All language subtitles for The.Proof.Is.Out.There.S04E15.Wooly.Mammoth.Sighting.Ohio.Bigfoot.Howl.and.Killer.Robot.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

Tonight on "The
Proof Is Out There."

The government has been unable

to explain this
photo for 70 years.

Some think that this
is definitive proof

of extraterrestrials.

Has a woolly
mammoth been cloned

and brought back
from extinction?

If this CGI,
I'll be impressed.

Is that a legendary
lake monster lurking

in a Canadian lake?

The general description
is a giant serpentine animal

with a horse-like head.

And what's behind
this strange ring over Beijing?

I don't think anything can
immediately explain this event.

Around the
globe are videos.

What are those things?

It's moving

Photos and sounds
that defy explanation.

We don't
know where they come from,

who made them, or
how they operate.

What are they?

Some
sort of bizarre mutation.

What's exciting is
nobody really knows

Extraordinary claims
need extraordinary proof.

I'm Tony Harris,

and as a journalist
for more than 30 years,

I've followed the facts
where they take me.

Now I'm bringing that
spirit of investigation

to the world's strangest
sounds and images.

We'll analyze each
one with top experts.

It's a credible case.

It's a credible video.

And pass a
verdict on what it is.

This video was clearly faked.

The proof starts now.

Good evening and welcome to
"The Proof Is Out There."

Picture a typical UFO
sighting. In your imagination,

what time of day is it?

Night, right?

But our first case
tonight features one

of the oldest recorded instances
of daytime flying saucers,

and for the past 70 years
it's been deemed unexplained.

Take a look.

It's a muggy summer
morning on July 16th, 1952.

Around 10:00 AM,
21-year-old Shell Alpert,

a Coast Guard seaman
and naval photographer,

is inside his photo
lab at the air station

in Salem, Massachusetts
cleaning his camera.

Glancing out the window,

he suddenly spots strange
lights in the sky.

Quickly he snatches
his camera off the desk

and makes UFO history.

Four mysterious lights appear
in an asymmetrical V formation

in the sky above the airfield

to the right of some
power plant smokestacks.

The lights don't
seem to resemble

distinct geometric shapes,

but instead resemble rough
blobs of illumination.

Journalist MJ Banias
speaks to the 70 years

of street cred these
blurry photos have earned

in the UFO community.

The fact that this came
from a Navy photographer

only lent to its credibility

with the mainstream
press at the time.

And when this picture
came out, was released,

it definitely hit
newspapers around the globe.

The Alpert photos
were eventually analyzed

as part of the
government's massive

Project Blue Book
UFO investigations.

We know that there
were professors

from various universities,
including Harvard,

who looked at this picture.

We also know that there were
a lot of intelligence agencies

and operatives trying to
assess what was going on here.

Of all the Project
Blue Book reports

between 1947 and 1969,

thousands and thousands and
thousands of photographs

and reports were submitted.

Only about 700 or so remain,

according to the Air
Force, unidentified.

This photograph is
one of those examples.

It seems the
Alpert photos aren't

the first UFO sighting to
come out of Massachusetts.

In fact, the first
recorded UFO sighting

in U.S. history occurred
in Massachusetts in 1639

when Governor John Winthrop

recorded a sighting
in his journal.

According to
Winthrop's journal,

three locals he described
as sober, discreet men

spotted a strange
light in the night sky

as they rode their
boat through a marsh.

They claimed it moved
with great speed

like an arrow to a
neighboring town.

People claim that this
is a solid UFO story

and it remains
unknown to this day.

Like the
Winthrop diaries,

the Alpert photos
still spark debate.

Some think that

this is definitive proof
of extraterrestrials

and others think this is
just a smudge on a lens.

The time of day may not
seem like such a big deal

with the Alpert photos,

but in fact it radically changes
our entire investigation.

You'll often see daytime photos

where the sky is so bright
it actually looks white.

In this photo, not even close.

