All language subtitles for 7o9-ancient-aliens-s01e05-720p-bluray-x264

NARRATOR:
Space ships over Los Angeles...

Body snatchers
controlling our minds...

E.T.'s making contact.

These and other alien-based
scenarios

have been the plot lines
of countless

science-fiction movies
and television shows.

But what if
extraterrestrial beings

came to Earth tomorrow?

Would they signal the birth

of a new age of peace
and prosperity,

or trigger a war of the worlds?

NICK POPE: The day that
it's announced we're not alone

is the day that this planet
changes forever.

BILL BIRNES: The very structures
of government

and the very structures
of religion will crumble.

SARA SEAGER: Everybody wants
to meet an alien.

But we have to start small.

We have to learn how to walk
before we can run.

NARRATOR: Millions of people
around the world

believe we have been visited
in the past

by extraterrestrial beings.

What if it were true?

Did ancient aliens really help
to shape our history?

And if so, what might happen
when they return?

NARRATOR:
Throughout human history,

man has gazed up at the stars
in awe and with wonder.

Our ancient ancestors
charted their movements,

identified constellations

and marked time by creating
celestial-based calendars.

The stars also became the source
of countless myths and legends.

Many of these describe visitors

coming down to Earth
from somewhere out there.

Others speak
of entire civilizations

existing out in the cosmos.

MICHAEL CREMO: The ancient
Sanskrit writings of India

tell us, for example,

there are 400,000
humanlike species

scattered throughout the cosmos

in different planets,
different solar systems,

even different dimensions.

NARRATOR: But where
are these alien beings?

Did they come to Earth
in the past,

as the ancient astronaut theory
suggests, and then leave?

If so, will they ever come back?

Today, scientists
around the world

have stopped waiting around
and are taking steps

to find intelligent
extraterrestrial life.

Will technology finally
be able to prove

what our ancient ancestors
believed thousands of years ago?

In 1960, astronomer
and physicist Frank Drake

set up an unusual telescope
in the hills of West Virginia.

The strange device was made

from surplus World War II
radar equipment.

But rather than containing
a traditional optical lens,

it housed a directional
radio antenna.

PAUL DAVIES: A few simple
calculations showed

that radio telescopes
have the power to transmit

and receive across literally
interstellar distances.

We're talking many light-years.

So Frank Drake
turned a radio telescope

on a couple of nearby stars
and tuned in

to see if he could pick up
a message from the aliens.

So this was a sort of crazy
thing to do.

NARRATOR: Drake failed
to pick up any sounds that day,

but the science
of radio astronomy was born.

If we couldn't see aliens
in space,

maybe we could hear them.

MICHAEL DENNIN: The things
we've focused on in the past

for searching
for extraterrestrial life

is really passively trying
to discover signals

on the basis that if they
were technologically advanced,

they would have some form
of electricity like we do,

and all electricity
generates radiation.

And it sends out the signals,
and hopefully we detect it.

NARRATOR: In 1961, Frank Drake
and a group of astronomers,

physicists and biologists

formed a privately funded
organization called SETI:

the Search for Extra-Terrestrial
Intelligence.

Their goal was to focus
massive radio telescopes

towards space and listen.

Drake estimated the probability

that intelligent life existed
out in the universe

in a formula that became known
as the Drake equation.

SEAGER: The Drake equation
is like a bridge

between scientists
and non-scientists,

because it explains
what you would want to know

to give a number about how
common alien life could be.

JENNIFER HELDMANN:
There are multiple factors

within the Drake equation.

Like the fraction of stars
that could have planets;

and the fraction of those
planets that could be habitable;

and the fraction of those that
might have liquid water;

and how many could have evolved
intelligent life?

And then one important factor

is the lifetime
of those civilizations,

and that is a big unknown.

We only know of one--
that's ourselves.

And how long are we
going to be around?

That's to be determined.

NARRATOR: Using his equation,
Drake estimated

that over 100 million
advanced civilizations

could exist in just
the Milky Way galaxy.

BIRNES:
SETI presupposes

that if you’ve got
an alien civilization

capable of traveling
that's developed electronics,

they have a fingerprint.

That fingerprint
is a repetitive signal.

A repetitive signal
will tell them

that it's not just noise,
junk frequencies out there,

but a real attempt
at communicating,

maybe not with us,
but with each other.

NARRATOR:
On August 15, 1977,

astronomer Dr. Jerry Ehman

was working on a SETI project
at Ohio State University

when he recorded
an intermittent signal

coming from the direction of
the constellation Sagittarius.

The signal lasted 72 seconds
before being lost.

Ehman believed that it
was of extraterrestrial origin.

But despite repeated searches

and increasingly larger
telescopes,

the signal has never again
been detected.

But what if SETI intercepts a
transmission from another world?

What would happen next?

According to SETI's
Post-Detection Protocols,

once an extraterrestrial
radio signal is confirmed,

news of the event
should be kept secret

until the authorities
have been notified.

The government will then decide

whether or not
to try and make contact.

DAVIES:
I think all bets are off.

Because here's this message.

It could contain enormously
important information

that would transform our society
and maybe destabilize it.

What is it going to mean for
the future of our civilization?

These are momentous questions.

NARRATOR:
Today, SETI continues to scan

the vicinities of nearby stars

for artificially produced
signals

using several of the world's
largest telescopes.

In the next several years,

when it becomes
fully operational,

SETI's new
Allen Telescope Array

will allow
for the reconnaissance

of up to a million stars.

SEAGER: SETI has to search
a huge, huge area.

They'll tell you that now,

they have searched
the equivalent of, like,

a glass of water compared
to the entire ocean on Earth.

They have a long way to go.

NARRATOR:
While SETI listens passively

to signals from outer space,

NASA has attempted
to contact alien life directly,

through messages sent aboard
its space probes.

DENNIN:
It's a long shot,

but there's no reason,
in my mind,

not to expect
that life evolved elsewhere.

What's harder to predict,
or try and understand,

is how likely is it
that it happened close enough

that there'd be someone we could
actually communicate with.

NARRATOR: In 1972, NASA agreed
to attach small plaques

onto the outside of its twin
Pioneer space probes,

the first human-built objects

destined to leave
our solar system.

NASA contacted
Cornell University professor,

Dr. Carl Sagan,
to craft the message.

DENNIN: Carl Sagan was one
of the most active astronomers

in the search for life
outside our planet.

He was a very prominent
scientist,

he was an excellent astronomer,
and he really did a lot

to help us understand
how we might contact other life

or detect life elsewhere
in the universe.

NARRATOR: Sagan, along with
SETI founder Frank Drake,

designed a gold-anodized
aluminum plaque,

measuring roughly six
by nine inches,

that contained a collection
of symbolic images

representing humans and Earth.

ALBERT HARRISON:
The man and the woman were nude,

and the gentleman
was holding one arm up like this

in what was intended to be

a sign of, uh...
a sign of greeting.

NARRATOR: A schematic design
of the solar system

was also shown,
with the planned trajectory

of the Pioneer spacecraft
marked on it,

and a diagram of 14 pulsar stars
around the sun

made a chart
that might help someone work out

where the craft originated.

DENNIN: We tried to give them
an idea of where we're located--

and that's an interesting
problem, is to figure out

how you would tell someone
where you're located in space,

'cause you don't know
where they're going to find it.

And it was all
in a very stylistic design,

but in an attempt
to hopefully communicate

at least some of these ideas.

NARRATOR:
Five years later, in 1977,

Dr. Sagan got a second chance

at designing
an interstellar message

when NASA agreed
to attach another one

to the Voyager space probes.

This time,
Sagan created a record album

made of gold-plated copper,

along with a series
of basic instructions

in how to make it work.

