Original subtitles

Narrator: World war mars,

the global conflict 300 million years ago

that may have destroyed life on the red planet...

The weapons not only wiped out the civilization

but basically destroyed the biosphere on mars

so it could never recover.

Narrator: ...L. Ron hubbard ran off with my girlfriend,

the exploding occult magician behind nasa's rocket program...

Zimmerman: He was a genius.

The things he invented started america off on the space race.

Narrator: ...A signal from space

some scientists think is from a giant spaceship...

[ electricity crackling ]

man: These radio bursts

could be a sign of alien propulsion systems.

♪

narrator: These are "nasa's unexplained files."

-- captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by discovery communications

August 2012,

nasa's curiosity rover arrives on mars.

Just beneath the surface, nasa scientists are expecting

to find red, oxidized iron dust and plenty of it.

What they're not expecting to find

is evidence of a nuclear war,

a devastating conflict that seems to have taken place

on mars 300 million years ago.

Curiosity rover has been sent to mars

to analyze the chemical composition of the red planet.

What it finds, to the surprise of planetary scientists,

are significant amounts of xenon-129.

The mars curiosity rover found that the abundance of xenon-129

is much higher than what we see here on earth.

What process is creating this enhanced abundance of xenon?

Narrator: Scientists around the world struggled to explain

the presence of this radioactive isotope.

Among those analyzing the data is dr. John brandenburg,

a former nasa physicist and deputy manager

on the clementine moon mission.

Brandenburg is amazed for one simple reason.

Xenon-129 is the by-product of nuclear weapon explosions.

Dr. Brandenburg: I have shown this

to several nuclear weapons experts,

and they have affirmed that this is nuclear weapon signature.

There is no other process

that can create such a xenon spectrum.

Narrator: Earth has experienced

over 70 years of atomic bomb testing,

each time leaving traces of xenon-129,

but the xenon-129 reading on mars

is still two and a half times higher than that found on earth.

Gottlieb: The presence of certain elements on mars

indicate that there was a nuclear explosion

or explosions on the surface of mars

at some point in the planet's history.

Narrator: Brandenburg observes two nuclear hot spots

in the northern hemisphere of mars

where radiation levels are higher

than anywhere else on the planet.

What's more, it appears the nuclear blasts

were occurring in midair, above the surface.

What's also interesting is what is not found.

There is no crater at either site

indicating that these explosions were air bursts.

Narrator: The size of the radioactive hot spots

leads brandenburg to a devastating conclusion.

We're talking a nuclear weapon

the size of the empire state building

dropped from space

and detonating kilometers above the surface.

Gottlieb: Historically, if you look at pictures

and listen to firsthand accounts of the explosion of the bombs

at nagasaki and hiroshima,

it's the same sort of thing, no crater but massive explosion,

massive expansive energy, total destruction

of everything in that energy's path.

Narrator: Brandenburg has analyzed

the mars rover data to establish

when this nuclear holocaust occurred.

Best estimates for timescale based on isotopic evidence

is that this happened 300 million years ago.

This could turn our concept of mars completely on its head.

Narrator: Many scientists believe

that millions of years ago,

mars had an atmosphere and liquid water,

conditions where life could thrive.

Mars might even have had oceans and lakes.

Narrator: Humans have looked for signs of life on mars

since telescopes could first scan its surface.

In 1877, giovanni schiaparelli mistakenly thinks

he sees irrigation or transport canals

crisscrossing the martian landscape.

In 1976, the viking probe sends back low-resolution photos

wrongly identifying pyramids and a giant sphynx-like face,

but in 2016, mars reconnaissance orbiter

beams back higher-quality images of what some have interpreted

as the ruins of bronze age-style walled cities.

Major: Obviously, a civilization in that state

wouldn't have had the capability

to blow themselves up with nuclear weapons,

which means that somehow some other predatory alien race

must have intervened.

Imagine the inhabitants of this martian civilization.

All of a sudden, there's huge flashes of light and heat.

Destruction rains everywhere,

and everything you've ever known is destroyed in an instant.

It literally would have been hell on mars.