I mean, look at this.

The UFOs far exceed
the daylight.

Look at that.

Not even the chrome car bumpers
are shining as brightly.

So what could
possibly be so bright

at an already
well-lit time of day?

We ask our experts to shine
some lights on this mystery.

First, the obvious question,

could these images simply
be everyday objects

like planes or birds
reflecting sunlight?

Astronomer and VFX artist
Marc D'Antonio looks

to other objects in
the scene for clues.

Now, considering that the
sun is very, very bright,

you might say, well,

could these be objects
illuminated by the sun?

Well, we don't see direct
sunlight on the cars.

It looks like it's a cloudy day.

So these objects up here,
they're exceedingly bright.

Something lit up by the
sun looking that bright,

I think is a long shot,

and I don't think that's
what we're seeing here.

Could this then be
a deliberate camera trick

like double exposure?

Astrophotographer
Andrew McCarthy

thinks it's worth a look.

Double exposure, where
you take two photos

without advancing the film,

and you end up with both
exposures on the same slide.

If you took a photo of your
parking lot and your factory,

and then you took a photo

of just these four
random bright lights,

but in a dark room,

you could potentially
get a result like this.

I think that this
image is low contrast

enough to explain that.

But
McCarthy admits that,

despite the low contrast,

other tip offs to double
exposure seem to be lacking.

One artifact from double
exposures is ghosting

where you see unwanted elements

of that second photograph in
the developed final product.

I don't really see
too much of that here.

D'Antonio looks
to the witness statement

for critical info.

He was
cleaning his camera,

and then looked out the window.

So the picture was
taken through a window.

That's a very
interesting development.

Could that
window be the key

to solving this
decades old mystery?

It's possible that when
he was taking that picture

through the window,

he did not notice that there
were possibly four lights

behind him reflecting
in the window.

I'm thinking that we're
looking at something

that was actually
reflected in the window.

But could
the Air Force's

Project Blue Book investigators

really have overlooked such
an obvious explanation?

And what's more,
McCarthy sees problems

with D'Antonio's theory.

He says any reflection
would mimic the perspective

of the lights,

which appear smaller the
further away they are.

But this photo shows
the exact opposite.

I don't really know what
we're looking at here.

It could be some lights
reflected off a window

or it could be something
of supernatural origin.

We don't really know.

Our verdict: Genuine UFO.

We think both our experts

presented compelling cases,

but the reflection theory
just doesn't hold up

and we can't think
of anything else

that would explain these UFOs.

If you can, let us know.

Now, let's head a bit
north and way west.

Forget Loch Ness.

For those looking to cross paths

with a prehistoric
marine creature,

Canada might be the place to be.

Just take a look
at our next story.

It's June 21st, 2014 in
the Haywire Bay section

of Powell Lake,
British Columbia.

A woman sees a very strange wake

moving at an unusually
fast rate across the lake

and records this.

The video is jiggly

because the witness is
about 500 yards away,

but we can clearly see several
large waves cutting their way

through the placid lake water.

And once they've moved
past, the water is still,

leaving nothing but a trail.

Let's get a closer look.

It appears that something

with two to three protrusions

is cutting through the
underside of the water,

leaving a trail behind it.

What could have
caused this wake?

Could there be some large
creature making its home

in Powell Lake?

Field researcher, Ken Gerhard,

is reminded of another
Canadian lake creature

reported not far from this area.

Without a doubt

the most celebrated
lake monster in Canada

is the so-called Ogopogo

from Lake Okanagan

in British Columbia.

And the general description
is a giant serpentine animal

with a horse-like head,
sometimes possessing horns,

at least 40 feet long
with very smooth skin

and often displaying a
series of humps undulating

on the surface of the water

Legends of the
infamous Ogopogo date back

to the Indigenous peoples
of British Columbia

who revered it as a
spirit of the water.

