Original subtitles

[narrator] Worldwide 36 billion cameras are watching us.

On our streets, at work, and in our homes.

They capture things that seem impossible.

Science says this shouldn't happen.

-[man] Do you see that? -[screams]

[narrator] Experts carry out forensic analysis of these unusual events.

Wow, what a blast!

[woman screams]

This doesn't make sense.

There has to be some sort of explanation.

What else is going on here?

[narrator] Coming up...

Has this explosion

blown the lid on a deadly military secret?

This highway has suddenly turned into a war zone.

[narrator] The kid who's a real pain in the neck.

I've only seen people turn their heads that far in horror movies.

Could this be some sort of real life exorcism?

[narrator] And in a house locals say is haunted...

terror vision as an unplugged TV switches on by itself.

Could a television be broadcasting a signal from the afterlife?

[narrator] Bizarre phenomena...

Oh, my God. [gasps]

[narrator] Mysteries caught on camera.

[woman screams]

What's the truth behind this strange evidence?

Wenling, Southern China,

June 13, 2020.

4:45 pm.

Rush hour traffic comes screeching to a halt

as flames lick up from the highway ahead.

-Then, an apocalyptic blast. -[explosion]

[Ashanti] One second, the sky is blue

and then the next, it's covered in an orange fireball.

It almost looks like napalm, liquid fire just jetting across the road.

[narrator] But this is no war zone.

It's a suburb of a modern city with over one million people.

It's some kind of massive explosion

ripping through a populated area.

[Craig] If there's such a thing as a run-of-the-mill explosion,

this ain't it, this explosion is massive.

This scene is terrifying.

[narrator] Historian Craig Gottlieb discovers the incident occurs

as the secretive state of China faces a crisis on its highways.

Traffic in China is not gentle,

the roads are very, very crowded

and traffic doesn't always play nice.

[narrator] And China's roads are getting more chaotic all the time.

Over 25 million new drivers hit the streets each year.

The number of cars on the road is increased

seven fold over the past ten years.

[Martin] That explosive pace of expansion

has led to a lot of people who are driving

who have no business driving.

[narrator] Over 250 million cars compete for space,

meaning accidents are frequent, and sometimes fatal.

One fifth of all road deaths in the world happen in China.

That's an average of 700 dead every day.

They're killing each other in large numbers

because of their careless driving,

[narrator] While most Chinese drivers are careful,

-mad motorists can cause deadly mayhem. -[woman exclaiming in Chinese]

[in English] Eighteen people die in a 30-car pile-up fireball

in Anhui in 2017.

But even that horrific highway explosion

is dwarfed by this blast in Wenling.

-[loud explosion] -[woman screaming]

This has to be more than a car crash.

No car accident produces a fire like that.

[narrator] Historian Ashanti Davis

reviews the footage of this cataclysmic explosion

and notices a sinister object travelling at enormous speed.

There's this large, long object that just flies through the sky

Was that a missile?

The explosion is of a character and a force

-that looks military. -[man exclaims in Chinese]

[in English] Its scale, its intensity certainly suggests

that it could potentially be a thermobaric bomb.

[narrator] Thermobaric bombs are a terrifying new weapon.

[Amy] This bomb works in two stages.

The first stage detonates to spread fuel in the surrounding area,

and the second stage ignites that fuel in a roaring inferno.

Thermobaric weapons burn at very high temperatures.

And they achieve this by sucking in

the oxygen from the surrounding atmosphere.

[narrator] In 2017, the United States

is the first to use a thermobaric weapon in combat.

Its target, an ISIS stronghold in Afghanistan.

A US Air Force MC-130

drops MOAB, the mother of all bombs.

This 29-foot-long monster has a one mile blast radius.

Striking with the force of 11 tons of TNT.

The reason a thermobaric weapon was used in this attack

was that this was a cave system that ISIS was holding out in.

Effectively, it sucked the oxygen out of those caves,

killing about 90 people.

[Amy] It's hard to tell what would be worse,

being flash fried or having the air

literally sucked out of your lungs.