Dr. Brandenburg: The weapons not only wiped out the civilization

but basically destroyed the biosphere of mars

so it could never recover.

Narrator: The idea of a martian civilization

destroyed in this way seems incredible,

and scientists have looked for other explanations

for the presence of xenon-129 on mars.

After all, it is possible for nuclear activity of sorts

to take place in nature.

On the continent of africa, in the country of gabon,

there's a uranium deposit that's been discovered,

and it shows clear evidence of a sustained nuclear reaction

similar to what occurs in our fission reactors.

Narrator: Under very unique conditions,

water flowing through the uranium deposit

can cause fission,

the same process used inside an atom bomb.

But this thing did what it did 1.7 billion years ago.

Not only were there no humans around then,

there wasn't even multicellular life on earth.

Nature has illustrated that it can create

its own nuclear reactors.

The question is, could this same event

have occurred naturally on mars?

Narrator: But former nasa physicist dr. John brandenburg

says the material found on mars

cannot have been produced by any natural nuclear process.

A natural nuclear reactor, if it had gone unstable on mars,

not only would produce the wrong xenon spectrum,

but it would have created two massive craters,

and there was no craters.

The ground is absolutely smooth.

Narrator: Brandenburg believes the evidence points

in one direction.

300 million years ago, intelligent life on mars

was destroyed in a nuclear war of the worlds.

Dr. Brandenburg: We have now discovered that humanity

is not the most evil species in the cosmos.

We are not an aberration on nature.

We're a part of the fabric of the universe,

and not everything in the universe is friendly.

Gottlieb: If this happened and mars was attacked by aliens,

it happened when there was

virtually no intelligent life on earth,

so they wouldn't have noticed us, but the question remains.

Now that we're here, are they coming back?

♪

narrator: June 17, 1952,

millionaires' row, pasadena, california.

The well-heeled neighborhood is rocked by an enormous explosion.

The emergency crews rushed to the scene,

and they find this absolute devastation.

There's blood everywhere.

There's the shattered body of a man on the floor.

He's got a limb severed.

He's just... Incredible injuries.

Narrator: The fatally wounded man

is no ordinary pasadena resident.

This is nasa rocket pioneer jack parsons.

Jack parsons is the cofounder of nasa's jet propulsion labs.

He was a genius.

The things he invented started america off on the space race.

Narrator: But there's more to jack parsons

than rocket science.

After he's taken to hospital, they look around,

and they find this weird stuff.

There are papers scattered all around,

strange symbols, pentagrams.

Something strange was going on.

Narrator: Jack parsons didn't just believe in science.

He believed in black magic.

So you've got this guy who, in his day job,

he's doing amazing, brilliant rocket-science work.

By night, he practiced weird occult magic.

So you have to ask yourself,

was it an accident,

was it a suicide,

or did the occult rituals work?

Some believe they did.

♪

narrator: Coming up,

the genius behind nasa's rocket technology

believes there is secret science hidden in black magic.

You have to ask, did jack parsons discover

a real link between quantum theory and magic?

Narrator: Jack parsons,

the rocket genius who got nasa into space,

is killed in what some suspect is a black-magic ritual

gone horribly wrong.

Investigators find parsons always flirted with danger,

even at the start of his career as a student at caltech in 1935.

His group was known as the suicide squad.

Orwoll: They were kind of banished

to the outskirts of the campus

because what they were doing was so dangerous.

They'd go out in aurora canyon,

lay down behind little hills and sandbags.

They're firing rocket motors 10, 20 feet away,

these liquid rocket motors and solid rocket motors,

and everybody was always putting themselves at risk.

Narrator: In time, parsons' solid-fuel rockets

will become the basis for the minuteman missile,

the titan rocket

and eventually the space shuttle boosters.

His success leads to the foundation

of nasa's legendary jet propulsion laboratory

and makes parsons a rich man,

but building rockets to reach space

is not the limit of parsons' ambition.

He's fascinated by the mysterious

new science of quantum mechanics

and connects it with the world of the so-called paranormal.

Quantum theory promises to upend traditional newtonian theories,

and parsons loves it.

Narrator: Quantum theory is rock-solid science,

but for some, it also appears to have magical properties.