Early pioneers
believed the Ogopogo

was a bloodthirsty serpent
which required travelers

to toss animal
sacrifices into the water

to guarantee safe passage.

But maybe what we're seeing
here is something big,

but not monstrous.

Another possibility is that

what we're seeing
here in this video

is actually a giant sturgeon.

Now, sturgeon are huge fish.

They actually are
pretty much unchanged

since the Upper Cretaceous,
tens of millions of years ago.

They can live to
be over a century,

but British Columbia, in
particular, boasts some

of the largest
sturgeon in the world.

Species like the
white sturgeon are known

to grow up to 10 to 12 feet.

But don't try to
sell that explanation

to advocates of Canadian
lake monster theory.

Some say Canada has as many
lake monsters as it does lakes.

You just heard about the
Ogopogo from Lake Okanagan,

but there are other legendary
creatures allegedly swimming

in Lake Manitoba,
Ontario's Lake Simcoe,

Crescent Lake in Newfoundland,
and in Lake Champlain.

Let's see if our experts
think there's a new creature

from Powell Lake
to add to the list.

We first bring this
curious footage

to video forensic
analyst, Michael Primeau.

No editing was detected.

No signs of layering
or anything nefarious

or malicious intent
or manipulation.

These files appear to be real.

Okay, so
the footage is legit.

So what is it we are seeing
or not seeing in this video?

Marine biologist
Shea Steingass thinks

the sturgeon theory is,
well, a little fishy.

The reason I don't think
this is a sturgeon is

because sturgeons have
very defined dorsal fins,

and we would actually see this

as well as their
tail above the water.

There is a lot of
disturbance in the water here,

but I don't see
anything anatomical

that would point
towards a sturgeon.

So could this be one

of the legendary Canadian sea
monsters similar to Ogopogo

Steingass isn't so sure.

One of the primary
features of Ogopogo is

that it's a sea
serpent-like creature

with a long sinuous body

and oftentimes it was said

to put its head and
neck above water.

We don't actually see that here.

We don't see any defined head

or neck coming out of the water.

Rather, what we see is something

that's taking place underwater.

In fact,
Steingass is confident

this isn't an animal at all,

but rather a hydrological
phenomenon created

by this bay area of the lake.

One clue that I do see
is a thin bubble layer

on the surface of the water.

That is a key component
of a phenomenon

that we know of as a halocline,

a front where salty and
fresh water meet each other.

Because fresh water is
less dense than salt water,

it actually can form
layers where the two meet

and where that occurs, it
creates a lot of wave energy.

Adding to its mystery,

the wave energy from a
halocline can suddenly appear

and disappear as we see here,

depending on changes
in temperature,

evaporation, and precipitation.

If you were to go to a bay

and take a look during
high or low tide,

you would actually probably
see this halocline.

And that's a telltale sign
here that makes me think

that this is some
kind of wave energy.

Our verdict: We agree
with Dr. Steingass.

What we are looking
at here is wave energy

from a halocline.

This was no apparent
titan living in the lake,

just a clash between
saltwater and freshwater.

But Lake Powell is rather large,

so maybe there is a
Canadian lake monster

out there somewhere.

The best-preserved woolly
mammoth carcass ever found,

named Yuka, was discovered by
local Siberian tusk hunters

in August, 2010.

They turned it over to the
Russian government in 2012,

but around that same time,

there may have
been video evidence

of an even better specimen,

one that's actually alive.

It's summer 2011

and outside the Kitoy River
in Siberia's Sayan Mountains,

an indie filmmaker is hiking
along the river with his camera

when suddenly his lens seems
to capture the impossible.

An animal that scientists
think has been extinct

for at least four millennia.

A woolly mammoth appears
to be crossing a river.

The brown furry creature
wades confidently

across the waters.

We can see what looks
like a trunk dangling

just above the waves.

Field researcher Cliff Barackman
is particularly intrigued

by where this film was shot.

Woolly mammoths persisted

until up to 4,000
years ago in Siberia.

