All language subtitles for Ancient.Aliens.S18E16.evidence.of.alien.life.(2022)

NARRATOR:
Strange signals
from outer space.

SETH SHOSTAK:
That's the kind of thing
we're looking for.

NARRATOR:
The building blocks of life
traveling on a meteorite.

You're looking at a speck
of water in a meteorite.

This is extraordinary.

NARRATOR:
An otherworldly presence
found in our atmosphere.

MILTON WAINWRIGHT:
So, this is a titanium sphere
with life inside

and life on the outside.

Now, what on earth is it?

Absolutely amazing.
It's blowing my head off.

NARRATOR:
For more than a decade,

Ancient Aliens has
followed investigators

across the globe
as they've gone directly

to the sites where signs
of alien life have been found.

Now we take a look back

at some of the most
incredible evidence we've seen.

Evidence that, according
to ancient astronaut theorists,

provides undeniable proof

that we are not alone
in the universe.

On Ancient Aliens,
we have traveled the globe

investigating everything

from tiny microbes

to massive megaliths,
all in the quest to find proof

of extraterrestrial life.

And one of the most
incredible places

we've ever visited
is a field study site

for an organization called SETI,

or the search for
extraterrestrial intelligence.

In 2016,
I got the rare opportunity

to tour the grounds
and learn about how they listen

for signs of intelligent life
in the universe.

NARRATOR: Shasta County,
Northern California, March 2016.

Ancient astronaut theorist
Giorgio Tsoukalos

travels to the Allen
Telescope Array in Hat Creek

to meet with the director
for SETI research Seth Shostak.

This is truly amazing.

What can you tell me
about this place?

Well, this place
is, uh, an observatory,

but it's a radio observatory,
so these things around us,

these 42 antennas,
they pick up radio waves.

And we're trying to pick up

very special sort
of radio waves,

namely, some that would
tell us somebody's out there.

By having lots
of these dishes here,

we can look at
more of the sky at once.

We can look at
multiple star systems at once.

Why radio waves?

What's so significant
about radio waves?

SHOSTAK:
Radio waves go
at the speed of light,

and they also, by the way,
go through all the gas and dust

that's between the stars.

So, you know,
if you want to communicate

from one part of the galaxy
to another,

radio waves
are a great way to do it.

So the way this works
is actually kind of simple.

I mean, the cosmic radio static,
it comes in from the sky

and it bounces off
that big reflector there...

That first one, okay?

That's-that's a mirror
for radio waves.

And that redirects
into this secondary reflector,

on the end, on the nose there.

And then they're directed to
the receiver, and that's inside.

That information goes
through a fiber optic

over to the control room.

So, this is where the, uh, data

coming through the fiber optics
kind of ends up

after it's been processed
in a display like this.

And what are we looking at
right here?

So, we're looking, in this case,

at three star systems
at once, okay?

So that speeds up the search.

It also allows us to determine

whether we're really seeing E.T.
or just interference.

The data from one
of these star systems

is being displayed over
on this part of the screen here.

This is called a waterfall plot.

That. Can you see,
can you see that line

- of brighter dots there?
- This right here, yes. Mm-hmm.

SHOSTAK:
Yeah, that's a slightly
more static

at that frequency,
slowly going down the dot.

That's the kind of thing
we're looking for.

So then, if this here
were an actual E.T. signal,

how would
it differentiate itself?

Uh, would it be a bit thicker,
a bit more pronounced,

a bit longer, or...
What are you looking for?

It could be all of those things.
So, what you do is,

when you find a signal
like this, you make a test.

You'll just move
the antennas a little bit

and see if the signal goes away.

And then, point it back at the
star and see if it comes back.

You say, "Well,
that's looking promising."

You do that again, go off,
go on, go off, go on.

If you do that
five or ten times,

you start to get excited.

I hope that
that day will come very soon.

NARRATOR:
Although the SETI Institute

formally came
into existence in 1984,

the practice of listening
for extraterrestrial life

has been underway
since the 1960s.