Sagan estimated
that the metallic disc

could survive in space
for at least a billion years.

DENNIN: One of the challenges
with technology

is trying to figure out one
that can do what you want--

so here you want
to encode audio,

and even some video images,

but do it in a way
that almost any other

technologically advanced society
could figure out.

And the advantage
of a record player is,

it's both mechanical
and electrical.

The grooves are obvious.

And so, they actually put
on the cover

instructions on how to play it.

NARRATOR: The recording included
a wide variety of sounds--

a babys cry...

wind...

surf and rain, animal noises,

as well as classical
and cultural music

from around the world.

One interesting song selection

was Chuck Berry's rock and roll
hit, "Johnny B. Goode."

DENNIN:
Music is a good choice

'cause almost anything vibrates
and makes sound.

So I would have bet that almost
any culture would develop music.

I believe it's Bach who gets
the most time on the record.

I don't know why
they picked that, to be honest,

but he is one of the more
mathematical composers,

and that might have been
one of the reasons,

because math
is a more universal language.

NARRATOR: Sagan also included
a wide array of photographs

of well-known
man-made structures

and greetings
in 55 different languages.

GIORGIO TSOUKALOS:
I think the most important one

is the Sumerian language.

Now, why would they include
Sumerian on that record?

Well, according
to the ancient alien theory,

ancient Sumeria
is the first place

where we made contact
with an extraterrestrial entity.

DENNIN:
At this point,

we obviously haven't learned
anything yet

about extraterrestrial life,

because we haven't been
contacted back.

But I think,
for our own purposes,

any time you try and go
and figure out

how you want
to communicate something,

it pushes your boundaries
and understanding

of communication itself.

SEAGER:
We all want to find aliens.

Whether it's
the planetary scientists

looking for signs of life
on another distant planet.

Whether it's
the ancient alien proponents

who want to find signs of life

of aliens
who visited in the past.

And whether it's people today
who want to have experiences

with UFOs and aliens
that have visited them recently.

All of us are trying
to do the same thing.

NARRATOR:
While the search

for extraterrestrial beings
continues,

a new space-based telescope

is hunting for planets
that may contain life.

Are there other Earths
out there?

And if so,
how will we find them?

MAN:
Ignition.

Lift off. Lift off...

NARRATOR:
On March 6, 2009,

NASA launched a Delta II rocket
into space.

On board was a new telescope
named in honor

of German astronomer,
Johannes Kepler.

The space-based telescope
was designed specifically

to discover the existence
of earthlike planets

located outside
our own solar system.

The Kepler search is focused
on a specific section

of the Milky Way
known as Orion's Spur.

Kepler's job
is to answer the question,

how common are other Earths?

And to do this, Kepler is
looking at one part of the sky

for three and a half years.

Imagine, like,
keeping your eyes open

and staring at just one part
of the sky.

HELDMANN: And what they're doing
is they're looking at stars.

And then, as a planet goes
around that star,

when the planet gets in front
of the star, the starlight dims,

just a little bit,
from our vantage point,

because it's being blocked
by the planet.

And so, you look
for that dimming of those stars.

And then that's how you're able
to detect these planets.

NARRATOR:
So far, the Kepler telescope

has confirmed the existence
of five planets

outside our own solar system.

NASA officials expect to find

several hundred more exoplanets
like these

before their mission
is completed.

Once a planet has been located,

scientists must then determine
if it might contain water.

HELDMANN:
We know from Earth

that all life on Earth
requires liquid water.

(croaking)

So that is the approach
that we've been taking

for looking for life
elsewhere in the universe--

follow the water.

And so, that is the step one.

(crackling)

(bubbling)

DAVIES: On Earth, wherever we
find liquid water, we find life.

And it's true.

Life on Earth can exist

under an extraordinary range
of conditions.

There are extreme organisms

that live
in the scalding effluent

coming out of the Earth's crust
deep beneath the ocean.

There are other
remarkable organisms

living in the waste pools
of nuclear reactors

of extreme radiation
environments and so on.

But the one thing that seems
to be absolutely necessary

for life as we know it
is liquid water.

NARRATOR:
To determine if a planet

contains water
and possibly life,

scientists use
special telescopes

to analyze its atmosphere.

SEAGER: We look at the light
coming from the planet.

And we split that light up,
like a rainbow.

Now, if you look at a rainbow
in the sky,

and you look
really, really carefully,

you will see some dark lines.

You'll see some colors missing
from the rainbow.

And those colors are missing

because of absorption by gases
in Earth's atmosphere.

So effectively, we're getting
a rainbow from another planet,

and we're looking for dark lines

that tell us what kind of gases
are in the atmosphere.

NARRATOR: To better understand
how life affects its atmosphere,

NASA scientists
study microbial mats

at California's Moss Landing
Wildlife Area.

BRAD BEBOUT: Microbial mats
are important to NASA

for a whole bunch of reasons.

The organisms
that are in microbial mats

have been on Earth
just about longer

than any other kind of organism.

They make a number of things

which we call biomarkers,
which are important

in our search for life
on other planets.

So, there are textural
biomarkers,

so when you pull up a piece
of microbial mat

and look at the surface--
what does that look like?

One of the things that we're
doing with these microbial mats

is we're measuring the fluxes
of methane.

Methane is a gas that's produced
by certain kinds of organisms

that use the organic matter
that's in these mats.

And when that methane goes
into our atmosphere,

it can be detected
by other missions,

such as Terrestrial
Planet Finder,

is one of NASA's concept
missions for looking for gases

that are produced by life
on exoplanets.

DENNIN:
We can look for the signature

of oxygen or water on a planet,
and at least that

would give us an idea
of life-forms like ourselves--

ones that are carbon-based,

and use oxygen
and carbon dioxide cycles.

Our atmosphere is not stable
without living organisms.

It would have evaporated away
by now.

And so, if you're looking
out in space,

and you detect around a star

a signature of the chemicals
that we know exist for life,

that's very strong evidence
that life is there.

Now, it doesn't help you know
if it's intelligent life,

but it does give you
an evidence for life.

NARRATOR: With a universe
literally full of possibilities,

planet hunters
focus their search

on an area they call
a Goldilocks Zone.

SEAGER:
The Goldilocks Zone for planets

is the place where a planet
is not too hot, not too cold,

but just the right temperature
for life.

Right now, we know of no planets
like Earth in a Goldilocks Zone.

One planet comes close.

It's called Gliese 581 d.

But we're not entirely sure
if that planet

is really in
the Goldilocks Zone or not.

DAVIES: In recent years,
it's been recognized

that there's more than one
Goldilocks Zone.

For example, there could be life
inside icy planetesimals--

these, like, small planets
or large moons.

The moon of Jupiter, Europa,
is a very good example.

Europa is liquid
beneath an ice cap.

It's liquid underneath
because of tidal heating

and friction going on
inside the planet.

So it could be
that there is life--

microbial, probably, only--

deep down under the ice
on Europa.

HELDMANN: It's a very
challenging question--

if there is life elsewhere
in our solar system.

You have so many components
that have to come together.

We have to have an understanding
of the science.

We have to ask
the right questions.

I wish I had a tricorder
that I could just go

and, like, point,
and it would say "life"

or "no life," right?
But we don't have that.

So, we have to be smart,
and we have to be clever,

and we have to develop
instruments

that can actually address
the questions

we're trying to answer.

SEAGER:
It's inevitable.

There are so many planets
out there, it's inevitable

that we'll find one
in the Goldilocks Zone any day.

NARRATOR:
But while the Kepler telescope

has only just begun
scanning the horizon,

NASA is already planning
the next step

in its search
for extraterrestrial life:

the 2014 launch of the
James Webb Space Telescope.