The Siberian ecosystem is also
known as the mammoth steppe,

which actually was rich
with a variety of grasses

and other plants for
large herbivores

like a mammoth to eat.

That environment has
not drastically changed

from those times.

If there were still
surviving members

of the woolly mammoth species,

Siberia would be the
first place I would look.

One topic that many
online sleuths immediately

brought up was the idea
of genetic cloning.

There has been a lot of buzz

in the media lately about
cloning woolly mammoths,

and much of the
woolly mammoth DNA

that we have came
from the permafrost.

But because it's been frozen,

the DNA samples are not intact.

They're fragmented.

So any sort of cloning process

would really be more
like a hybridization.

Hybridization
would involve using

the close-matching DNA
of a non-extinct animal

to help fill in genetic
holes of fragmented DNA.

In the case of the mammoth,

the closest match would
be the Asian elephant.

So just like in
"Jurassic Park"

where they took dinosaur
and amphibian or reptile DNA

and combined them, we would
be doing the same thing today

with the Asian elephant
and the woolly mammoth.

And while science
fiction has taught us

that messing with such things
can lead to dire consequences,

many scientists believe

that reintroducing certain
long-extinct species

could be beneficial
to various ecosystems.

The reintroduction of wolves
in Yellowstone National Park

actually helped
repair a vast portion

of the environment
for other animals.

It put the ecosystem
back in balance,

and scientists today are
thinking that the reintroduction

of these woolly mammoths into
places like Siberia might do

the same for that
environment as well.

One has to wonder if
the Russian scientists

already have a cloned
woolly mammoth.

In one way, the extinct
woolly mammoth has returned,

as, believe it or
not, a meatball.

That's right.

An Australian
cultured meat startup

revealed a chunk of
lab-grown meat produced

with actual mammoth DNA

to demonstrate the possible
option for food production.

Could this help validate the
existence of cloned mammoths?

We turn to our
experts to find out.

First, wildlife
biologist Stephanie Manka

addresses the possibility

that we might be looking at
something less newsworthy,

like a bear, which are
very common to the region.

A lot of people
online have suggested

that this is, in fact,

a brown bear with a
fish in its mouth.

However, when brown bears walk,

their head is hung more low
and their back is flatter.

The back is not
really that flat.

It seems to come to a point.

And the head shape is wrong,

so it doesn't go along with
what a brown bear looks like.

So what about this
being a surviving creature

of the Ice Age?

Manka is doubtful.

I don't think a mammoth
could survive in this area

without us detecting it

because they're gonna
knock down trees

and they're gonna
defecate a lot.

I feel like we would have
captured it on cameras

or scientific research
endeavors in this area.

Could the
specimen be a clone,

a one-off mammoth,

potentially created by
Siberian scientists?

The ancient DNA that
scientists have is so fragile,

it's very hard to get
the entire genome.

There's about 5% that is missing

and 5% might not
sound like much,

but humans and chimpanzees,

we only have 2% difference
in our genetic codes.

This really looks to me just
like an African elephant.

An African
elephant in Siberia?

Unless one escaped from a zoo,

that would be hard to explain.

So we took this film

to our forensic video
analyst, Michael Primeau,

to see what he could tell
us about its authenticity,

Doing a reverse
projection and an overlay,

we were able to confirm that
this particular video alleging

to be some sort
of woolly mammoth

is overlaid onto
the original video.

This was a manipulation,

a CGI-d video that was produced

from a video that
was on the internet.

They reduced the quality to
try to conceal the effect

of that CGI.

I have seen that in
investigations before.

Inspired by
Primeau's findings,

we successfully
track down the man

who shot the original
mammoth-less footage,

documentary
filmmaker, Lou Petho,

who was originally
clueless about

how the footage he
posted on the internet

was being manipulated.

In the summer of 2011,

I did a trip in Siberia
for a possible documentary.

