've been no radio signals
from it, no sign of activity,

and no planets.

But there are hints about what could
be the remains of a planet.

But we do know that if planets get
too close to their stars,

they get torn apart by the
gravitational forces.

And if that happens...

SPEECH DISTORTS: They get torn
apart by the gravitational forces.

..what's left is a ring of dust
and debris.

It's a very distinctive shape

and it's similar
to what we're seeing

in the latest images released today.

And it's similar to what we're
seeing in...

SPEECH DISTORTS

We're also getting clues
about what this ring is made of,

and it seems to include
chemical compounds

that are unlikely to be natural.

Instead, they look somehow
manufactured.

So there are suggestions
that this ring and the object

that just passed through our
solar system may be relics

of a past civilisation.

Which means that this is no longer
a search for life.

It's more about delving into the
ancient history of deep space.

Searching for life in our solar
system is one thing,

but searching for life beyond,
it might be closer to archaeology,

because we're receiving signals

from what may now
be dead civilisations.

Searching for extraterrestrial
relics is like archaeology.

You know, I hope I'm wrong.

I hope that the first sign
we have of life

is aliens come knocking on our
doorstep and they're friendly.

But I have to be realistic, too.

I don't think that it's going to be,
"Hello!"

"Hello."

"How are you?"

You know, a two-way communication.

I think it's much more likely
to be a one-way communication

such as we currently have with
Shakespeare or the ancient Greeks

and the Romans.

We can't ask questions of them,

but they have provided us a wealth
of information

that we can learn from.

I think if we detect evidence
of a single artefact

or a single piece of evidence

that there is another advanced
civilisation out there,

well, then I think the floodgates
are open.

There must be others out there.

Our main problem right now
is we are just one data point.

We don't know if we're unique,

but as soon as we have evidence
that it happened somewhere else

and that life and intelligent life
evolved,

well, then it could happen anywhere.

Hello, good evening.

Well, straight away let's focus on
that all-important cloud cover

tending to break up
and translating into clear skies,

which of course is great news if
there are any amateur astronomers

out there wanting one last glimpse
of this cosmic visitor.

As we know, we're expecting
a few million people to mark

the occasion throughout the country
over the course of this evening,

and that's anywhere from
Snowdon Yr Wyddfa

all the way down
to Trafalgar Square.

Pretty mass gathering expected
there.

But, a word of warning.

Now, can you just see the telltale
signs of that cold front up north?

Well, that's expected to sink
southwards at quite a pace.

So if you are attending an outdoor
light vigil,

if you're going out tonight,

bear this in mind and
please wrap up warmly.

Our best guess is that we've
encountered an object

created by an intelligence

that existed
over a billion years ago.

But our time with it is fleeting.

Today, the artefact moves
out of sight

as it makes its way
beyond the Solar System.

It may be over a million years

before it encounters another
star or planet.

What we now know beyond doubt

is that the miracle of complex life
is not unique to the Earth.

But how long intelligent
civilisations last,

and if they ever overlap,
remains unknown.

As of right now, there's still every
chance we're alone in the universe.

And that means
we have a responsibility

to protect what's happened here.

The search for life
isn't over.

It's really just beginning.

Exploring space to determine
the extent of life in our galaxy

reminds me very much of what
the people in the Middle Ages did.

They believed that one of the great
things they could do

was build these beautiful cathedrals
to worship God.

They knew when they started building
these cathedrals

they would not live long enough to
see these cathedrals

in their full glory,
to go inside and worship God.

But their children or grandchildren
would do that.

They had the faith to start,
to do the work.

In space exploration,
we are doing those first steps.

We are building that foundation.

And it's not something that's
done in one lifetime.

It's something that humankind does

because it has faith that we need
and want to explore the universe...

..and find life in our galaxy.