People always ask me,

"Do you expect to find an Earth
in your lifetime?"

And I say, "Yes, absolutely."

DAVIES:
When I was a student,

there was almost nobody prepared
to argue that way.

The feeling
back in the '60s and '70s

was that even if there were
other earthlike planets,

life is such an improbable
freak event

that it would never ever happen
anywhere else.

Now the prevailing view is,

yes, the universe
is teeming with life.

Everybody wants
to meet an alien.

But we have to start small.

We have to learn how to walk
before we can run.

GEORGE NOORY:
The fascinating thing for me

is that we're only four
and a half billion years old

in a universe that's close
to 14 billion years old.

What would happen with some
of these earthlike planets

that had a five or ten
billion-year head start on us?

Gosh, you can only imagine.

NARRATOR:
But what if humans

are not the only
intelligent creatures

searching for life
in the universe?

What if there are beings
on other planets

conducting a search
of their own?

And what if, in their search,

they find us
before we find them?

Some believe they already have.

On October 30, 1938,

radio listeners
across the United States

sat stunned as a series
of news bulletins

described Martians
invading Earth.

MAN (over radio):
Martian cylinders are falling

all over the country.

This is the end now.

NARRATOR: While the broadcast
sounded real,

it was a fictional production,

directed and narrated
by Orson Welles.

Incredibly,
many of those listening

believed it to be true,
and panicked.

Newspaper reports
described families

fleeing their homes
for the mountains,

while others
armed themselves with weapons

and prepared to fight off
the alien invaders.

It was just presented, maybe,
with a brief introduction

saying it was not
really happening.

But from then on, it was played
as if it was really happening.

Well, most people who heard that

thought that it
was really happening.

HARRISON:
People became upset.

Some of those literally headed
for the hills.

They drove places to try to, uh,

pick up other people,
family and friends.

They reported to the army
for duty.

NARRATOR: The response
to this fictional alien attack

resulted in many people
preparing for the worst.

But if the public's reaction
to a radio dramatization

resulted in a nationwide wave
of terror,

what would happen
if they really came?

Los Angeles, California.

In the early months of 1942,
the city was on edge.

The recent surprise attack
on Pearl Harbor

had propelled America
into World War II,

and the threat
of a Japanese invasion,

by sea or by air,
kept the military on full alert.

CHRIS PITTMAN: Pearl Harbor was
a very recent memory for people.

People were in high alert.

There was a great deal
of suspicion.

Japanese-Americans were being
put in internment camps.

There were German U-boats
in the Atlantic,

Japanese submarines
in the Pacific,

and people were very fearful.

NARRATOR: In a well-organized
defense operation,

air-raid wardens
and the coast guard

were monitoring the Pacific
shoreline as never before.

ALBERT METZ:
The war had started.

I was a 13-year-old kid, and...

this one night,
which was February 1942,

the sirens started wailing
in the middle of the night.

Blackout.

(sirens wailing)

And we'd had several blackouts
before this.

NARRATOR:
On February 25,

between the hours
of 3:12 and 4:15 a.m.,

the 37th Coast Artillery Brigade
in Los Angeles

fired off a barrage
of antiaircraft shells

at an unidentified
flying object.

NEWSMAN:
Watchers on the rooftop

of the Columbia
Broadcasting Building

in the heart of Hollywood

could plainly see the flashes
of guns and searchlights

sweeping the skies
in a wide arc

along the coastal area.

C. SCOTT LITTLETON: I think
what woke me up initially

was the sound
of antiaircraft guns.

I jumped out of bed,
and my parents were up.

My father
was an air-raid warden.

He figured,
this has to be the real thing.

DOROTHY MATICH: My mother
was telling my brother and I,

"Get under the bed!
Get under the bed!

Stay there!"

And, of course,
we got out and we peeked.

There was all this firing.

It was almost like
a Fourth of July.

METZ: I started hearing
a lot of loud explosions.

My brother and I looked out
the bedroom window,

saw searchlights twisting
and turning in the sky.

NARRATOR:
But what was the strange UFO

that the searchlights
were focused on?

Where had it come from?

Japan?

Or somewhere
from out of this world?

Could this
incredible photograph,

published the next morning
in the Los Angeles Times,

provide the proof?

Could ancient astronaut
theorists

have been right all along?

It was practically overhead--
and I mean overhead.

NARRATOR:
Retired anthropology professor,

C. Scott Littleton,
was nine years old

and growing up in Hermosa Beach

when he spotted
the strange object

hovering right over his house.

LITTLETON: We saw what my mother
always called a "silver bug."

I'd characterize it today
as a lozenge, a long oval.

It was something
I'll never ever forget.

It was caught
in searchlight beams,

and antiaircraft shells
were exploding all around it.

It gradually went like this,

and then began to lose altitude
a little bit

as it moved over what
had to have been Redondo Beach.

We lost track of it,
but the banging continued.

And very quickly afterward,
I saw-- we all saw--

a flight of planes

following the track
of the object going overhead,

anywhere from three
to five interceptors,

clearly piston-driven
U.S. planes.

No one has ever admitted that
those planes were in the sky.

Our first thought immediately

was a Japanese
observation plane.

Later, the Japanese records
definitively prove

there were no Japanese planes
over Southern California

that night, or indeed ever.

NARRATOR: After ruling out
the possibility

that a Japanese plane
had invaded American airspace,

Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox

attributed the incident
to "war nerves."

But Secretary of War
Henry Stimson

quickly refuted
this explanation,

defensively declaring
that an actual aircraft

had been the target
of the assault.

To this day, no one seems
to know just what-- or who--

was hovering over Los Angeles
that night.

Some claimed
that the Los Angeles air raid

was nothing more than an
elaborate training exercise,

a show put on by the military

to keep citizens on the ready
in case of a real attack.

Others alleged that the
unidentified flying object

was, in fact, a barrage balloon

that had broken loose
from its tether.

But even that explanation
doesn't seem credible

to those who witnessed
the actual event.

One place where there
were barrage balloons

that were anchored
above the aircraft plants

in El Segundo,
Douglas North American.

It would have to have slipped
its tether,

floated north up to
the Santa Monica Mountains,

and then back down this way.

Barrage balloons
don't maneuver like that.

NARRATOR:
Regardless of the controversy,

one fact is undisputed:

an estimated 14,000 shells

were fired
at the strange object,

and shrapnel rained from the sky
for over an hour.

But what were the guns aimed at?

Would the army really have put

civilian lives in danger
for a drill?

TOM HORSFALL:
Major panic.

Six people got killed, uh,
due to car accidents

and hit by falling shrapnel.

LITTLETON: A friend of mine said
he witnessed a piece of shrapnel

go through his neighbor's
garage roof.

So, oh, yeah, there was some
damage from falling shrapnel.

MATICH:
The next morning,

there was something
in our backyard

my mother told me
to go roll up--

it was, like,
a tarp or something.

And when I bent down--
or kneeled down-- in the grass,

I cut my knee,
and I have my piece of shrapnel.

I've kept it all these years.

There's my shrapnel,
and it's very sharp.

LITTLETON:
By a process of elimination,

the most efficient--
and I say this as a scholar--

the most efficient explanation

is that it was what we
would call today a UFO--

something not of this world,

something that belonged
to another technology.

If that’s true, then this event

was one of the largest
mass UFO sightings in history.

Over a million people saw it.

NARRATOR: But whether it
was a UFO or not,

the memories remain vivid
for those

who saw something
in the sky that night.

So vivid, in fact, that many
of them gather each year

at Fort MacArthur,
in San Pedro, California,

to reenact
this mysterious event.

HORSFALL:
The city went crazy.

They thought it was

we were being attacked
by Japanese planes.