[narrator] Two years later,

China demonstrates its own thermobaric device.

Is it conceivable

that the Chinese have accidentally dropped one

on a heavily populated civilian area?

-[loud explosion] -[woman screaming]

[narrator] It wouldn't be the first time

civilians have been caught in the crossfire.

China has detonated 45 nuclear bombs

at Lop Nor in Xinjiang since 1964.

The fallout is thought to have poisoned over a million people,

causing cancer and birth defects in the local population.

So the question is,

is this one of their military tests gone badly wrong?

[narrator] Former NYPD video analyst Conor McCourt

slows down the mystery projectile captured in the footage.

[Conor] What I'm seeing here is what looks like

a huge piece of metal being flung across the sky.

It clears four-story buildings

like it's a child's toy being flung across the room.

This seems to be a piece of a tanker flying through the air,

leaving a chemical trail behind it.

Could this be the source of the explosion?

[narrator] A tanker suggests this explosion is caused by some sort of fuel.

But what fuel explodes with the power of a thermobaric bomb?

The Chinese economy is growing exponentially,

and in order to maintain that

it needs a steady supply of energy.

[narrator] China's factories are choking cities with thick smog,

causing a health crisis that claims over one million lives every year.

But the authorities have now found a safe, clean miracle fuel...

liquified natural gas.

LNG is cryogenically stored

and transported at 260 degrees below zero.

In this super cold liquid form,

the energy is highly concentrated,

and is also supposedly super stable.

The Chinese say it shouldn't be able to explode.

Matt Kutcher is a Hollywood pyrotechnics and ballistics expert

with over two decades experience.

Even he is amazed by this highway explosion.

[man speaking in Chinese]

[Matt in English] Wow! You can see the actual truck come flying.

Imagine that. Just being in traffic and something like this explodes.

[woman speaking in Chinese, screams]

[in English] One thing that's clear

is it's not just the size of the actual explosion,

but the supersonic shock wave

that travels rapidly through the frame here.

You have to have a serious amount of explosive energy

to get that kind of blast.

[narrator] Transporting LNG is supposed to be extremely safe.

Not only is it super cooled,

but trucks use reinforced tanks with double walls,

and the cavity is filled with fireproof insulation.

But Kutcher suspects if both walls were punctured,

the escaping LNG could trigger a catastrophic explosion.

Let's put it to the test. Can liquid gas create an explosion powerful enough

to throw such heavy objects through the air?

[narrator] Matt's team positions a small amount of LNG inside a canister,

and covers it with an oil drum to mimic the double skin of an LNG tanker.

This will be like the actual fuel truck.

That truck had, like, 7,000 gallons worth of fuel.

And, of course, this will have one or two gallons and less weight.

[narrator] Matt places small charges inside the barrel

to represent the effect of a vehicle hitting the tank,

which could allow the LNG to escape and explode.

And we'll see if we can't get the initial blast,

then the secondary blast, that supersonic bang

will get this thrown through the air.

[narrator] Coming up...

Matt hits the gas.

All right, guys. And here we go!

In three, two, one. Hit it!

And in Pakistan,

a real life exorcist child makes heads spin.

This should not be possible.

This guy's neck should be broken.

He should be dead.

[woman speaking in Chinese, screams]

[narrator] A massive blast destroys a rush hour freeway.

The secretive Chinese authorities say

transporting liquid natural gas is safe,

but Pyrotechnics Expert Matt Kutcher wants to see for himself.

He sets up an experiment to mimic a car colliding with

a reinforced LNG tank like the ones used in China.

[Matt] All right, guys. And here we go!

Three, two, one. Hit it!

Wow, that's a blast.

I mean, like, holy smokes!

[camera rattles]

Let's go check it out. Come on.

-Well, Matty, that went pretty good, man. -Yes, it did.

[Matt] Not bad.

Look at that barrel. It's all distorted, you know.

Started off round, and now look at it.

But hang on, hang on.

The camera is already ejected.

[laughs] It's all fine.

[narrator] The experiment proves that with enough force,

even a reinforced LNG tanker can rupture and explode.