A particle doesn't have to be here or there.

It can be here and there at the same time.

Particles can be in multiple states at the same time.

Quantum theory states that there are other dimensions,

and quantum theory also states

that particles can influence each other over great distances.

It's not hard to see how people encountering quantum physics

for the first time could think that it's magic.

Narrator: In 1941, parsons joins a secret society

known as ordo templi orientis,

practitioners of the occult.

Parsons is not a casual observer.

He goes deep into the occult.

Szulgit: With his occult magic,

he was specifically interested in ritual summoning.

He wanted to bring entities from other realms

that he thought existed in the quantum space.

[ men chanting ]

narrator: Parsons' occult obsessions take a demonic turn

as he studies under legendary satanist aleister crowley.

The charismatic devil worshipper's teaching

soon seeps into parsons' work on spaceflight.

Not only does parsons get to know crowley,

but he performs his ritual before rocket tests.

Narrator: Crowley claimed his rituals put him in contact

with a being called lam, who his followers connect

with space-traveling alien life-forms.

For parsons, the idea of rocketry and the occult

were not separable.

They were actually complementary to each other.

He saw them both as helping us to push our minds

toward the understanding

of the fundamental processes of the universe.

Narrator: In 1945, science-fiction writer

and scientology founder l. Ron hubbard

moves into the rocket scientist's pasadena mansion.

Parsons' determination to prove a link between science and magic

is taken to a whole new level.

Gottlieb: Parsons and hubbard go deep.

They start to do all sorts of ritualistic occult practices,

conjurings, the summoning of demons, of goddesses.

Narrator: Some observers report the duo's quantum-magic rituals

are working in bizarre and disturbing ways.

One time, the guests claimed he summoned a banshee...

[ growls ]

...That rattled the windows,

which left them disturbed for the rest of their lives.

Narrator: Hubbard's energizing presence

gives parsons the chance

to perform the biggest experiment in quantum magic

he has ever attempted.

The relationship between parsons and l. Ron hubbard

is about to explode in a spectacular way.

[ electricity crackling ]

as their relationship develops,

hubbard convinces parsons to give him $20,000.

That's a lot of money.

Narrator: Hubbard literally sails off in his yacht

with parsons' girlfriend and his money.

In a fit of vengeful madness,

parsons decides to test out his weird cocktail

of black magic and quantum physics.

Gottlieb: What's parsons' solution?

Well, he's going to force the yacht back to shore.

Narrator: He attempts to summon a storm.

Whether parsons discovers a real link

between quantum theory and magic or not,

the weather begins to change.

There is, in fact, a storm,

and the yacht does have to return to harbor.

Narrator: But these deeply unsettling experiments

do not endear parsons to the u.S. Government.

This is not good for his career as a rocket scientist.

He falls out of favor with the military industrial complex.

He loses his job,

and what does he do?

He decides to make pyrotechnics for the motion-picture industry.

Narrator: And this turn of events

will eventually seal his fate

in a spectacular fashion.

Zimmerman: So he's gone from a rocket hero

to creating pyrotechnics for hollywood,

and that's when the explosion occurs.

♪

narrator: Coming up, modern-day scientists

confirm there may be some truth in parsons'

seemingly crazy ideas.

Is it possible that parsons was using quantum theory

to make occult magic in pasadena?

Narrator: And massive energy bursts in space

leave astronomers scrambling for answers.

These are some of the most powerful

objects in the universe,

and we have no idea what's going on.

Narrator: Rocket genius jack parsons

is killed in an explosion at his pasadena home.

His body is surrounded by the bizarre paraphernalia

of black magic.

The police finding an explosion having occurred,

the body being mangled,

the strange occult papers around it,

starts up all the questions that you'd expect.

Well, what really happened here?

Narrator: The police investigation

concludes that parsons' death was due to an accident,

probably from sloppy handling of chemicals for his pyrotechnics,

but an independent investigator found that the explosion

unexpectedly originated from under the floorboards

rather than in the laboratory that parsons was working in,

furthering suspicion as to what disturbing activities

parsons was involved in when he died.