Some theories
said weather balloon.

Others said, you know,

"Oh, I saw a plane,
I know I saw a plane,"

and others say,
"Nope, no such plane."

MATICH: Back then, it was a
scary thing. I think to this day

they don't know
what they were firing at--

if it was a weather balloon
or flying saucers.

NARRATOR:
But for those who believe

they saw an alien craft
that night,

one important question remains:

What happened to it?

LITTLETON: The rumor is that it
finally crashed in the water

and was recovered
by navy divers.

So maybe it was wounded,
and it crashed,

and this might explain
why the military

was so quick to react to Roswell
five years later.

Because they may already
have had at least some inkling

of what they would find there.

NARRATOR: Was Earth really
visited by an alien spacecraft

on the morning
of February 25, 1942?

And could the global threats

posed by World War II
have provided a trigger?

Perhaps the idea is not as
far-fetched as some would think.

Is it possible
that alien spacecraft

could have been mistaken
for enemy fighter planes

in Adolf Hitler's Germany?

NARRATOR:
In his 1993 book,

The Gods of Eden,
author William Bramley

theorized that extraterrestrials
played a part

in nearly every catastrophe
in human history,

and have even used war
as a means to control the growth

of the human population.

But while many are skeptical
about Bramley's claims,

there is one thing
on which they agree.

That the number
of reported UFO sightings

always increases during wartime.

BIRNES:
In times of war,

when vast civilizations
are in conflict,

and in conflict so terrible

that it seems
as though the civilizations

will wipe themselves out,

suddenly, out of nowhere,
UFOs appear.

NARRATOR: While skeptics
and military historians

attribute these
alleged sightings

to war nerves or stress,
those who believe in UFOs

find the number of instances
hard to dismiss.

When World War II broke out
in September of 1939,

there were numerous reports
of unidentified flying objects

spotted over Hitler's Germany.

Although the term, UFO,
had not yet been coined,

the Allies believed the bogeys,
as they were then known,

were new fighter planes
being developed by the Nazis.

But the first combat
bomber jets,

the German Messerschmitt ME-262,

weren't deployed by the
German Air Force until 1943.

PITTMAN: It certainly doesn't
escape notice

just how advanced
the Nazi propulsion systems

and their aeronautics technology
really was.

They had the first operational
jet fighter to see combat.

They were building
and test-flying aircraft

that look incredibly similar

to UFOs
that are reported even today.

They had greatly advanced
rocket technology.

There have long been rumors
about Nazi projects

to build aircraft
using UFO technology.

BIRNES: At the end
of the 19th century,

there was Aleister Crowley,

H.G. Wells, Bram Stoker,
who wrote Dracula,

and Jules Verne, who wrote
From Earth to the Moon.

They were in a society
called the Golden Dawn.

In that society, they actually
believed in the existence,

not only of UFOs,
but extraterrestrials.

That culture influenced Hitler

in the late 1920s,
early into the 1930s.

In looking for the origins
of the Aryan race,

they went all the way to India
and the Vedic texts,

which talk about UFOs.

So Hitler, in his own way,
was a UFO believer,

and sought to develop
his own version of a UFO,

based on the Vedic texts,

to have a dramatic
wunderwaffen--

a wonderweapon--
that would end the war.

NARRATOR: Although the Nazis
never developed

this so-called wonder weapon,

reports of strange
flying machines

in German airspace continued
throughout the war.

But just what was it that the
Allied pilots were reporting?

BIRNES:
In the 1940s,

as waves of American bombers

were literally obliterating
German cities--

Dresden,

Hamburg,

Berlin--

in these raids,
American fighter pilots

saw these balls of light
coming at their planes.

They didn't know what they were.

They thought they were
German secret weapons at first.

So they called them
Foo Fighters.

The word, feu, in French
is fire,

and these were balls of fire
coming out.

So, instead of Feu Fighters,
they were Foo Fighters.

PITTMAN: They were seen
in large numbers

over Germany
and over Western Europe,

where they were described
variously as structured craft,

or simply balls of light.

NOORY:
It was so important at the time

that the military began
to notice it,

and they began to investigate
these things.

There were hundreds of cases.

None seemed to be very harmful
to planes.

But they were
all over the place.

NARRATOR: Curiously,
when the Foo Fighters appeared,

Allied aircraft would sometimes
experience mechanical failure.

And perhaps most mystifying
of all

was that some pilots reported
flying right through the UFOs,

as if they had no mass.

It was never discovered
what the Foo Fighters were

or where they came from,
but the theory

that they were some sort
of German secret weapon

was widely accepted among
Allied pilots at the time.

But could the Third Reich
have possessed technology

more advanced than even
our most modern aircraft?

Some believe what the Nazis
had developed

was an advanced mechanism
that scientists

are still working on today--
mercury-powered

antigravity technology.

This involves mercury
being in a closed system.

Like a glass bulb.

Once that mercury becomes
spinning in a gyroscopic manner

within a closed system,
that creates a lift.

It's electrified lift.

It's also a very bright light.

And, in fact, many UFOs
are described as exactly that.

Towards the end of World War II,

the Germans started producing
massive amounts of mercury.

And, in fact,
a number of the U-boats

that were later sunk--

one was sunk near Singapore,
another in Norway--

only a few years ago,
they actually found it,

and its entire cargo
was mercury.

What the few historians

have actually written
about Foo Fighters,

which is still
apparently a secret today,

is that they were a kind
of mercury plasma ball.

And the purpose
of the Foo Fighters

was to make a highly pulsed
magnetic charge

and field around the bombers,

which would then cut out
the engines and interfere

with the electrical systems
in the planes.

NARRATOR:
Could Foo Fighters

really have been based on
extraterrestrial technology?

If so,
where did the Germans get it?

UFO theorists point to the
discovery of a flying saucer

that allegedly crashed
in the Black Forest,

near Freiburg, Germany, in 1936.

Some believe German scientists
repaired the craft

to test its energy
and propulsion systems,

and through reverse engineering,
were able to replicate

some of these so-called
alien technologies.

L.A. MARZULLI: Did the Nazis
take this craft,

and was there some sort
of a pact that happened there?

Did the Nazis...
did they retrieve bodies?

It's hard to pin down
how much they had.

Was there contact?

NOORY: There's always
been that theory--

that they had a captured craft,

and that they
were reverse engineering it.

It's very possible.

They were truly
way more advanced

than any culture at the time.

Thank God
for the American know-how,

because we were combating them

with our own kind of knowledge
and technology, as well.

BOB FRISBEE:
After World War II,

there was an exercise
mounted by the Americans

called Operation Paperclip.

The Allies had been confronted

with all this amazing technology
from Germany.

The jet engines, airplanes,

the rocket engine airplanes,
all these amazing devices.

To give you an example
of some of the material

that was collected
by Operation Paperclip,

right at the end of the war,
Von Braun and his team

had begun designing
multistage rockets

capable of reaching
the United States.

They also had plans
for a space station,

the classic circular
sci-fi space station,

and on this, they had
a huge sunlight collector,

a mirror that was designed
to focus sunlight

down on the Earth
as a kind of death ray.

There were all these wild ideas
coming out of that team

that turned it
into a very valuable coup

for the United States.

Ultimately, it was Von Braun

who built the Saturn Five rocket

that took people to the moon.

NARRATOR: The story of
the World War II Foo Fighters,

much like that
of the Battle of Los Angeles,

has been largely forgotten

or dismissed
by traditional historians.

But an event that happened
just two years after the war

had even the skeptics wondering.

What if aliens really did exist?

And could one of their craft
have crashed to Earth?

Mainstream archeologists
have long rejected the notion

that extraterrestrial beings
had a hand in creating

the pyramids of Egypt.