The actual tanker in the video went much farther, no question.

But think about how much fuel it had in it.

It was certainly more powerful,

but our scaled down version did prove that's what we saw.

These road tankers are incredibly dangerous.

The potential energy that's stored inside of them

could create such a vast explosion.

And they're on our roads every day, right alongside of us.

We're driving a car, and there they are.

[narrator] Historian Craig Gottlieb investigates local news reports

and discovers the blast was caused by an LNG truck.

A catastrophic traffic accident

caused both walls of the tank to rupture.

The explosion caused death and devastation.

It kills 19 people, it injures 172 people,

and to make matters worse, when the trailer goes flying through the air,

it lands on a nearby factory.

Causing what? A secondary explosion.

[narrator] But despite the explosion,

Chinese authorities set a goal

of having twice as many LNG trucks on the road by 2025.

Carrying over 38 million tons of potentially explosive liquid death.

And the reality of this is that China's roads

are littered with trucks carrying tons of hazardous materials.

[narrator] A tanker collision with another vehicle

can turn rush hour into a killing field.

You could be on your way to work, and then suddenly like that,

the road just explodes underneath you.

[narrator] Now, Karachi, Pakistan,

November, 2017.

Crowds gather around a boy with an abnormal ability.

[woman] Oh, God!

He grabs his head and turns it

all the way around like some kind of puppet.

It really seems unnatural.

Oh, he does it again.

Ooh. Oh, yeah. No, that's far.

You're not supposed to be able to twist your head back that much.

[narrator] This isn't a trick or CGI.

The boy's head swivels grotesquely round his neck

like his bones are made of rubber.

This shouldn't be possible.

His neck should be broken.

This guy should be dead.

[narrator] Biologist Carin Bondar believes this boy's ability

could be a strange genetic throwback to our animal ancestors.

They're only a few members of the animal kingdom

that have the ability to twist their necks around

by over 180 degrees.

-The owl twists its head nearly all the way around. -[hoots]

We also have sloths that had similar ability

to rotate their head 360 degrees.

[narrator] For most animals, humans included, this movement would be suicide.

Neck bones would break, and twisted arteries

would choke off blood to the brain.

But owls and sloths have evolved to allow this head spinning superpower.

Could this boy be displaying an ancestral trade to spin your head around?

[narrator] Human share 99% of their genetic code

with some primates, and one species is a particular head turner.

The closest relative that has something similar would be the tarsier primate.

The tarsier has extremely stretching neck muscles

that allow it to turn its head and look in nearly the opposite direction.

[narrator] There are many cases of humans

regaining primitive traits of our animal ancestors.

There's a boy in India who was born with a vestigial tail.

And now he's being worshipped because they think

he's the reincarnation of a Hindu monkey God.

[narrator] But not all children born with

animal like abnormalities are so lucky.

Five percent of the population is thought to have an extra nipple.

But in 17th century Europe, an extra nipple was seen as a sign of the devil

and could get you burned at the stake as a witch.

In Pakistan, many believe that spirits can possess the body.

It's no surprise when a kid spins his head 180 degrees,

that people explain that with supernatural forces.

[narrator] Coming up...

Has this boy had sinister surgery

to create a superpower?

Modifying the neck could lead to spinal cord injuries,

paralysis, or even death.

[narrator] And a broadcast from beyond the grave.

What's turning the television on?

It doesn't even have a plug.

[narrator] In Pakistan, a boy is filmed with an owl-like ability.

Experts consider this sickening neck twist

could be a manmade marvel.

The boy seem to manipulate his head

in a particular way to get it to turn around.

[Athena] It doesn't look natural to me.

In fact, it looks unnatural, almost artificial.

Is it possible that the boy's neck has been modified in some way

to allow for this massive range of movement?

[narrator] Body modification appears to be on the rise,

especially in the US.

Americans are going under the knife

to completely modify their body,

to look like something that's come from another planet.

Model Pixee Fox has had 200 separate procedures

to create her dream body,

including having six ribs surgically removed

to achieve a tiny 14-inch waist.