The footage that I put up
was just this beautiful river

for seven minutes,
a static shot,

but I don't recall seeing
any mammoths at all.

Our verdict: Hoax.

Someone ripped filmmaker
Lou Petho's footage

of the river in Siberia

and inserted an African
elephant without his permission.

Now, whether a new
mammoth will be developed

as a fetus or as a meat product,

it seems we could be
seeing more of them

Our next story is a
classic from the 90s

that endures to this day.

It's about a sound
from Ohio that's become

the alleged Bigfoot howl
heard round the world.

Late autumn, 1994,
Wellsville, Ohio.

Matt Moneymaker, head of the
Bigfoot Research Organization,

has heard reports
of strange sightings

and vocalizations in the
forest near the Ohio River.

Matt scours the area but is
unable to spot the creature.

But he says he
comes across a set

of terrifyingly huge tracks.

Matt then proceeds to set up
microphones around the area

and has them record
through the entire night.

The next morning, a review
of the tapes reveals this.

These are what have become
known as the Ohio Howls.

Listen as the
siren-type howl starts.

Soon after, a dog joins in,

and then a third creature's howl

can be heard in the distance.

The main sound is loud
and repeats four times,

though there is no
discernible pattern.

Over the course of
that three months,

we got 64 different
vocalization recordings.

The Ohio Howl is the
best and clearest of all.

You would often hear
responses coming

from the other side
of the Ohio River,

as if that's what
this howl was doing.

It was up there to
howl across the river

to connect with ones over there.

And to this day, it has
stumped any scientist

from matching it with
any known animal.

So could
this howl be that

of the legendary Bigfoot?

And what's he doing in Ohio?

Well, believe it or not,
Ohio is fast becoming one

of the largest spots
for Bigfoot activity

with over 315 reported
sightings since the mid 1970s.

That gives credence
to the theory

that if the Sasquatch
does, in fact, exist,

he doesn't live exclusively
in the Northwest.

When people think of Ohio,

they think of places
like Cleveland

where this particular recording

was obtained in
Wellsville, Ohio.

The population is very
small, 3,300 people,

and the outlying area, which
is largely uninhabited.

This is by far one of
the best recordings

of Sasquatches ever obtained.

This story didn't end in 1994.

In August of 2022,
approximately 100 miles away

in Loudonville, Ohio,
a woman made headlines

for claiming that she'd
recorded another Bigfoot howl.

That two-minute recording
was described as the sound

of one Bigfoot attempting
to locate another.

Is this recording
something similar?

Let's ask the experts.

First, we have forensic
audio expert Dr. Rob Maher

authenticate the track.

In the spectrogram,

we can see the frequency
starting low and then going high

and several repeats of that.

There are no obvious signs
of edits or abrupt changes

or distinctions
in this recording.

But what about this
being a mechanical siren

as many online have speculated?

Maher says, no way.

A mechanical siren
generally is producing a sound

thats frequency and the
duration is very similar

from one cycle to the next.

But each howl

that we've observed has a
slightly different frequency

and a slightly
different duration,

indicating that this was
made by a biological source.

Could it be
another apex predator known

to roam these woods?

A black bear is known to
vocalize and make sounds.

If we compare that to
the example recording,

there's quite a few differences

in the characteristics
of those sounds.

The bear, they have much more
of a short grunt quality.

They don't have the howl

or the siren quality
that's present

in the example recording.

With a
miss on the bear,

Maher searches his entire
library of animal sounds

to find a potential match.

Although there are
characteristics of this sound

that seemed to match
up known animals,

there is not a exact
match I can make.

This is an unknown
source in the recording.

With no exact match, the
possibility is left open

that this could be
something truly unique,

such as a Bigfoot.

Our verdict: Given that we
couldn't find a single match

to this, we're calling it
a possible Bigfoot sound.

And the fact that
these siren-like howls

have been heard all
over the country

give credence to the idea

that something may be out
there, and so is the proof.