Theologians and religious
scholars refute the idea

that stories of the Bible
or the Mahabharata

could be describing
alien encounters.

And governments
throughout history

have officially denied reports
that the Earth

has been visited
by flying saucers.

But on July 8, 1947,
a UFO sighting

was reported that even
the United States Government

had trouble denying.

Why? Because this time,

the report was issued
by the U.S. Army.

I'm walking on the Foster Ranch

between Corona
and Roswell, New Mexico,

not far from what is called

the debris field
right over that hill.

And that debris field

refers to headlines
back in July of 1947

about a disc--
one of those mysterious UFOs--

actually crashing
right out here.

(thunder crashing)

NARRATOR: One night
in early July, 1947,

a major thunderstorm
rolled across New Mexico.

The next morning,

rancher Mac Brazel went out
to check on the damage.

JULIE SHUSTER: Mac Brazel
went out to make sure

everything was where it was
supposed to be.

And he came across this really
extensive area of debris,

stuff he had never seen before.

He brought it
to the local sheriff's office.

In 1947, Roswell was home
to Roswell ArmyAir Field.

The sheriff called the base,

the base sent
Major Jesse Marcel,

and at that point, it basically
became a military site,

as they gathered up every bit
of debris they could find.

NARRATOR:
In their initial report,

Army officials made
a vague claim of having started

the recovery of the debris
"sometime last week."

But why didn't the Army report
their findings right away?

And why were they so ambiguous
about the timeline?

One of the biggest things
we have is the newspaper

of July 8, 1947, where
Colonel Blanchard issued a order

to Lieutenant Walter Haught,

who was a public information
officer, saying basically,

"We have in our possession
a flying saucer;

it's being taken to Fort Worth,
to higher headquarters."

Roswell was a real turning point
for UFOlogy.

I think that was because
the military,

for the first time, admitted

that they had a crashed disc.

And because it was
admitted at the time,

of course,
it caused a sensation.

SHUSTER: But then, July 9,
General Ramey issued

a press release saying,
no, it was a weather balloon.

And that started
the best-documented

UFO cover-up ever.

NARRATOR: Army officials
referred to the debris

as being part of a flying disc.

Internal memos
even referenced the crash site

as having victims.

So, why,
less than 24 hours later,

did they suddenly decide
that what they had retrieved

was nothing more than
a weather balloon?

Although Blanchard and Ramey
stuck by the revised story,

Lieutenant Haught
stood by the contents

of his initial report
his entire life.

And those who believe him
think modern technology

may have recently provided
the irrefutable evidence

they have been looking for.

SHUSTER: When Major Marcel
took the debris to Fort Worth,

and General Ramey spread it out
to give this press conference

that it was a weather balloon,
there was a picture taken,

and in his hand
is a piece of paper.

It's a very little
piece of paper.

I mean, and this has
been blown up.

And it is a memo.

There is a leading researcher
in the field

who is pulling the words
out of this.

And they include things like
"team at Fort Worth,"

"forwarded victims
of the wreck," "pod or pan."

And so, every year
that the technology improves,

General Ramey may be
the one to solve it.

MOULTON HOWE: Bob Wood,
a researcher in UFOs,

had received
leaked documents in 1996,

and shared them with me
and a few others.

This document called the
Interplanetary Phenomena Unit,

with a War Department stamp
dated July 22, 1947.

The most disturbing aspect
of this investigation

was that there were
other bodies found

not far from landing zone one,
the Mac Brazel site

between Corona and Roswell
that looked as if they had been

dissected as you would a frog.

It does not define,
were those bodies human?

Were those bodies nonhuman?

But suddenly, for me,
this electric jolt

that came into
holding that document

and reading at the end of the
'90s what would explain finally

that our government knew

that extraterrestrial
biological entities

from somewhere else
in the cosmos

was interacting with our planet
for a very long time.

NARRATOR:
Five years after Roswell,

the United States Air Force
coined the term

Unidentified Flying Object
or UFO.

In the decades since, thousands
of UFOs have been reported...

-MAN: Whoa.
-...photographed and videotaped

all over the world.

MAN:
Oh, my God.

Perhaps one of the biggest,
most revolutionary

pieces of technology to change

our view of UFOs
and flying saucers

is the video cam.

MAN: Whoa, I'm getting
a series of lights right there.

I got it, I got it, I got it.

BIRNES: You only have
to look at what happened

in Phoenix, Arizona,
in March of 1997,

when these huge
flying boomerangs went

right across Phoenix,
right through the whole valley,

heading south
to the Mexico border.

These were all caught
on cameras.

Network news caught these;
local news caught these.

You saw these on CNN;
you saw these on Larry King.

MAN: Oh, there it is,
over to the left. -MAN 2: Wow.

BIRNES: And yes,
people called them flares--

of course they did.

But, the fact is,
when you see something

with your own eyes...

MAN:
Look, dude. Pat, you got it?

MAN 2:
I see it.

BIRNES: ...even if
it's on a video camera,

suddenly your
perspective changes.

MAN: And that middle one
is moving quick.

It's only the beginning,
you guys.

So, now, according to
recent polls--

Gallup polls and Roper polls--

well over 50%
of Americans believe

that flying saucers exist,

and close to 50% believe
that the government knows

that flying saucers exist,

and that the government
is hiding that fact.

NARRATOR: But why so many
UFO sightings after Roswell?

Is it a coincidence?

Or is the world's growing belief
in aliens providing cover

for those who might previously
have been too afraid of ridicule

to come forward?

Perhaps there is another reason.

Perhaps there are more sightings

because there is a genuine
increase in alien visitations...

...ever since the dawn
of the Space Age.

BRAMLEY:
There had been plenty of stories

of UFOs and aliens

prior to that--
a lot of sightings.

They weren't as widely reported
somewhat also because

World War II had been going on,
prior to that.

But because now we had a crash

and there was more room
in the newspaper, so to speak,

I think that really helped
the subject take off.

NARRATOR:
If, as some suggest,

aliens from other worlds
truly are among us

and have done their best
to keep themselves hidden

for thousands of years,

will they ever
reveal their presence?

More importantly,
what happens if they do?

And what if it is
already happening?

NARRATOR: In March, 2010,
a mysterious pulsating light

floated over Cleveland, Ohio,
for 1 1 consecutive nights.

MAN: We're having a sighting
right now over the lake.

I'm going to say
270 degrees south.

There are, uh, two objects.

One is coming up from the left.

These are extremely close
to each other.

There's absolutely no way
these are planes.

Right now, uh, what's happening
is the initial object

that came out-- it's
sitting there, it's hovering,

it's getting extremely bright.

It's illuminating
different colors.

And the second object
appeared from, I'm going to say,

the top left of it.

And now it looks like
it's moving around it.

Wow!

They completely
just switched spots.

Oh, my God, this is beautiful.

It knows we're watching.
It knows we're watching.

NARRATOR:
The Cleveland sighting is

one of thousands
reported each year.

And while many are proved
to be false alarms,

others are not
so easily discredited.

-MAN: Right below it.
-MAN 2: Right below it.

A big bright white flash
just occurred.

NARRATOR: In 1991,
Britain's Ministry of Defence

assigned author and journalist
Nick Pope to track

the hundreds
of sightings reported

over England, Scotland
and Wales every year.

NICK POPE: The Ministry
of Defence has been

looking at the UFO issue
since the 1950s.

And the whole reason for
looking at these UFO sightings

is not necessarily because the
department corporately believes

in extraterrestrial visitation.

It's more to do
with keeping a watchful eye

on any unusual activity
in British airspace.

Clearly if there's something
there that's a little bit

out of the ordinary,
we want to know about it.