Sawing away six of your ribs

is a major modification to the body.

You're removing half of your rib cage,

the thing that is designed to protect your internal organs.

[narrator] Surgically altering the human neck, so it can twist fully around

could be the most mind bending body mod yet.

The neck is made up of a lot of tiny vertebrae,

which protect the spinal cord and central nervous system.

Any modification could easily lead to paralysis or maybe even death.

[narrator] But biologist Roland Kays believes

the boy might have a dangerous medical condition

that has given him this grisly skill.

What we're seeing here is a genetic condition

that affects his whole skeletal system.

I think he might have joint hyper mobility syndrome.

[narrator] People with hyper mobility can twist and strain their joints

far beyond the normal range of movement.

Having this kind of condition is actually very dangerous

because there's potential to tear or rip tissues in the body

from moving them simply too far.

[narrator] It's understandable this owl boy wants to show off his rare ability,

but the final twist in his story could be an untimely death.

The more he twists and turns, the more damage he's doing to himself.

If he went any further, he might snap his neck.

[narrator] Now, Kaohsiung City, southern Taiwan,

September 29th, 2019.

A man enters a derelict building

after reports of unusual noises.

[man speaking in Chinese]

[in English] He's walking through, and it's clearly not been occupied for a while.

Stuff's piled up, place is trashed.

[narrator] He finds the utilities have been cut off.

No water, no power.

His flashlight illuminates the rotten remains

of a person's life, their furniture, their pictures.

[man speaking in Chinese]

But then...

All of a sudden, the TV in the room burst into life.

It's spooky. It scared the guy filming.

You literally see him jumping back.

[man speaking in Chinese]

He goes and checks the back of the TV,

and it doesn't even have a plug.

How is it getting any power?

You would be wondering

whether there was a supernatural explanation for this.

[bleep]

The person then leaves and apologizes to the ghost.

[man speaking Chinese]

If the TV actually is turning itself on and off,

we really need to ask why and how.

[narrator] Historian Karen Bellinger discovers

that the derelict apartment is said to be haunted

and belonged to a man with a troubled past.

This building was custom-made

to accommodate retired soldiers

who had fought in the Chinese civil war.

[machine gun firing]

[narrator] China's civil war,

a brutal struggle between communists and nationalists

that left over seven million people dead.

In 1949, defeated by the Communists,

1.5 million nationalists flee to Taiwan,

including soldiers who have seen starvation,

rape and murder on an industrial scale.

These were troubled individuals

who were struggling with the traumas of warfare

who lived out these solitary, sad lives

until their ultimate demise.

The idea of ghosts being around, of them

possessing people and objects and places,

is really very common in Taiwan.

A building like this, built to house refugees

of the Chinese civil war would really be seen

by today's Taiwanese as potentially full of ghosts.

It's not a far leap to say, "Well, why not a television?"

[narrator] Coming up... Is the ghost in this machine

a secret power source the government is hiding from the people?

Are they gonna destroy my electronics,

my car, my house, my brain cells?

And does Coney Island have a brand new freak show?

It looked like a monster to me.

[Jayde] It's got legs, but it also looks like a fish.

What is this creature?

[man speaking Chinese]

[narrator] In an abandoned Taiwanese apartment,

-a TV appears to turn itself on... -[bleep]

without the aid of electricity.

Science journalist John Farrow thinks that the design

of this 20th century television holds a clue.

Old school TVs like this are very different

from the flat screens we have around now.

They're called cathode-ray tube televisions

and they have tubes in the back, which shoot

electrons up at the screen.

And the mechanism in behind is sensitive

to electromagnetic radiation.

[narrator] A plug in a socket might not be needed to make

an old TV like this work.

Electrical engineer David Wallace wants to know

if some kind of electrical field could

turn on the television remotely.

What I'm going to try and do is actually induce

an electric field into this TV

using my one million volt AC generator here,

and we will see if it will induce a current

into it to give us an image.

[narrator] Wallace is going to create

an invisible electrical field around the TV.

The cathode-ray tube might react to the field

and fire electrons at the screen,

creating a ghostly glow.