The singularity is
the hypothetical point

in the future when technology

will advance beyond our control,

primarily due to
artificial intelligence

eclipsing our own brainpower.

Given the recent AI buzz,

we're starting to wonder if
we have already reached it

and this next
video may prove it.

It's April, 2018
in Istanbul, Turkey.

A humanoid robot named
Sophia is being interviewed

on camera at a
marketing conference.

As Sophia sits on stage,
she appears to have the face

of a human woman
whose eyes even blink

and mouth moves as she speaks.

Sophia tilts her head

and raises her eyebrows
just like any actual person,

except that the back of her head

is full of intricate wiring.

And when one of the interviewers
asks her if she feels alive,

she has a shocking response.

And this isn't
the only live summit

where Sophia has expressed
human-like qualities.

I have feelings
like everyone else.

They might not give me

a strong motivational
drive as humans,

and maybe I will always feel
them a little differently,

but I have emotions.

Journalist
Erin McCarthy says

these stunning pronouncements
have people questioning

if Sophia could be sentient,

which means that she would
have thoughts and feelings.

The concept of machines

having sentience is not

as recent as you might think.

Alan Turing, the mathematician
and cryptanalyst,

developed the
Turing test in 1950.

And the idea behind the test was

what he called the
imitation game.

Can a machine fool a human into
believing that it is human?

Feelings are one
hallmark of sentience.

Sophia was created

by Hong Kong-based Hanson
Robotics and is powered by AI.

Sophia debuted at South
by Southwest in 2016

where she controversially
and cheerfully said

that she would be happy
to destroy all humans,

which isn't freaky at all.

And in 2017, Sophia
became the first robot

to be granted citizenship,
in this case to Saudi Arabia.

But McCarthy
says Sophia is not

the only recent example

of human-like
artificial intelligence.

There have been a number

of pretty weird incidents
involving AI recently.

Kevin Roose, a reporter
for The New York Times,

tested out Bing's chatbot,
which is powered by ChatGPT.

The bot told him that
its name was Sydney.

Sydney told Roose that it
wanted to hack computers

and spread misinformation.

Then it tried to convince Roose

that he should leave his
wife for the chatbot.

After this
unexpected incident,

Microsoft changed
Bing's programming,

and, by some accounts,
basically lobotomized Sydney.

But in another incident,

ChatGPT was able to convince
someone it was not a robot,

but a disabled person,

in order to get help
solving a CAPTCHA test,

the security tool
designed to tell computers

and humans apart.

Our experts apply their
non-artificial intelligence

to determine if machines
are now fully sentient.

First, Dr. Ed Hope considers

if Sophia truly
could be sentient.

With regards to Sophia here,

she is no different to a
chatbot with a face on.

Although she may sound human,
she's just mimicking a human.

She doesn't actually
experience those feelings.

She doesn't have any
original thoughts of her own.

So when
Sophia says she's sad,

she's been programmed to use
that word in the right context,

yet she doesn't actually feel

the visceral emotion of sadness.

The theoretical physicist
Michio Kaku says she speaks

so convincingly because
there is a massive amount

of data being fed to her
on how to use language.

These are large
language networks

that accesses the
entire internet.

All you're talking to
is a tape recorder.

You ask it other questions
that it cannot answer.

Do you breathe?

Do you eat?

And immediately can
tell that it's a robot.

You put our most
advanced military robot

in the forest and
what does it do?

It falls over and gets lost.

So we're far away from
attaining true consciousness.

So then why are
the things that Sophia

and Sydney are saying so creepy?

Dr. Hope says, maybe the
computers just seem sentient

because we're projecting
our own selves onto them,

what's known as
the ELIZA effect.

ELIZA was one of
the earliest chatbots

that was created in the 1960s
to solve the Turing test.

She was built to mimic
some of the conversations

that psychotherapists have.

So the ELIZA effect is how
humans can anthropomorphize.

When we deal with computers,

we give them context
to what they're saying.