Is it possible that parsons was using quantum theory

to make occult magic in pasadena?

Narrator: Parsons' quantum theories were widely rejected,

and nasa viewed him as an embarrassment.

Some people thought he was downright nuts, literally.

Not screws loose, screws missing, all sorts of crazy.

Narrator: But today, some modern scientists

like theoretical physicist dr. Fred alan wolf

have concluded that something like a spirit world

is encoded in a quantum state,

a parallel dimension that intersects with our own.

Did jack parsons discover something

that we don't know about

and maybe he took to his grave when he blew up in pasadena?

We'll never know.

♪

narrator: Across the world, radio telescopes face skywards

to unravel the mysteries of the universe

and to spot threats to our planet.

In September 2007, scientists detect something massive

that seems to be the work of an alien intelligence.

For 5 milliseconds, this telescope picked up a signal

that was 500 million times more powerful than the sun.

So what we see are these enormously powerful outpourings

of energy in the form of radio waves

that don't fit the profile

of any of the processes that we know.

Billings: First thought is, "well, that's freaky."

was it interference?

Was it maybe someone microwaving their lunch at lunchtime?

But these things kept happening, again and again and again.

Eventually, it was proved that they're coming from

deep, deep space.

Narrator: Scientists record over 60 of the baffling

tremendously powerful bursts of energy

coming from unknown locations,

spread right across the universe.

They become known as fast radio bursts or frbs,

and some are even seen to repeat in a seemingly unnatural rhythm.

These mysterious ferocious, yet fleetingly brief,

bursts leave scientists

scrambling to explain their origin.

These are some of the most powerful

objects in the universe,

and we have no idea what's going on.

The question is, is this some natural process

that we haven't previously encountered,

or is it something being done deliberately

by a civilization much more advanced than our own?

Narrator: Coming up, scientists consider

that the massive energy burst

could be signs of a super advanced technology.

These radio bursts could be a sign

of alien propulsion systems.

♪

narrator: Immensely powerful bursts of energy

500 million times more powerful than the sun

are recorded across deep space.

The question is, could this be something that is artificial?

Narrator: Some astrophysicists believe

that the frbs could be evidence

of aliens launching massive star sail spacecraft.

One idea put forward by avi loeb of harvard university

and some of his associates is that perhaps

this is some wildly powerful,

wildly advanced alien civilization

using immensely potent radio waves

to send spacecraft all throughout the universe.

Narrator: The radio waves hit the star sails

and accelerate the craft

just as the wind propels a sailboat at sea.

You can conceivably accelerate a fairly large,

fairly light ship up to a large fraction of the speed of light

just by pushing on it with a sufficiently intense beam

generated on the ground at home,

where you have plenty of fuel to burn.

So you're talking about building a transmitter

the size of a planet,

powered by a power source the size of an entire star.

You could imagine there might be alien civilizations

that could harness these degrees of power

and have this degree of engineering

to pull off this sort of crazy feat.

Narrator: On earth, nasa has already attempted

to build their own space sails,

testing their deployment in orbit around our planet,

but a discovery made by nasa during their tests

leads scientists to question whether alien star sailors

really would propel their ships using fast radio bursts.

Radio wouldn't necessarily be your first choice of methods

to propel this.

You get a much greater punch out of shooting

a beam of visible light,

which is why the proposals to do this from earth

mostly involve large arrays of visible lasers.

Advanced civilizations probably leapt beyond a sail ship.

They are more than likely using something that's more akin

to being able to bend or warp time and space

in order to get from one place to another.

Narrator: For now, the true nature of the fast radio bursts

lies tantalizingly out of reach.

One day, an alien sail ship might come into view.

Until then, scientists must keep scanning the skies for clues.

Alexander: We have a handful of compelling theories,

but you know what? We actually don't know.

We have no conclusive explanation

as to what's causing these fast radio bursts.

They're a complete mystery.

♪

narrator: To the human eye,

the earth is solid, stable and calm,

but this is an illusion.

Proctor: The earth is like a spinning top in space.

We are moving at 67,000 miles per hour around the sun,

but we're also spinning at 1,000 miles per hour on our axis.