Astronomers based
at various universities

throughout the U.S.

have pointed their radio
telescopes into the cosmos

in hopes of capturing signals
of intelligent life.

And sometimes,
they receive a transmission

they can't explain.

Delaware, Ohio,

August 15, 1977.

At Ohio State University's
Big Ear radio telescope,

astronomer Jerry R. Ehman
conducts research for SETI.

While reviewing recorded data,

he detects
a highly unusual signal

originating from
the constellation Sagittarius.

DAVID CHILDRESS:
They were looking

for a 72-second signal

that would be coming
from extraterrestrials.

And as Dr. Jerry Ehman
monitored the output

of the-the pages
that were coming from space,

he suddenly found
a signal that matched

exactly what they
were looking for.

And so, he circled
the page of data

that had that
72-second window on it

and wrote "Wow!" next to it.

And this became known
as the Wow! signal.

And it essentially was the kind
of extraterrestrial SETI signal

that they were all looking for,

and had suddenly,
briefly, found it.

NARRATOR:
While there are various theories

as to what may have caused
the now-famous Wow! signal,

from terrestrial radio
broadcasts to comet trails,

SETI has not ruled out
the possibility

that it may represent
modern man's first radio contact

with extraterrestrials.

SHOSTAK:
The Wow! signal
continues to intrigue people.

So we are going to use
the Allen Telescope Array

to reobserve the Wow! signal,

look in the same spot
on the sky,

look over a wider range
of frequencies.

And-and if there's
something up there

and it's still broadcasting,
of course we would find it.

NARRATOR:
Might the discovery
of the Wow! signal

bring us one step closer

to discovering that we are
not alone in the universe?

Perhaps further clues can be
found by examining life-forms

on Earth that are capable
of surviving

inside a comet.

The possibility of
finding evidence of alien life

by receiving a message from
space is a thrilling prospect.

But many scientists are looking
for clues right here on Earth.

And in 2019,
I got the incredible opportunity

to meet with a scientist
who believes

he may have found
extraterrestrial life

in one of the most inhospitable
environments on the planet.

NARRATOR:
Whistler, Canada.

April 17th, 2019.

Ancient astronaut theorist
Giorgio Tsoukalos

and retired NASA scientist
Dr. Richard Hoover

are about to board a helicopter
bound for a massive ice cave

- in the Canadian wilderness.
- All right, you ready for this?

- Yes, absolutely.
- All right.

NARRATOR:
Dr. Hoover spent most of
his career studying fossils

for signs of extraterrestrial
microscopic life

and is a leading proponent
of panspermia,

the idea that life on Earth
originally rained down

from comets in outer space.

He has invited Giorgio
to accompany him

while he investigates
the Whistler ice cave...

I always love this.

NARRATOR:
where he is confident
that they will find

the glacial ice
teeming with microbial

and perhaps even more
sophisticated life-forms.

Life-forms that may be
thousands of years old.

HOOVER:
Oh, this is just

- absolutely magnificent.
- It really is.

NARRATOR:
If alien microbes
are reaching Earth,

Dr. Hoover suggests
that they could survive

within such an environment
for long periods of time.

Today, he'll examine the glacier
for the perfect samples

to analyze in his laboratory.

So, Richard,
how excited are you to be here

to conduct this experiment?

(chuckles):
Well, I'm tremendously excited.

-This is, this is absolutely
a-a marvelous opportunity
-Yeah.

To do more studies
of life in ice.

NARRATOR:
After a 20-minute
helicopter ride,

the team arrives
at the Whistler ice cave

in the Pemberton glacier.

TSOUKALOS:
Wow, this is incredible.

HOOVER:
Yeah, amazing.

Look at that.

There must be a thousand
shades of blue in this ice cave.

Just absolutely fantastic.

And here we see all of these
magnificent shades of blue

and up there,
you see big streaks of black.

Glaciers like to eat rocks
and as they eat rocks,

the rocks gather inside,

and when the sun shines through
the ice and hits the rocks,

it can cause it to melt and form
nice little pools of water.