All right. So, let's crank it up.

[soft rumbling]

Okay, bring me to a hundred thousand volts.

[loud thump]

All-righty, give me 200,000.

[loud thump]

[Wallace] Okay, take me to three hundred.

Three hundred!

-[loud thump] -All right. Up to four.

[loud thump]

[narrator] At 400,000 volts

an eerie image begins to form.

Okay, run it to five hundred.

So, this is incredible. It actually worked.

I'm generating this massive,

500,000 volt electromagnetic field here,

and it is inducing enough energy into this TV

to light up the screen,

causing this little blue glow that we're seeing.

[narrator] But outside the lab,

what could be producing such a field?

When we turn on the TV and we see static,

we call that white noise,

that's essentially background radiation

that we're receiving from the area. For example,

microwave radiation coming from cell towers.

[narrator] Across Taiwan, a controversial development

in cellular communication is currently being rolled out.

Taiwan are starting to build 5G towers.

Is that what we're seeing?

5G signals being transmitted

and turning on the CRT TVs.

[narrator] 5G is supposed to revolutionize our lives,

promising limitless connectivity,

unleashing AI and smart machines.

The vast majority of scientists claim

5G is safe for humans.

But in 2017, 180 scientists from 36 countries write

to the European Union

demanding that the 5G rollout be stopped.

There are a lot of fears regarding 5G

because it's high energy waves,

um, and some believe that those could have harmful effects.

[narrator] In 2019, a cell phone tower

near a school in California is shut down

when four children and three teachers develop tumors.

In Belgium, over a thousand health workers sign a letter

raising concerns that 5G will corrupt DNA and cause cancer.

To date, no direct link has ever been established

between 5G and human illness.

But we're supposed to just sit back and let

5G get completely rolled out, exposing us to...

something that we still technically don't know

what it will do to us in the long run.

[narrator] Is this TV terror evidence of the power of 5G,

an invisible energy force secretly surging

through unplugged appliances

and any humans who are in the way?

If there's enough energy beaming through that room

to turn on a TV,

imagine what it could do to the human body.

There must be some source of energy for this TV.

And a lot of local people in Taiwan might

think that it's a ghost.

But maybe the government knows something they don't.

[narrator] Now, Coney Island, 14 miles from Manhattan.

April 28, 2018.

Nataliia Vorobok is fishing with a friend

when she hooks something horrifying.

[Nataliia] What is it?

I've never seen something like that.

It's so weird.

I was afraid to touch it.

And I was telling him not to touch it

because it could be poisonous.

Or it could be like-- it could bite you.

Or it could have teeth.

It's like "I'm in some kind of horror movie."

[narrator] This beast has the slimy skin of a fish

but no visible fins.

It has a gaping mouth, skewed to one side of its face

and weird tentacle-like legs.

Biologists are shocked by its hideous appearance.

Ew!

Has some weird science experiment backfired?

Wow, what is it that we're looking at?

[Dustin] I'm almost half-expecting this thing

to stand up and walk away.

[narrator] Anthropologist Dustin Growick studies

the creature's bizarre body

and is reminded of Coney Island's sinister history.

This mysterious creature was caught

off the coast of Coney Island,

a place that, historically, has housed

many different freak shows, both human and animal.

[narrator] Local historian Adam Rinn is familiar

with Coney Island's dark and dismal past.

[Adam] Ladies and gentlemen, step right up.

Come one, come all, come big, come small,

right here to Coney Island, USA,

and the Coney Island Circus Sideshow,

where you will see incredible acts,

and unusual feats right before your very eyes.

That's right. Right now...

it's showtime.

[narrator] In the early 1900s, Dreamland Amusement Park is

the boardwalk's star attraction,

featuring a degrading and shocking series

of bizarre spectacles.

It housed the largest permanent collection

of sideshow performers,

of "freaks" in the entire world.

These were people who were born unlike you or I.

They could have had a parasitic twin attached to them.

They could have had excessive hair,

extra limbs, no limbs.

[narrator] They were displayed to a gawking public.

Freak animals were also put on display.