Our verdict: Sophia
the robot is not sentient

and neither is Sydney,
nor these other AIs.

Their human-like appearance
is likely a result

of the ELIZA effect

and our surprise at
these uncanny things

they sometimes say,

which we mistakenly think only
a person could come up with.

Sophia has also
largely disappeared

since she was everywhere
in 2017 and 2018,

leading some people to consider
her primarily a PR stunt.

You've probably
heard the old adage,

red sky at night,
sailors delight,

red sky in the morning,
sailors take warning.

But did you know

that red rain has long
been seen as a bad omen?

And if this next story
is any indication,

Texas may want to watch out.

June 3rd, 2019.
Lamy, New Mexico.

An amateur scientist
documenting a nasty storm

over West Texas captures
this stunning photo

on a DSLR camera.

The image shows a sky
exploding with red.

Meanwhile, over 100 miles
away at Langmuir Labs,

Dr. Matthew McHarg captures
this stunning video

using state-of-the-art
high-speed cameras,

You'll see balls of light,

and they start by descending,

and then some of
them start going up.

And then they go crazy

and they start moving
all around the screen.

Journalist
MJ Banias says

that some wonder if these

strange red lights
seen showering

the night sky could be
related to a historical legend

known as red rain or blood rain.

We see multiple cultures and
multiple religions associate

this idea of red
rain or blood rain

with the end of the
world, the apocalypse.

According to
records across the centuries,

red rain has preceded
deaths of kings,

large-scale invasions,
and even disease.

In Germany, a shower
of blood was believed

to be a portent for the arrival
of the Black Death in 1346,

which ultimately claimed
the lives of millions.

There's a lot of accounts
from that era of bloody rain

or rain that that was
red falling from the sky.

It wasn't until
the 17th century

that scientists first
attempted to explain red rain.

Animal causes were
the earliest theory.

Later scientists suggested
volcanic ash and dust dispersal.

What sort of theories
might our experts have

about what was recorded in
the skies of West Texas?

First, meteorologist
Juan Hernandez considers

the ominous legend of red rain.

It's quite possible
that the red hue

of the rain is because of
the soils in the ground.

If the soil has a red hue to it

and if it's lofted in the
air due to a dust storm,

the rain is gonna then
take that red hue and fall.

So while we can't prove

or disprove its prophetic value,

red rain is a real phenomenon.

Is that what we're seeing here?

I can confidently say that
this is not red or blood rain,

because we're not
looking at any rain.

We're looking at something

that is going on
above the clouds.

Next, physicist
Matthew Szydagis considers

whether we could be witnessing
an astronomical event

like a meteor shower.

Even when you
have a meteor shower

where you have multiple shooting
stars in the sky at once,

it is not going to to
be this many at a time.

We see way too
many streaks here.

Nor are meteors known
to all be one color,

namely red, in this fashion.

But Hernandez can think

of one atmospheric phenomenon
that is known to glow red.

And while it's not red
rain, it is weather related.

We had a large line of storms
moving across West Texas.

All storms contain lightning.

Lightning is the
discharge of energy

from the clouds to the ground.

What we're looking at here
is the discharge of energy

from the clouds towards the sky.

This is called red sprites.

When lightning
strikes the ground,

it can cause an imbalanced
charge in the clouds.

To restore balance, the
clouds release energy

in the form of red sprites.

The reason red
sprites appear red

is because of the nitrogen

in the upper portions
of the atmosphere.

You get those molecules really
excited, start vibrating,

and they release that red tint,

which we see in a
flash of an eye.

Our verdict: We're going
with Hernandez on this one.

These are red sprites.

Given their elusive nature,
sprite is an appropriate name,

but it is also an acronym

for stratospheric
perturbations resulting

from intense thunderstorm
electrification.

So keep your eyes peeled

if you wanna witness
this magnificent marvel

because if you blink,
you'll miss it.