And then when bacteria
and algae grow in there

and respire and produce

their-their
photosynthetic products,

they make their own atmosphere.

So, around every
tiny rock in this glacier,

there is a tiny planetary system
with its own biology,

its own atmosphere,
its own soil, in effect.

And its own oceans.

NARRATOR:
The ice here is tens
of thousands of years old.

But Dr. Hoover believes
it is teeming with life.

Wow, I mean,
this is, uh, spectacular.

So you just described,
basically, our environment

- on a microscopic level.
- Exactly.

HOOVER:
There is an enormous amount
of biology

above us and throughout
this wonderful glacier.

What we're about to do
is take a core sample

of this beautiful blue ice.

TSOUKALOS:
So, what are you
looking for, specifically,

- right now?
- What I want to do first

is chop away an outer layer
and get into the inner ice.

We'll be looking
inside of the ice

for the ice microorganisms.

Now we know there can't
possibly be any contamination

because this ice
has been in the glacier

and now is only freshly exposed.

And now we take the core.

Now we're into the ice.

I'll pull the ice core out.

- So, okay...
- Mm-hmm. And that's
enough, right?

-That's enough.
Yeah, that's first sample.
-Okay, great.

- Yeah, c-cap that.
- Okay.

All the microorganisms
that grow in ice

typically grow
very, very slowly.

So, in fact, there are
some microorganisms

that only reproduce
once every half a century

- or once a century.
- Mm-hmm.

So, th-the microbes
that are found in here,

are they in
suspended anim-animation

or are they moving around?

Probably both.

So essentially,
what you're saying

is that this entire cave
is filled with life.

Yes. But not just that.

This entire ice cap
is filled with life.

There is this enormous amount
of microorganisms

that live and thrive
and love to live

in these low temperatures
of the, of the ice cave

that we have here and ice caves
and icy, uh, glaciers

all over the planet Earth.

And probably
all over icy regions

within our entire
solar system and mainly...

Maybe widely distributed
throughout the entire universe.

Are we essentially inside
the interior of a, of a comet?

- Is this what it looks like?
- Well, yes.

HOOVER:
Microorganisms can live in ice,

and ice is the dominant
component of comets.

Organisms can
remain alive and protected

by the icy material
of the comet until it arrives

into another solar system

and blows off chunks of material

that can find a planet that it
can consider a wonderful home.

And so, this basically ties into
the whole idea of panspermia.

Water is a wonderful
radiation shield,

and when you have a comet
that is a few miles in diameter,

on the inside
of that cometary crust,

there is all of this
magnificent ice

that has been frozen
and then reworked

with material going in and out.

So, comets are not just
a magnificent place

for panspermia,
I am convinced that comets

are absolutely a wonderful place
for the origin of life.

NARRATOR:
As Giorgio and Dr. Hoover

take their samples
to a lab to be analyzed,

what kind of life-forms
might they find

within the Pemberton glacier?

Could it support the theory
that life on comets

is more common
than we ever thought possible?

First sample that we got.

NARRATOR:
Now back in the lab,
they are hoping

to observe microorganisms
that remained dormant

within the glacial ice and are
just now returning to life

for the first time
in thousands of years.

- TSOUKALOS: Do you see anything?
- Oh, yes. Oh, yes, yes.

HOOVER:
We've got bacteria.

This is fantastic.

I mean, look at this one...
It's spinning right here.

- Yeah.
- This one just moves
straight across the screen.

HOOVER:
And this one is tumbling.
And notice there's a cell

that has just undergone
cell division.

Here's another one that's
just undergone cell division.

TSOUKALOS:
Okay.

The quest
for extraterrestrial life,

to me, has been a lifelong one,
as it has been with you.

So I've traveled around
the world climbing pyramids,

I've looked at statues,

I've been to hundreds
of museums,

I've read
countless ancient texts,

and here we are
looking at something

that shows extraterrestrial life

that may have come here
millions of years ago.