Cats with extra paws,

a two-headed goat.

Then, of course, there were mutated fish,

animals from deep within the sea.

[narrator] In 1911, Dreamland goes up in flames.

While the human exhibits flee,

only some of the weird creatures are rescued.

Many are never found.

Who knows what went into the water

and what mutant creatures may still be around.

[narrator] Coming up... Could this creepy catch

be a killer from the deep?

What we see on the tail is actually a deadly weapon.

[narrator] And scientists fear a visitor from Venus.

Could this blue glow be an alien life form

trying to colonize the planet?

[narrator] In New York, a mysterious monster is pulled

from the murky waters off Coney Island.

It seems to have legs as well as fins.

Zoologist Roland Kays believes this freaky fish might be

a strange product of its environment.

From a pollution point of view,

the waters around Coney Island are in bad shape.

[narrator] New York produces a staggering quantity of garbage.

Its restaurants alone churn out enough waste

to fill one hundred subway cars every day.

Back in 1947, city planners came up with a solution.

Fresh Kills on Staten Island, the largest landfill on earth.

[Jayde] This place receives

everything that New York City doesn't want.

All of the disgusting offshoots of New York

end up here in Fresh Kills.

[narrator] The site closes in late 2001,

but it's lethal legacy still lives on today.

Fresh Kills has been leeching toxic waste

into the waters of Coney Island for decades.

[narrator] And it gets worse, Coney Island is

also surrounded by heavy industry

that has helped infect the water

with a foul-smelling sludge.

The fetid, murky ooze nicknamed,

tastily, "black mayonnaise."

[narrator] It's not a mayo you'd want to put

on your sandwich.

[Roland] It's a thick, black goo

made up of a combination of industrial waste

and sewage

with dozens of chemicals known to cause cancer.

[narrator] Anything living in it is likely to be riddled

with disfiguring tumors.

Are we maybe seeing a creature that has evolved

to live amongst this toxic black mayonnaise?

[narrator] Worse still, mutant fish could be

taking over the food chain.

[Jayde] There's a species of fish, the tomcod,

that used to get liver tumors

from all of the toxicity in the water,

but they don't anymore.

So the concerning thing from a biological perspective

is that the animals are evolving to live

within this toxic waste.

The young tomcod are eaten by sea bass.

The sea bass ingests the same pollutants the tomcod did,

and people like to eat sea bass.

Well, you can do the math there.

Those pollutants will make their way right up the food chain.

We are literally eating the toxic waste that's being

pumped into New York City's waterways.

[narrator] But marine biologist Erik Hovland studies

the creature's two mutant limbs

and sees something that might explain its origins.

[Erik] What appears as a pair of legs on the back

is a set of fins called claspers,

and they're unique to the males.

Their reproductive organs, essentially a pair of penises

that help fertilize the eggs of the female counterpart.

[narrator] Hovland believes this creature belongs

to a distinct group of sea monsters called Rays.

They can grow over 25 feet across

and weigh 5,000 pounds,

and all have one recognizable feature.

A long, slender tail with a venomous barb,

they can deliver a toxic sting.

[narrator] These venomous barbs can be

deadly to their unfortunate victims,

causing cell death and internal bleeding.

Nataliia Vorobok was right to be scared,

and not just of the possibility

of a mutated ray with a fatal sting.

[Nataliia] After what I saw,

I would never go and swim in here again.

[narrator] These creatures feed

on other bottom-dwelling organisms,

sucking up Coney Island's pollution.

So it could be only a matter of time

before this strange fish gets even stranger.

Given enough industrial waste,

I hate to think what this creature could become.

[narrator] Now, Madrid, the capital city of Spain.

March 20th, 2020.

A young woman looks up and sees

an unexplained blue, pulsing light inside a cloud.

This blue glowing blob just kind of magically appears.

[Athena] It's kind of eerie when you look at it

because there's nothing else going on in the sky

except for this blue patch.

What is it?

What is going on?

[narrator] This isn't a storm or an aircraft,

and it isn't city lights.

This is March, 2020.