My beliefs when I was given
this job were, I think,

what on earth
have I let myself in for here?

I had no particular knowledge or
interest in the UFO phenomenon.

Certainly no belief
in anything unusual.

But the more I looked back
through the archive

of old files, and the more
I began to investigate the ones

that were being reported to me
on a daily basis,

I began to change my mind,
and realized that some of these

UFO sightings couldn't be
explained in conventional terms.

MAN:
It's definitely moving.

NARRATOR: Many of the most
intriguing cases Pope researched

involved eyewitness reports
from pilots, police

and military officers,
while others featured

classified radar, video
or photographic evidence.

NICK POPE: One case that was a
particular turning point for me

was the so-called
Cosford Incident.

Now, Cosford is a military base
in the United Kingdom.

And on the particular night
in question,

which was 30th of March, 1993,
there was a wave of sightings

over a period
of about six hours.

And there were many police
and military witnesses.

And two Air Force bases,
Cosford and Shawbury,

were directly overflown by
a vast triangular shaped craft.

Now, the meteorological officer
at one of these bases

described this to me
as the size of a jumbo jet

hovering, or moving
very, very slowly,

and then accelerating away to
the horizon at incredible speed.

He said many times faster
than a military jet.

And this was a man
with eight years experience

in the air force.

This sighting was thoroughly
investigated not only by

private UFO investigators, but
also by the British Government,

who were unable to explain
all of the sightings

reported during this incident.

NARRATOR: Another intriguing
British UFO sighting

took place in December 1980.

U.S. Air Force personnel
stationed in Suffolk, England,

reported seeing a brilliantly
illuminated spaceship

that landed in Rendlesham Forest
on two consecutive nights.

POPE: What made this case
particularly unusual

is that this was not
vague lights in the sky.

This was a landed metallic craft
that some of the witnesses

claimed they got,
uh, so close to,

they could actually
touch the side of it.

One witness saw strange symbols
on the hull,

which he likened
to Egyptian hieroglyphs.

He made a sketch of this
in his police notebook

and took some photos,
though he was subsequently told

they didn't come out.

The Ministry of Defence
looked at this,

and the Defence
intelligence staff

assessed radiation readings
that had been taken

at the landing site as being

"significantly higher
than background."

And that's a direct quote from
the government's own assessment.

PITTMAN:
The British Government

generated a massive file
of information

about this sighting report.

But at this date, it's very
unlikely that the actual truth

about the sighting
will ever be known.

NARRATOR: But in spite of the
compelling eyewitness testimony,

the Ministry of Defence
soon declared the case closed.

22 years later, when the
government declassified files

on the Rendlesham incident,
the evidence was inconclusive.

But what stood out
was the credibility of

the main witnesses, who were
trained military personnel.

BIRNES:
Obviously, as a UFO hunter,

I've met a lot of people
who've encountered UFOs.

Just flying on a plane,
for example.

You're on a plane,

and suddenly the pilot
comes out of the cockpit--

and this has happened on
five separate occasions.

And he'll say to me,

"I saw a UFO over Phoenix;
I saw a UFO over Texas;

half my crew saw a UFO."

And you'll say to the pilot,
"Well, well, do you report it?"

And they say, "When the flight
controller says at the airport,

"'Do you want to report
a UFO sighting,'

and then bursts out laughing,
what you say is, 'No."'

There are UFO sightings
every single day.

Real people with real sightings
of real UFOs.

It is very prevalent as more
and more people talk about it.

Something is going on.

In terms of the government
response to all this,

certainly in Britain,

the Ministry of Defence policy
for many years has been

to try and downplay
this subject.

Not really
in any great sinister attempt

to cover up the truth about
UFOs, whatever that might be,

but more out of embarrassment.

There are things
in our airspace,

we don't know what they are,
and that's not a good place

for the government
and the military to be.

NARRATOR: On December 1, 2009,
the British Ministry of Defence

quietly terminated
its UFO project,

citing that there had been
no credible evidence that UFOs

posed a potential threat
to the United Kingdom.

(bell tolling)

There are a number of aspects
of this decision

that were
particularly controversial.

Firstly, UFO sightings
are at a ten-year high

in the United Kingdom.

So it seemed the most
inopportune moment

to pull the plug on 50 years
of research and investigation

into the UFO mystery.

The other point that made this
particularly controversial

was the way in which
the decision was announced.

There was no proactive statement
issued on this.

It simply said:
The department will not respond

to any inquiries on this subject

and will no longer
investigate sightings.

NARRATOR: One hurdle
confronting those in favor of

fully disclosing classified
information related to UFOs

is the fact that most
mainstream scientists believe

that the study
of alien phenomena

is little more than
just fringe science.

It is this fear
of dismissal or ridicule

that keeps many scientists
hidden in the shadows.

TED PETERS:
Our best scientists,

who communicate with one another
around the world,

have rules of protocol,
which include--

they cannot appear to be
religious... (laughs)

...they cannot believe
in flying saucers,

and they certainly shouldn't
hang around with

anybody who believes in
flying saucers.

HARRISON: But it's all done, you
might say, behind closed doors,

because nobody really wants
to, uh, draw attention to it.

You know that, uh,
they understand, you know,

that there's
a penalty associated

with this kind of research.

And so consequently, it's done,
it's done "invisibly."

ROBERT BAUVAL: To be blockaded
and stopped by worries

about peer reviews and so forth,
to me, is wrong.

We can speculate whether there
is life outside this planet.

We can speculate whether
there has been a contact

with, with other civilizations.
Why not?

NARRATOR: But as more scientists
openly embrace the probability

that there is
intelligent life existing

elsewhere in the universe,

will the belief that
alien beings are visiting us

also become more accepted?

What might be the reaction today
if extraterrestrials were to

actually arrive on Earth
and make themselves known to us?

Countless science fiction books
and films tend to portray aliens

coming either to warn us
or destroy us.

BIRNES: Since the 1960s,
people have been thinking about:

Well, what do we do?

Do we have a Day The Earth Stood
Still scenario if aliens come?

Do they warn us that
our planet's facing disaster?

Do they attack us,

the way the Martians did
in War of the Worlds?

Well, the answer is more
complicated than it seems.

It's not just somebody
landing and saying,

"Take me to your leader."

TSOUKALOS:
The general consensus today

is that if extraterrestrials
were to show up tomorrow,

they'd be hostile, and
they would want to enslave us

and-and battle us
and-and destroy us

and all this crazy stuff.

In my opinion,
that won't be the case,

because any civilization
that's mastered to travel

interstellar space
would be benevolent

to a lesser advanced society,
technologically speaking.

DAVIES: A simple statistic shows
that if we make contact

with extraterrestrial
civilization,

we are the new kids
on the block.

We're the ones who are
at the back of the queue

when it comes to intelligence.

So, uh, they'll be
teaching us stuff.

We won't have a great deal
to teach them.

JEFF PECKMAN: There are
a wide range of benefits

that can be derived from
accepting that we have neighbors

in the galaxy
that are visiting us.

There are reports
of medical treatments

that have been performed
for the benefit

of several people
who have had contact.

There are advanced
energy technologies.

Reports are that
some of these have been

reverse-engineered already
and are used in military craft.

There are
communications technologies.

So, really, any area of life
that we have could be

beneficially impacted by
acknowledging that there are

these other people out there,
that they have information,

knowledge that they can share
with us that would benefit us.

HARRISON: It's going to depend
how the discovery comes about.

If, in fact,
it's a distant radio broadcast,

we might expect one thing.

If, in fact, there's, uh, some
type of visitation that fits in

with beliefs about UFOs,
that might be something else.

But, on the whole, I think
people are much more prepared

for, uh, shall we say "contact"?