The fascinating thing is,

that a far more
extraordinary hypothesis

than the existence
of extraterrestrial life

is the hypothesis that life
exists on the planet Earth

and nowhere else
in the universe.

If that were to turn out
to be what really is the case,

then we would be
completely unique

and we would be different from
everywhere else in the universe,

and that would be
an amazing discovery.

Much more amazing
than finding out that bacteria

or ice worms are crawling around
on the surface of Europa today.

This is incredibly fascinating.

You know, and it's also
refreshing to hear

an actual NASA scientist
telling me these things.

NARRATOR:
If, as Dr. Hoover's
research indicates,

icy comets are ideal incubators
for extraterrestrial life,

and if microorganisms

are incredibly common
in the universe,

is the Earth being
regularly bombarded

by tiny alien life-forms?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

by examining recent
scientific evidence

that supports
the once-fringe theory

that life on Earth was
seeded from outer space.

On Ancient Aliens,
we have found abundant evidence

that alien life has
made its way to Earth.

But what if these life-forms

were deliberately sent
out into the universe

and possibly even
directed right at our planet?

In 2018, Andrew Collins
met with researchers who believe

that they have found proof

that Earth is being
regularly bombarded

by microbial life-forms.

NARRATOR: Author and researcher
Andrew Collins

travels to Sheffield to witness
a remarkable demonstration.

- Hi, guys, uh... Chris.
- Andrew, how are you?

- About the same. Hi, Milton.
- Pleasure.
- NARRATOR: He is meeting

with microbiologist
Milton Wainwright

and engineer Chris Rose,

two members of the research team
who are convinced

that life on Earth may have
originated in space

through a process
known as panspermia.

I understand you've made
some incredible discoveries.

Please tell me all about it.

WAINWRIGHT:
In the early 2000s, my colleague

Chandra Wickramasinghe,

um, we were launching balloons
from India.

And these were, uh, sampling
the air at 41 kilometers.

And th-they showed
that organisms

are continually
arriving all the time.

Panspermia is
an extremely simple idea.

Basically, it's the idea
that life came from space.

Instead of being formed on
this planet, it came from space.

My findings relate
to panspermia simply,

and th-they show
that organisms are coming in

at this very moment from space.

Tell me how you actually
collect these samples.

This is our-our balloon that's
gonna give us the buoyancy

from the-the hydrogen gas here.

Now, our capture mechanism
is right here.

Let me show you this.
This exposes little, uh,

metal stubs to the environment.

A-And you're look...
You're looking to see

if you can get microbes
coming from the upper atmosphere

- and not from the Earth itself?
- WAINWRIGHT: That's right.

All the critics say
they're coming from Earth

because we're surrounded
by life.

But we have lots of evidence
that this material

is not coming from Earth,
it's incoming from space.

I mean, this sounds incredible.

I mean, have you ever
lost any of these?

- No, and we're not
about to start today.
- (laughter)

- So, fingers crossed, guys.
- Brilliant.

NARRATOR:
The team moves the balloon
into launch position,

from which it will ascend
more than 37 kilometers,

or 23 miles, into the air.

ROSE:
Okay, guys. Ready?

- Andrew, won't you
count down, please?
- COLLINS: Okay.

Five, four, three,

two, one.

- Let it go.
- ROSE: Oh, there it goes...

NARRATOR:
Once the balloon reaches
its target altitude

within the Earth's stratosphere,

the capture mechanism
will hopefully collect samples

of non-Earth-based
microbial life.

After the sampling is complete,

the balloon bursts,
and the capture mechanism

descends back to Earth
under the safety of a parachute.

The team uses
GPS tracking to locate

where the mechanism lands.

Once retrieved,
the sample is quickly secured

in a sealed container so that
it does not become contaminated

with microbes from Earth.

Moments later,
Andrew joins Milton and Chris

at a nearby laboratory.

Here they will extract
the microbes

inside a sterilized clean room
and then analyze them

to make sure no Earth microbes

have contaminated the sample.

COLLINS:
A clean room.

How can you ensure
the sterilization?