Narrator: As the earth careens through space,

our spinning-top planet rotates on an axis

running through the north and south poles,

but in the year 2000,

nasa scientists spot something deeply troubling.

Our planet's rotational axis is changing.

The rotational axis of the earth generally moves further westward

every single year, but suddenly, in year 2000,

scientists measured that the north pole started

shifting more towards the east out of nowhere.

Narrator: Scientists knew the pole was moving westward

and predicted it would continue to do so.

Now it's switched direction.

This is a groundbreaking discovery.

Narrator: Worst still,

the pole is moving twice as fast as it was before,

and it seems to be accelerating.

This change is surprising, both in the rate

that it's happening and how strong it is.

If this migration of the north pole continues to go east,

the equator will then come up to reach chicago,

and now you have chicago at the equator,

and things get really bizarre.

Narrator: The wandering position of the earth's spin axis

could dramatically shift the world's climate,

changing the united states into a vast, baked desert.

Rising temperatures would cause the mighty mississippi

to evaporate to a feeble trickle.

Agonizing droughts cause the lush farmlands of virginia

to turn to cracked, barren wilderness,

while the forests of this once green nation burn to ash.

Radebaugh: Let's say you're living in las angeles.

Everything just keeps heating up, heating up and heating up.

There's no way to avoid all the water

just being evaporated away.

It'd be a dry, barren, very hot wasteland.

Tomlinson: Anything that couldn't adapt would die.

It would be impossible to sustain agriculture.

There would be famine.

We would have a migration crisis

like none the world has ever seen.

[ people screaming ]

narrator: The rest of the earth as we know it

would be turned on its head.

The south pacific would be locked in sheet ice.

The arctic would melt.

Europe would become home to the new north pole,

5,000 years of civilization reduced to a frigid wasteland.

Proctor: We absolutely couldn't survive.

I mean, it's a bizarro world

that it's almost hard to imagine.

The question is, why is this happening?

Is there something that's just throwing the earth off-kilter?

Narrator: Scientists must discover what's causing this

potentially catastrophic shift.

They use the twin satellites of nasa's grace mission.

Orbiting 300 miles above the earth's poles,

the two identical spacecraft are mapping subtle changes

in the planet's mass.

They find something is pushing the earth out of balance.

The mass distribution on the earth has changed a little bit,

and that affects how the earth spins and wobbles.

Imagine you're spinning a soccer ball,

and you put a piece of gum on one side of the ball.

That's going to change the way the ball ends up spinning.

Proctor: If you change the weight of the earth on one side,

you can cause it to, well, rotate over.

Narrator: Grace scours the globe to pinpoint the location

of the change in the mass of the earth.

Finally, scientists uncover the horrifying truth.

Coming up, experts race to find a way to wrestle the earth

back to its rightful position.

Will we cross a tipping point where there's no return?

Narrator: And a brave new world

creates mankind's deadliest rival.

The people who arrive on proxima centauri b

might become the first new species of humanoids.

Narrator: Since the year 2000,

scientists have been investigating

why our planet's rotational axis is changing.

With a potential to wreak havoc with the world's weather,

scientists have been monitoring the shift

with the use of satellites from nasa's grace mission.

Grace is identifying this change in mass over india.

Brensberger: Scientists discovered

that it's due to pumping groundwater

that's causing this change in weight distribution

on our planet.

Tomlinson: Humans have pulled so much water out of the aquifers

for agricultural purposes

that it's actually changing the balance of mass on the planet.

Sori: This is really remarkable that human activity represents

enough of a change in the mass distribution of the planet

that it can actually have effects on earth's spin

and polar wander of the earth.

Narrator: India, home to nearly 1.4 billion people,

is soon to become the most heavily populated country

on earth.

India's demand for water is so intense,

its 12 million water pumps remove water

equivalent to the volume of lake erie every two years,

water nature cannot replace quickly enough.

Proctor: It's actually mind-boggling

that we are moving enough water

that it actually affects the earth,

the planet we live on.

That's...Well, it's huge.

Narrator: Further analysis shows india isn't the only place

where the earth's mass is being changed by human activity.

Take china as an example.