NARRATOR: Many who believe
contact with extraterrestrials

is inevitable
suggest governments

need to prepare themselves.

It's a field of study
known as exopolitics.

Exopolitics poses the question:
What should our response be

to that situation
at a societal level?

Not necessarily at
a governmental level,

but actually individuals--
how can we reach out

with a hand of friendship?

STEVEN GREER:
Exopolitics has really been

a grassroots movement of people
concerned about this issue

and want disclosure
on the UFO subject,

and also want to help
organize people locally

to get the information
out to their governments

and make this big change happen.

NARRATOR: But if
we reach out in friendship,

what guarantee do we have that
it will be returned in kind?

Many scientists, including
famed theoretical physicist

Stephen Hawking, believe alien
beings could pose a threat

and suggest we do everything
possible to prevent contact.

BIRNES: If extraterrestrials,
or aliens, were aggressive,

were warlike,
and they came here,

is it a case where
resistance is futile?

How do you wipe out
life on planet Earth?

That's easy-- a plague.

Simple-- no UFOs,

no zorching beams from the sky,
no explosions,

no Empire State Building
collapsing, none of that.

We can do that.

Why can't aliens do that?

TSOUKALOS: To think that
we would be able to come up with

some type of a defense mechanism
or have defenses

against interstellar traveling
society is ludicrous.

NARRATOR: Whether they came
as friend or foe,

if extraterrestrials did land
somewhere in the United States,

it's possible the aliens
would be greeted by government

or military personnel
wearing Hazmat suits

and testing for harmful
pathogens and radiation.

Many conspiracy theorists
suspect

the government's next step would
be to cover up the visitation.

They cite as evidence a reputed
sighting that took place

over Washington, D.C. in 1952.

BIRNES: In full view
of the entire world,

a squadron, a formation
of UFOs buzzed Washington

and fought our own
F-93 jet fighters.

General Samford
willingly and deliberately--

maybe on instructions
from Harry Truman,

who was president--
lied to the American people.

We have received and analyzed

between one and
two thousand reports.

Of this great mass of reports,
we have been able, adequately,

to explain
the great bulk of them.

BIRNES:
His own Captain Ruppelt,

in his own book on flying
saucers, says Samford was lying.

We have the letter from
the Air Force to Dean Condon

saying "Deep-six UFOs."

So, have UFOs come to
planet Earth in full view,

have manifested themselves,
have shown themselves?

Yes.

Did we see it? Yes.

Was there a protocol
for handling it?

Yes. That protocol
was called "deny."

NARRATOR: But if an alien
visitation proved undeniable,

who might be chosen

to then speak to those
inside the spacecraft?

Who could best represent all the
nations and interests of Earth?

SEAGER: If aliens
do land on Earth,

I think we should send
our best world leaders

who are the most
open-minded and reasonable,

but who also have the ability

to defend themselves
against those aliens.

BIRNES:
In my opinion,

that's one of the reasons
we have a United Nations.

Yes, it prevents wars
and delivers food.

But on the other hand,
just imagine

the Security Council itself
convening to deal with aliens--

an image on a big screen
at the United Nations.

The answer is: I think it all
happened back in the 1940s,

and that was one of the reasons
that Roosevelt

and Eleanor Roosevelt
pushed so hard

for the formation
of a United Nations

to replace
the League of Nations.

Somebody had to confront
the aliens.

LEVINSON: The notion that our
leaders-- elected or otherwise--

should speak on our behalf,

I don't necessarily think
that makes sense.

There are a lot of people
who might have better ideas

than the people
who are in government.

I'd like to see a profoundly
democratic-- with a small D--

unauthoritarian interaction
with aliens.

NARRATOR: Currently, there are
no known official protocols

in place
for an alien visitation.

But there are those
who think that contact

with extraterrestrials
is imminent,

and that our world leaders
must plan for the event now.

PECKMAN: We're not
alone in the universe.

We have friends and relatives
out there in the galaxies.

And we need to take on
this task, one way or the other,

of just getting the job done
and getting to the point

where we're considering
the practical details of

interacting with these friends
and neighbors out there.

GREER: Who is responsible
for that relationship?

Well, the
State Department isn't.

The United Nations isn't.

And I think this is
a very big problem.

So, well, there needs to be
a diplomatic effort

to make contact with these
interstellar civilizations

in such a way

that it puts wiser people
in charge of that.

POPE:
Even if you don't

corporately believe
in extraterrestrials,

if you think the possibility
of alien visitation

is vanishingly small,

the consequences
if it does happen are immense.

And, therefore,
it's prudent to have

something in place
to deal with it.

DENNIN: Personally, I think
it would be very, very exciting.

I mean, it would be just like
the first time, you know,

the explorers came, um,

from Europe to the Americas
and discovered

a whole new culture,
and they had to interact.

Hopefully, it won't
work out as some of

the bad things
that occurred then;

it would be a more
positive experience.

And maybe we've learned from
that and we can go forward.

NARRATOR:
What would happen after

any potential
extraterrestrial contact

is open to much speculation.

But most people
concede one thing:

The world as we know it
would change dramatically.

GREER:
The result would be

that the fundamentalist
orthodox belief systems

of every organized religion
on Earth would collapse.

Meaning that it would
really bring into question

the origins of the human race,
uh, the Genesis stories

and a whole lot of other issues.

BIRNES: The very structures
of government

and the very structures
of religion will crumble.

NARRATOR:
But in 2008,

a stunning announcement was made
from a very surprising source.

Proof to some that miracles,
like aliens,

do indeed exist.

NARRATOR:
The Vatican, Rome.

This walled enclave has been
the center of power

for the Catholic Church
since the fifth century.

It's not only
the Pope's residence,

but a place of homage
for one billion Catholics,

and represents
nearly 2,000 years

of Christian teaching
and tradition.

But, in 2008,
the Vatican made an announcement

that some say might threaten
its own existence.

The chief astronomer
of the Vatican Observatory,

Father Gabriel Funes,
acknowledged the possibility

alien life exists
on other planets.

They basically said that belief
in planetary life

outside of Earth does not negate
one's belief in God.

Now, 500 years ago, if the
Vatican would have said that,

they would've burned
everybody on the stake.

WILLIAM FULCO: The present Pope,
Benedict, of course,

has a very scientific bent.

And he respects
intellectual life

in-in a way that is-is
quite extraordinary.

He seemed quite open
to entertain the idea:

What if there is life
on other planets?

It's certainly an interesting
question for a Christian.

To approach it scientifically,
it challenges your belief

of how much of this
you attribute to God.

NARRATOR: Many wondered about
the Church's motives and timing.

Why, after centuries of belief

in man as God's supreme creation
and the only intelligent life

in the universe, did the Vatican
make an announcement

that could turn Christianity
on its head?

Did they know something
the rest of us did not?

TSOUKALOS:
This is something

that is completely new
in the history of the Church

that the
extraterrestrial question

is not only addressed, but
at the same time, it's okay.

I mean, that is
a major change in opinion.

A major change
in the status quo.

And I ask: Why?

Would it have
huge ramifications?

Of course.

Does it change anything?

Of course.

But at the same time,
would that change religion

or belief in God?

Not really.

Some people say, well,

the Catholic Church
must know something.

Uh, maybe they're trying to
get ahead of the game here.

On the other hand, it may
just be that they're being

very clever and simply trying
to cover all the bases,

in case there is
some great announcement

or discovery about alien life.

Because, make no mistake
about it,

if it is announced that
alien life has been discovered,

people are going to look to
their religious leaders for

some sort of guidance about
this, whether it's Christians,

Jews, Muslims, Hindus.

CHRIS CORBALLY: If
extraterrestrial life was found,

then the Church would react
presumably as it does

with any data--
see what there is.