What are the protocols
behind this process?

It's really all about
sterilizing the air inside.

To make sure the air inside
contains no microorganisms.

So all the air is filtered.

(indistinct chatter)

NARRATOR:
Milton and Chris
remove the carbon tabs

from the capture mechanism

and place them
into vacuum-sealed containers.

This will further prevent
contamination

while they view the samples with
a scanning electron microscope.

COLLINS:
Wow. What on earth is that?

I can tell
that this is biological.

If you analyze this,
I'm pretty certain

this will show as carbon, oxygen
and a little bit of nitrogen.

Now, that's the signature
for life.

COLLINS:
We're saying that this piece
of biological life

- could potentially be
extraterrestrial in origin?
- Right.

WAINWRIGHT:
There's nothing
from Earth around it.

It's pristine, so it's incoming.

Now, if we do a bit
of, um, modeling studies,

we come to the conclusion
that nothing bigger

than six microns can go out.

And this is 200.

So it's a very large particle,
and it's coming in.

What we actually
could be looking at here

is a genuine alien life-form.

What you're looking at there
is an organism

or a clump of organisms that
is incoming from space to Earth.

Nothing bigger
than six microns can go

from the surface of the Earth
to these altitudes

that we sample at.

And yet we are finding particles
all the way up to 200.

They can't be coming up
from Earth.

Absolutely amazing.
It's blown my head off.

NARRATOR:
Biological organisms,

not from Earth
but from somewhere in space?

Could we be looking
at actual evidence

of a living organism
from a world other than our own?

COLLINS:
We've actually found

evidence of what could be

extraterrestrial
biological entities.

To see those images
was extraordinary,

and it's convinced me
that the Earth

is surrounded by life

that almost certainly
came from outer space.

This is one we took earlier,
as they say.

This is the most amazing image
I've ever seen in my life.

It's got biological
material here,

and this material
we know contains carbon,

oxygen and nitrogen,
so this is biological.

When we analyzed the ball,
we found it contained titanium

and a small amount of vanadium.

So, this is a titanium sphere

with life inside
and life on the outside.

Now, what on earth is it?

One possibility is that
this is directed panspermia.

Some civilization
has put biological material

inside and just
on the outside of this thing

and they've spewed it out.

And this suggests
that some alien civilization

is seeding planets.

This smoking gun
of, uh, panspermia,

or even directed panspermia

could give us
the best evidence yet

that aliens in some form
seeded life on this Earth,

which is an incredible thought.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible

that extraterrestrial life-forms

are being deliberately sent
to planet Earth?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes

and suggest that archaeologists
may have actually found

physical remains of the beings
who are sending them.

On Ancient Aliens,
we have traveled

around the world looking
for definitive evidence

to prove that we are
not alone in the universe.

And what could be
more definitive

than a human-like skull

that appears to be something
other than human?

In 2017, I got to examine
an elongated skull up close,

and what I discovered
was absolutely mind-blowing.

NARRATOR:
New York City,

February 2017.

At New York University,
Giorgio Tsoukalos meets

with art collector
Jared Collins,

who is in possession of a
2,000-year-old elongated skull.

Oh, wow.

That is fantastic.

NARRATOR:
The skull is incredibly
well-preserved,

and Jared is having it tested
at the university

to find out if it might
possibly contain abnormalities

that indicate it is
something other than human.

He agreed to meet Giorgio
outside of the anthropology lab

for a first look at the skull.

So how did this come
to be in your possession?

Well, it's not actually mine.
It is on loan to me.

Me and one of my colleagues
contacted a museum

and we asked them,
"Do you have an elongated skull

in your collection?"

And they said they have
just one, this one.

TSOUKALOS:
And have they told you
anything about it?

- Actually, strangely...
- TSOUKALOS: Like the providence?

this has been
in storage for decades.

They have never tested it,

they had very little
information on it.

They know
it's absolutely Paracas.

So, this skull was found
in the Paracas region

- of Peru.
- That's right.

But no real modern testing
has ever been done on this.