There is a national curfew in effect,

no clubs, no bars and no events.

This normally vibrant city is locked down.

So what company is going to be spending thousands of dollars for flood lights

to light up the sky at this time of night

when nobody would be looking at it?

[narrator] And it's not just Madrid that's affected.

This sinister blue light is

being seen all over the planet.

I'm seeing reports that this sort of sighting is happening everywhere.

Europe, the UK and even all the way back to Pennsylvania.

It's rather shocking that there's all these events

happening all over the world.

Whatever this is, it's everywhere.

[narrator] Coming up... Could these lights be

first contact with beings from another world?

We've been looking for extraterrestrial life for years,

and some people think this could be it.

[narrator] An otherworldly blue light appears

in the clouds over Spain.

Astrophysicist Athena Brensberger believes

it could be a visitor from our nearest planetary neighbor.

There was a recent discovery in Venus' upper atmosphere

by American and British scientists.

They discovered phosphine, which is a indicator of life.

[narrator] On Venus, the idea of life was

once thought to be impossible.

Temperatures on the ground are around 900 degrees,

enough to melt lead,

along with crushing atmospheric pressure.

On Earth, phosphine gas is produced by resilient microbes

that survive in extreme, toxic environments.

Well, on Venus, it turns out, if you get up high enough

in the atmosphere, the conditions are very similar to Earth.

Similar temperatures, similar pressures.

[Athena] It's in the clouds of Venus that some astronomers say

they possibly found signs of life.

[narrator] Although Venus' upper atmosphere may be temperate,

it's not somewhere you'd want to be.

Its clouds are made of deadly carbon dioxide

and sulfuric acid.

Anything living up there would probably be

pretty hardcore and tough.

For all we know, it could be

a life form that glows bright blue.

[narrator] It's a terrifying idea,

but it's possible that life from Venus could get to Earth

by hitching a ride on a passing asteroid.

Who knows what alien life forms might

do to our planet?

[narrator] The results could be devastating

if the aggressive new visitor takes hold of our skies,

choking off oxygen, and perhaps producing

carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid

to take its place.

Could this blue glow be an alien life form

trying to colonize the planet?

These strange new animals could conquer the world's atmosphere.

[Athena] They could adapt to earth and completely kill off the human race,

and then this would be their new planet.

[narrator] But biologist Carin Bondar sees

something in the glow that reminds her

of exotic earthly creatures.

Life on Earth is astounding and diverse,

and there's even creatures

that can literally glow in the dark.

This blue glow is quite familiar, it looks

like the color I've seen from bioluminescent algae.

[narrator] Algal blooms can stretch for miles out at sea

and fluoresce after being churned up by waves,

creating brilliant light shows.

They may be beautiful, but they can also be deadly.

[Roland] When algal blooms get really bad,

they release nasty chemicals into the water.

And what's even worse is the algae,

by growing so much, end up sucking all the oxygen

out of the water,

leaving any other marine animals to suffocate.

Could bioluminescent algae have been

carried up into the clouds?

Is that what we're seeing here?

[narrator] If the glowing entity in our skies

is an atmospheric algae,

it would pose a mortal danger to all life on Earth.

Algae is certainly small enough

to get whipped up by a storm,

and because they're so light

they might be able to stay suspended in the cloud.

[narrator] If strong winds can sweep algae up into the sky,

atmospheric air currents could

help it spread across the world.

Around 450 million years ago,

an algae apocalypse may have wiped out

over 80% of life on Earth.

The composition of Earth's atmosphere suddenly changes.

Temperatures plummet, plunging the planet into an ice age.

An event known as the late Ordovician extinction.

Who's to say that this couldn't happen again?

[narrator] Temperatures could drop to -58 degrees,

turning our earth into a frozen wasteland

devoid of life.

To think that it couldn't happen again is just naive.

[narrator] Expeditions are planned to investigate

the mysterious, otherworldly lights

illuminating the clouds.

But the blue glows vanishes quickly as they appear.

Despite scientific advances of the 21st century,

we still don't understand everything we see,

and this blue light in the sky is one of them.