They have poured more concrete in three years

than all of the united states in the 20th century.

That's a mind-boggling amount of concrete.

We're talking about tiny changes

compared to the overall weight of the earth,

but tiny changes can have enormous impacts.

Narrator: Across china, the totalitarian state

embarks on construction projects,

the likes of which the world has never seen at breakneck speed.

Chinese families and their homes are bulldozed

to make way for these megastructures,

but everyone on the planet is set to suffer

as the weight of concrete

redistributes the mass of the earth.

Schultz: We think we're just simply ants on a ball,

just little things that can't affect anything, yet we do.

It's our action that affects the earth.

Narrator: And when scientists analyze the changes further,

they realize the mass anomalies

caused by concrete and water use in asia

are located in the worst possible places on the globe.

Brensberger: Now, the changes happening are pretty tiny

compared to the mass of our planet,

but because of where they're happening

is what can cause major effects to our planet overall.

Schultz: The most sensitive part on the earth

to change the spin axis is at around 45 degrees.

That's the sweet spot.

Radebaugh: This is really a problem because most of us

live in those locations.

There aren't many people that live near the poles.

We're going to continue to lose mass in terms of groundwater

in the populated areas,

that 45 degrees all the way down to the equator.

Narrator: The changing mass of the earth

is likely to accelerate

and with it, the way the planet rotates.

America's future as a desolate equatorial wasteland

could arrive sooner than we thought.

It's a terrifying possibility.

Nothing would ever be the same again.

Narrator: Scientists are running out of time to find a way

to get the planet's rotational axis back on track.

If we're going to fix it, we're going to have to get radical.

Either we deconstruct the cities and refill the aquifers

that we've depleted, or we get extreme.

We build counterbalance cities,

maybe somewhere in south america.

Maybe in the next 30 years, we need 20 million people

to move to chile.

Narrator: Alongside new south american cities,

mankind will literally have to move mountains

to redistribute the mass of the earth.

Preventing the extinction of america

will require the greatest international cooperation

the world has ever seen,

but many scientists believe it is possible.

I do believe that humans would find a way

to geoengineer their way out of this situation,

to get the earth back to how it used to be.

If we can't stop it, our world will become a wasteland.

Billings: There's one troubling thing about tipping points.

If you tip too far over,

you're going to topple into a nightmare.

[ people screaming ]

narrator: August 2016, astronomers discover something

that could change the future of humanity.

Studying proxima centauri, the closest star to our sun,

they detect a planet orbiting around it.

What's more, the planet seems earthlike.

They name it proxima centauri b.

Proxima centauri b is about the mass of earth.

It looks like it's in the habitable zone of its star.

I mean, how amazing is that?

Narrator: It's called proxima because it's so close,

so close that nasa may already be capable of getting us there.

Tomlinson: Hard as it may be to believe,

technology for reaching proxima centauri b

has actually existed since the 1950s.

It's called the project orion spaceship.

Basically, it's a large pogo stick that moves through space

by exploding nuclear bombs behind it.

The dream of exploration is burning within us,

so there are people who will find a way

to get to proxima centauri b.

Narrator: Project orion could deliver

thousands of intrepid human pioneers

to the brave new world of proxima b

by the end of the century, but a 2017 nasa report reveals

that when the colonists reach the surface of their new home,

it will be the greatest survival challenge

mankind has ever faced.

The nasa study looks at how earthlike and habitable

proxima b might be, and it's not good news.

So proxima centauri b may be a habitable planet,

but it's also probably a dangerous place

to live, at least for us.

Narrator: The greatest risk to the colonists

come from their new sun.

Proxima centauri is a red dwarf, and that makes it dangerous.

Because proxima centauri is much smaller and much cooler

than the sun, the planet around it

actually needs to be a lot closer to the star

in order to be in the habitable zone.

It's about 20 times closer to its host star

than earth is to the sun.

Russ: But it also means

that planet gets lashed by up to 2,000 times

more solar winds and cosmic rays and ultraviolet rays

than our own sun does for earth.

Narrator: When the colonists stride out onto the surface

of their new home planet,

the sun in the sky appears large, dark and red,

a glorious sight,

but it means the planet is under threat from giant solar flares.