I don't think
there would be any conflict

in the way that we look
on our humanity.

What we would find
is that God creates

intelligent life
in a variety of ways.

And I think what we would
learn from that is,

we can't restrict God
to any one mode

of making intelligent life.

NARRATOR: The idea that
intelligent life exists

elsewhere in the universe
has been debated by

religious leaders,
historians and scientists.

But not everyone agrees
how its proof would affect

human spirituality or the many
religious institutions.

PETERS: What would happen
to our interpretation

of the Book of Genesis?

Well, the Book of Genesis
looks at the universe

from the point of view of Earth.

We look at the sun, we look at
the moon, we look at the stars.

So, to realize
that the Earth is just

one small, pale-blue dot
in this immense universe,

I think it would only expand
our interpretation of Genesis.

I don't think
it would, uh, change it

in any fundamental way.

FULCO: It's an interesting
question for Christianity

in general, since Christianity
would teach that salvation

comes through Jesus, who was
apparently an earthling.

Um, what do you do
if there are people on Mars?

Are they saved?

According to our viewpoint,
um, I don't know.

DAVIES: Christians have
always had this problem

that if there are aliens out
there, are they not to be saved?

It's not a problem for Jews.

Certainly not a problem
for Buddhists or Hindus.

But Christians are in
a particular fix.

For a very simple reason
that Christianity alone

among the world's religions
has an incarnation.

What they mean by that is
that God became incarnate

in the form of Jesus Christ,
in order to be the savior.

When you talk to Christians,
they sort of say,

"Oh, well, there isn't a problem
really because, you know,

"we've accommodated Galileo,
we've accommodated Darwin.

Why can't we accommodate E.T.?"

Well, I think
there's a big difference.

PAUL LEVINSON: I think science
and religion have more in common

than perhaps the popular
perception suggests.

On one hand, we have science,

which deals with
reason and fact.

On the other hand,
we have religion,

which deals with faith.

Science is
an evolving proposition,

and what we know today will
almost certainly be reformed

and maybe even replaced
at some point in the future.

So, to think that science
somehow provides the truth

in contrast to religion,
I think is a mistake.

NARRATOR: While scientists
and religious leaders

may still ponder the notion
of aliens visiting Earth,

ancient astronaut theorists
claim that the evidence exists

in plain sight around the world.

But if this theory was accepted,
would we have to change

our beliefs about
our knowledge, our history

and the very beginnings
of human civilization?

For thousands of years,

humans have recorded events
that seem to suggest

other-worldly beings came down
from the skies to visit Earth.

These ancient visitations
represent the foundations

of those who believe
Earth was visited in the past

by advanced beings
from other planets.

These sightings
are also said to explain

many mysteries
surrounding our past.

ERICH V. DANIKEN:
The most important was religion.

The gods have descended
to our ancestors' time.

Now it enters into
the holy books, into mythology.

Now, later, people try--
reason the people try

to understand this,
they make out religions of it.

But the core is

extraterrestrials have
come here.

That was the beginning
of all the big religions.

There are two main components
why we are

who we are today as a species.

One, someone tampered with
our genetic makeup,

and two, technology.

Because all of a sudden, we were
doing and building things

that we would still have
difficulties recreating today.

And the ancient texts
are very clear

that many of our achievements
in the past

happened due to
a direct intervention

of extraterrestrials
that arrived from the skies.

NARRATOR: Ancient astronaut
theorists also cite as evidence

the amazing similarities between

isolated cultures
all over the planet.

Why did different civilizations
build immense

megalithic structures
to honor otherworldly beings?

Why do so many ancient texts

seem to reference
men flying in the sky?

And why do the ancient
Egyptians, Hopi Indians

and the Dogon tribe
of North Africa

all believe
their ancestors came from

what we know as
the constellation Sirius?

TSOUKALOS: If the
extraterrestrials wanted

to leave behind a message
of where they came from,

then it would
serve them very well

to build those structures
with a reference

to their location of origin.

So, if we have connections
to the Sirius star system,

well, it would lend us
to believe that here we have

a reference of
where they might come from.

NARRATOR: The question
of extraterrestrial life

is as old
as civilization itself.

Ancient astronaut theorists, as
well as many noted scientists,

point to the immense size
of the universe and concede

that other beings must exist
somewhere else besides Earth.

But the question remains:

Did aliens visit us
in the past?

And is it happening again?

The way we look at history
is very fragile.

Any discovery,
which is made somewhere,

can change the way
we look upon history.

I think if we were to identify
that an alien presence

has been here on Earth
in the past,

I think there are
two very important questions.

Did E.T. just come by and visit,
and then disappear?

Or did actually E.T. come, stay
and contribute to civilization?

I think the second one
is far more important,

because it shows us far more.

It actually rewrites
mankind's identity rather than

just whether or not, you know,
some extraterrestrial being

came here on a holiday
and then left

without really
leaving something behind.

TSOUKALOS: In all of
the ancient texts,

there is one thing
that is very clear,

and that is that these gods
one day will return.

NARRATOR:
But short of an alien spacecraft

landing on the White House lawn,

ancient astronaut theorists know
there will always be skeptics.

PECKMAN:
People are always looking for

an ultimate proof
of the existence of

extraterrestrial
intelligent beings.

But I think a more useful
and honest question is:

How much and what kind of
evidence would be enough for you

to believe
that they're out there,

that they have been visiting us?

GRAHAM HANCOCK: I believe,
through the experiences

that shamans have been
documenting and reporting

for tens of thousands of years,
that, uh, we are in contact

with entities and beings
that are not of this Earth.

But precisely what those
entities and beings are

remains to be established.

PITTMAN:
There is evidence that indicates

that it's possible
that humans were visited

by extraterrestrials
in the distant past.

And if we are too quick to
discard that possibility,

then we might be shutting
ourselves out from something

that might be really fascinating
and might take us

to a, to a next level
that we can't even imagine.

DAVID CHILDRESS:
It's very possible that

those extraterrestrials who've
allegedly been coming here

for thousands of years,
I mean, they are us.

They look like us.

And, in fact,
that's part again of the Bible,

in that the God

or the gods created us
in their image.

I mean, we are to be like them.

We are to look like them.

We are to have
the technology they have.

We're to go into space,
just like they did.

I think there is life,
simple life, bacterial life,

microbial life on other planets.

I think we're
going to find that.

And who knows?

Maybe one day we'll find
some other planet

that's capable of sustaining
life that has evolved people

over a long period of time
that are also looking up

at the stars, wondering:
Is there anybody else out there?

Are we the only ones?

TSOUKALOS: We are a species
of explorers.

So, ultimately,
we will come across

some other type of intelligence.

And when that happens,

if that society,
technologically speaking,

is primitive,
we'll become ancient astronauts

with that culture.

HANCOCK: Human history
has become too much a matter

of dogma, uh,
taught by professionals

in ivory towers,
as though it's all fact.

Actually, much of human history
is up for grabs.

The further back you go,

the more that the history
that's taught in the schools

and universities begins to look
like some kind of fairy story.

BAUVAL: We have logic, we have
intuition, we have our senses.

And to limit ourselves

through the scientific route
is a mistake.

We can send people on the moon,

we can plan journeys to Mars,
we can make cell phones.

But we haven't explained
the fundamental questions

that we should be dealing with.

Where do we come from?

What are we supposed to do here?

And where are we going?

We really have not come with the
answers, and we know no better

than the ancients
that we're trying to explain.

TSOUKALOS: Exploring
the ancient astronaut theory is

the ultimate quest to find out:
Where did we come from?

How did it all begin?

And most importantly,
who are we?

And the ancient astronaut theory

has the capability of answering
all those questions.