Oh, this is amazing.

So, let's go, right?

Okay.

NYU Professor of Anthropology
Dr. Todd Disotell

agreed to conduct
a forensic evaluation

of the elongated skull.

I've seen casts,
I've never seen one in person.

- Okay.
- Wow.

DISOTELL:
That is freaky.

I mean, I just can't come up
with another term.

I love that your first reaction
is that it's freaky,

- 'cause I agree with you.
- Yeah, well, I mean,

- look at it. That's...
- It's-it's quite bizarre.

DISOTELL:
Let me just, uh, move it over

- to the sterile bench surface.
- Mm-hmm.

Wow.

So, what's very fascinating...

- Besides the shape...
- (laughter)

The sagittal suture looks
like it has completely fused.

I'm holding it,
I'm looking at it,

and it's just been
completely obliterated.

NARRATOR:
The sagittal suture

is the seam where the two
parietal bones of the skull

come together.

Although the markings may be
faint due to fusing over time,

all human skulls are expected

to have some evidence
of this feature.

So it is curious
that this skull does not.

Nor do the skulls of a number
of other mysterious specimens

that have been collected
and examined by various experts.

One of the great enigmas
of planet Earth

is that all over the world,

we find skeletons

with people having
these elongated skulls.

NARRATOR:
For centuries,
various Native cultures

have engaged
in the ritual practice

of artificially elongating
their skulls

by tightly wrapping the heads of
their children through infancy.

However, these skulls
still feature evidence

of the cranial sutures.

Okay, let's move onto extracting

some tooth and bone powder
to get DNA out of that.

Okay, excellent.

In order to obtain

the needed genetic material
from the artifact,

Dr. Disotell will need
to remove a tooth

and drill into it
to extract the samples.

The analysis of the material
will determine the sex,

ancestral lineage of both
the father and the mother,

and any DNA anomalies
when compared

with the current
human genetic database.

Looks pretty good.

We will pack this up
and send it off,

and in four to six weeks
they should have the result.

TSOUKALOS:
Four to six weeks, okay.

- Thank you very much, really
appreciate your input on this.
- Okay.

- Take care, gentlemen.
- Thanks a lot.
- You got it.

NARRATOR:
Los Angeles, California,

April 2017.

All right, Todd,
you got the results?

Yeah, and they're
very, very interesting.

NARRATOR:
Two months after
their initial examination,

Giorgio is online
with Dr. Disotell

to receive the results
of the DNA test

they performed
on the elongated skull.

They did get
a good, clean DNA profile

from the maternally
inherited DNA.

So, this particular specimen
is actually not found

in the New World, not found
amongst Native Americans,

and it's typically found amongst
Europeans and Middle Easterners.

In fact,

the 100% match was
to a Scottish individual.

This makes no sense whatsoever.

Really?
In a South American skull?

This is all very strange.

That could mean
that people from Europe

got to South America

1,500 years earlier than
we currently understand that.

That's amazing.

Unfortunately,
the condition of the sample

did not yield any Y chromosome.

But that's not surprising.

There is between
a couple hundred

to a couple thousand times
as much

maternal DNA
in every cell of the body.

So what does that mean,
what have we not

found out because of that?

Well, so, one, that would
allow us to definitively

determine the sex,

and knowing who the father was

would be very, very informative.

Unfortunately,
we're missing that.

Right.

Do you think that a case
can be made at all...

And again,
this is complete speculation...

That perhaps
it is not necessarily human?

Is that a possibility?

Well, it's possible.

But still, we actually
don't know what this is.

Since we didn't get
any definitive result,

obviously, a scientist
always wants to try to do that.

Uh, this is extraordinary.

Yeah, it still leaves open
the possibility

of something interesting.

The results confirmed the fact
that there is a mystery there.

First of all,
we couldn't figure out

who the father is of that thing.

Number two, it has European DNA.

Two things that make no sense.

And it had a missing
sagittal suture.

So I do think that that is
an extraterrestrial skull.