From this scorching sun,

humans would have to find shelter.

Once the colonists get to proxima b,

they need to get out of the way of that radiation,

and the best place to avoid that is underground.

Perhaps we'll be able to establish cities

that are beneath the surface.

Narrator: The colonists must build a new kind

of largely subterranean civilization.

On earth, our brains and our bodies have been shaped

by the environment we contend with,

the landforms, the oceans,

the chemical makeup of the atmosphere.

Scientists believe an alien environment like proxima b

could change humans into something very different.

It's hard to imagine what it would be like to live

in one of these underground colonies.

What would that do to a person in their lifetime?

What would that do to humans over evolutionary time?

Could a colony on proxima centauri b

eventually produce a new species, nova sapiens?

♪

narrator: Human colonists could reach proxima b

by the end of the century.

To survive the intense radiation on the surface,

they would have to settle underground.

Under those harsh conditions, scientists believe the colonists

might not stay human for long.

So one of the things that darwin assumed was true about evolution

is that it has to happen slowly,

and now we know that that's not true.

If you had a separate colonist group that travels away

and leaves humanity, the rest of humanity, behind,

they would certainly begin to evolve differently

from those who were left on planet earth.

Here on earth, we know that populations can evolve

even in just a matter of a few generations.

Any changes that happen, for example from mutations

caused by all of the radiation exposure,

will make them different in a much faster rate

than what we'd have here on earth.

Narrator: The planet's higher mass,

1.3 times that of the earth,

would have the most immediate effect.

What we might see is that people become adapted

to a higher gravity environment,

for example by having stronger bones and stronger muscles.

Narrator: The colonists' subterranean existence

may have an even more dramatic effect on their evolution.

Away from the light,

most likely they're going to be very pale in complexion.

Goodbye, vacation tan

because you're not affected by the rays of the sun anymore.

Solomon: On earth,

organisms that live in low-light conditions,

like those that are nocturnal, often have very large eyes,

so would humans evolve to have larger eyes if we're living

in relatively low-light conditions underground?

Hovland: These mole people, if you will,

would be pale and huge eyes.

Maybe even their other senses

would adapt to this dark environment.

It could also really harden the colonists

and create an environment

were you must literally struggle to survive,

a very competitive environment.

Narrator: This competitive environment

would push natural selection into overdrive.

The human colonists of proxima b

could soon evolve into a new species,

the mole-like nova sapiens,

but meanwhile on earth, the humans who stayed behind

would be going through an evolution of their own.

Studies have already shown that we're seeing changes

in our jaw structure, for example.

They're getting smaller.

We're eating more processed food.

We're not crunching down on grains

or breaking open bones and eating marrow.

We're eating snickers bars.

Another change we're seeing in our own human physiology

is our heads are getting smaller.

Buy a hat lately?

You might not need an xl anymore.

It's because our brains are becoming more efficient.

Narrator: The earthlings of the future

will use their highly efficient brains

to interact with evermore sophisticated technologies.

As we move forward and we become

a more technologically advanced society,

the traits that allow us to interface with that technology

will be the ones that are highly prized,

whereas traits that allow us to,

say, be really good at lifting rocks

or hunting for things will diminish.

Narrator: On proxima b, the nova sapiens are hardened

by the extreme challenges of their planet.

Pictures of earth beamed through space

give them a tantalizing glimpse

of what their ancestors left behind.

There would definitely be proxima b colonists

who would see the grass as greener on earth,

partly because they would not have grass,

but also because of the freedom of resources,

just the wealth of our planet.

How could you not be jealous of that?

Certainly, they'd have to look upon earthlings

as lazy ne'er-do-wells with technology

doing everything for them,

while they have to eke out a very existence every day

in that harsh climate.

Tomlinson: What if some day

the proxima centauri b nova sapiens

decided they didn't want to live there anymore,

and they started immigrating back to earth?

Let's say we've got the scenario where proxima b comes back,

and they're an invasion force.

Hovland: Given all the changes in these new colonists,

I don't think I'd want to go toe-to-toe with any of them.