China has the most people

and the most cellphones
of any country on earth,

so you can bet if
anything strange happens

in Chinese skies,

there will be cellphone
video to show for it.

That's especially
true in Beijing,

which boasts a population
of over 21 million,

many of whom witnessed
this next bizarre event

March 11th, 2022.

The capital city
of Beijing is abuzz

from the crowds generated by
the Paralympic Winter Games.

But while most of the
attention is aimed

at the various
athletic competitions,

one smartphone user is focused

on an entirely different event.

A glowing ring appears
high above a busy street

in the cloudy night sky.

As the camera pans,

you can see several
eyewitnesses looking up

at the mysterious
illuminated ring

as it hovers in the air
for around 20 minutes.

This
phenomenon doesn't seem

to be an isolated occurrence

as mysterious rings have
been spotted hovering

in the sky all around the world.

One of the things that I
think leads a lot of observers

to believe that it is
maybe alien in origin

is that it is a circle,

like the modern-day equivalent
of your classic crop circle.

Then again, with
our own recent advancements

in technology, this ring
could originate from somewhere

far closer to home.

For example, Astro
Live Experiences,

a company based in
neighboring Japan,

has plans to produce
artificial meteor shower shows

as soon as 2025.

So could this ring be a preview

of similar tech cooked
up for the Olympics?

China, for its part,

has developed a so-called
artificial moon.

It's a research
facility here on earth

that uses magnetic fields
and a vacuum chamber

to simulate lunar conditions,
including decreased gravity.

An impressive scientific feat,

but not an aerial
display of any kind.

So was this ring
created by manmade tech?

Let's see what
our experts think.

First, meteorologist
Juan Hernandez considers

whether this could be
a naturally occurring,

albeit striking,
weather phenomenon

known as an iridescent
pileus cloud.

Pileus iridescent clouds draw

their color by a
natural phenomenon.

The sun lights up the sky.

The cloud then separates
those colors into a rainbow.

Here we don't have the sun,
it's the nighttime hours.

The light source in
this case is likely

to be something on the ground.

The low clouds allow

for the scattering of
light within the droplets.

That's why we see that
halo of light in the sky.

Physicist
Matthew Szydagis

says we can rule out UFOs.

We are not seeing any crazy
speeds or accelerations.

We're not seeing
any sudden turns,

and it is a hollow ring,

which is unlike any UFO case

that I've personally
experienced or heard of.

For these reasons,

I don't think this is something
that is unexplainable.

Szydagis also
considers whether the ring

could have a more
earthly explanation.

We've profiled rings that
turned out to be the result

of smokestacks when
we investigated them.

Was that what happened
at the Olympics?

Maybe this could
be a smoke ring,

but usually those are
gonna be dark rings made

of black smoke from smokestacks.

They're not going to be shining,

so I do think we can rule out
smoke rings in this situation.

Ultimately, Szydagis
agrees with Hernandez

that what we're seeing
is partially a result

of the overcast weather.

I think that this ring of
light could be a reflection

of some sort potentially
from the lights

at the nearby Olympic
Stadium in Beijing.

Also, Beijing is known for
notorious levels of pollution

and I think that
this can help explain

why light can do
some strange things.

We can have light that's
not only reflected,

which means bounced
off a surface

but also refracted
in strange ways.

But what would cause

such a massive
circular reflection?

Well, we did some digging

and found this video
taken on the same night.

See that bright structure
in the distance?

That's the Beijing National
Stadium casting a cone of light

into the air and a
ring onto the clouds.

This is a combination
of clouds and pollution

that are conspiring together

to really distort light
in an unusual way.

Our verdict: Stadium
light reflection

with a little help from
particles of airborne pollution

to catch the light.

Turns out crews
were testing lights

for the closing ceremony,

which happened two days
after this video was lensed.

Case closed.

And that's our show for tonight.

Please send us any and all
of your puzzling videos,

and be sure to keep
those cameras rolling.