NARRATOR:
Could the elongated skull
analyzed by Dr. Disotell

provide evidence
that a human-like species

walked planet Earth
that wasn't entirely human?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

by examining recent
scientific evidence

that supports the theory
that life can exist

where we least expect it.

Many of the scientists we've
spoken to on Ancient Aliens

believe that the best place
to search for evidence

of alien life is on meteorites
that have crashed to Earth.

A few years ago, I met with
a planetary scientist in England

who showed me incredible
evidence that these space rocks

could be delivering microbial
extraterrestrial life-forms

right here to our planet.

NARRATOR:
Milton Keynes, England,

March 2019.

Ancient astronaut theorist
Giorgio Tsoukalos

travels to The Open University

to meet with planetary scientist
Dr. Queenie Chan.

Dr. Chan?

- Giorgio.
- Hello.

- Great pleasure to meet you.
- Welcome here.

Nice to meet you, too. Welcome.

Thank you so much
for bringing me here.

NARRATOR:
Dr. Chan recently analyzed

two meteorites recovered in 1998

and discovered something
incredibly unexpected,

a salt crystal
containing liquid water.

Giorgio is eager to find out
what the implications

of this discovery could be,

and if it might provide
further evidence

that life on Earth
was seeded by extraterrestrials.

CHAN:
Within a stony meteorite,

we've got something called
the chondritic meteorite.

They are interesting
because they have

organic materials in it.

The meteorite that I found
extremely interesting,

uh, special...
Two meteorites, actually...

Zag and Monahan's meteorite.

They are both
ordinary chondrites,

but they are not ordinary.
(chuckles)

They both fell to Earth in 1998.

And what's more interesting
is, both of these meteorite

have salt crystal, that stunning
blue coloration to them.

More interesting is,
within these salt crystals,

we found water,

liquid water inclusion
within them.

I'm trying to wrap
my mind around this.

So, you're telling me
that you found meteorites

that actually contain
liquid water in them.

Should we have a look at it
in the clean lab?

Yes, please,
that would be amazing.

Absolutely.

NARRATOR:
Before they can examine

the meteorite sample,
Giorgio and Dr. Chan change

into protective gear that will
keep the laboratory sterile.

TSOUKALOS:
Oh, nice.

- And so, this is it.
- This is it.

- Should we have
a look under the microscope?
- Yes, please, yes.

CHAN:
Trying to move that
in focus now.

There it is.

I'm going to enlarge it
on my screen.

This is it. You're looking at
a speck of water in a meteorite.

This is the first time
that we've found

amino acids with water.

This is extraordinary.

NARRATOR:
Amino acids?

These organic compounds
are the building blocks of life,

so finding them within
liquid water on a meteorite

is extraordinary.

Could alien proteins like these
have started life on Earth?

One of the exciting things about
the discovery of the blue

salt crystals in the asteroids
that crashed to Earth

is really the amino acids.

Amino acids are
the building block of protein,

and so it really shows
that Earth isn't the only place

where the right chemistry exists
for which you can get life.

In another laboratory,

Dr. Chan shows Giorgio
the machine that analyzed

the meteorite samples
on a nanometer scale.

The results are then
displayed on a computer screen,

showing a comparison
between amino acids

found on Earth and those
that arrived here from space.

This is very interesting,
because, uh, first of all,

we see a bunch of amino acids

that are common
in-in terrestrial life.

And over here,
we've got other extraterrestrial

- amino acid inside.
- Really?

This is
a revolutionary discovery.

I immediately go to the idea
of panspermia,

that life has been brought
throughout the entire galaxy

by means with which we can't
even fathom how it was done.

The building blocks of protein

that we know to be
necessary for life,

these very building blocks,

the same amino acids
that we found on Earth,

is ubiquitous
in the, in the universe.

It's everywhere.
It's found on-on asteroid.

It's found on-on comets, too.

So, in your estimation,
what is the likelihood

of life having begun elsewhere?

We've got so many
different galaxies

and there are
so many Earth-like planets

and, uh, we-we could have
water elsewhere.

We know that amino acids,

building blocks of life,
are ubiquitous,

um, so I think
it's-it's totally possible.

NARRATOR:
Could these incredible findings
be proof that the seeds of life

traveled to Earth from
other planets in our galaxy?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes

and believe that further
evidence can be found

in the recent NASA discovery

that there might be
life on Mars.

The search for evidence
of extraterrestrial life

has taken Ancient Aliens
from deep in the jungle

all the way up
to a remote mountain cave.

But perhaps one of the most
compelling places to look

is not on our planet at all.

In recent years,
new research has suggested

that Mars
may actually support life.

And in 2018, aerospace engineer
Dr. Travis Taylor

traveled to NASA to learn
about an exciting new discovery

and to see a piece of the Red
Planet right here on Earth.

NARRATOR:
Scientist and aerospace engineer
Dr. Travis Taylor

travels to Johnson
Space Center and meets

with NASA exploration mission
scientist Dr. Elizabeth Rampe.

Dr. Rampe analyzes data obtained
by the Mars Curiosity rover,

which, six years
into its mission,

is sending back some of its most
extraordinary findings yet.

So, there was very
late-breaking news recently

from the Curiosity rover.

And some interesting
information came out

of the Sample Analysis at Mars,
or SAM, instrument.

- Okay.
- So, SAM can measure gases

in the atmosphere,
and it can also measure gases

that are evolved from samples.

So basically, we drill a rock,

deliver that powder
to the instrument,

and then that instrument
heats up the sample

and measures the gases
that are coming off.

Whatever out gas is,
it can tell you what this...

- What that is, right? Okay.
- Exactly.

So, a big piece of information
from the atmosphere

is that we've been
tracking methane

over the last few Martian years,

and what we see is that
there is a cycle to it,

where it spikes late summer,
early autumn,

and then dips again.

- Wow. Yeah.
- Yeah, so the big question

- is, why is that happening?
- Right, that... it-it, so...

That's... could possibly be due
to an organic material, right?

- Or a biological source.
- Exactly.

- So, that's...
- Meaning life.

- Right, I know, so: huge.
- Right-right. Wow.

I-It's not the only
hypothesis out there...

- Sure.
- but you know,

there is the possibility
that there is

extant life on Mars
that is creating this methane.

Wow.

The fact that NASA has now
released information

that they've measured
a cycle of methane

that goes up in the summer
and down in the winter,

it sounds very similar
to how biological processes

create methane here on Earth.

That could be evidence

that there's life,
right now, on Mars.

NARRATOR:
Life on Mars?

According to NASA,
such a profound notion

is a distinct possibility.

And other discoveries
made by the space agency could

reveal something even more
incredible,

that life on Earth
actually originated on Mars.

So what is this?
Tell me what this is.

Okay, so this is
a Martian meteorite.

So this is a rock
that came from Mars.

- TAYLOR: How long ago?
- The rock itself is about

180 million years old.

- Wow.
- So that's when
it crystallized on Mars.

And to give you some context,

180 million years ago,

- dinosaurs were
roaming the Earth.
- Right.

TAYLOR:
Well, we know that this rock
came from Mars.

So if there was
organic material on Mars

three and a half
billion years ago,

something could have
caused that organic material

to go from there to here, right?

Right, and what's interesting
about, you know,

"three and a half
billion years ago"

is, that's when life
was taking hold on Earth.

- Right.
- So... And-and Mars
was once very Earth-like,

with, uh, rivers and lakes.

So why not Mars?

We've got all the building
blocks for life on Mars,

- so why couldn't
it happen there?
- So it's very possible

that we're descendants
of Martians.

- I-I... I'm not gonna
rule that out.
- (chuckles)

When you look at all of
the evidence that's out there,

from microbes
in the stratosphere

to strange signals
coming from space

and even ancient bones
that defy explanation,

you have to ask, have we already
discovered alien life?

The answer is a resounding yes.

And I have no doubt
that far more incredible proof

is yet to come.

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