All language subtitles for Ancient.Aliens.S06E08.Aliens.and.the.Red.Planet.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.HEVC-Saon_track5_[eng]

NARRATOR: Nuclear annihilation.

This would have been an
absolutely devastating event.

NARRATOR: Mysterious pyramids.

There are, apparently, these
unusual structures there.

NARRATOR: And evidence of
life billions of years ago.

Researchers found
objects that looked

extremely similar to
microorganisms here on Earth.

NARRATOR: Throughout
human history,

the planet Mars has
captured our imagination.

But is it simply because of
its striking red color and

prominence in the night sky?

Or might there be
a more profound

extraterrestrial connection?

NASA knows there
is life on Mars.

But for some reason, it does
not want that information out.

NARRATOR: Millions of
people around the world

believe we have been
visited in the past

by extraterrestrial beings.

What if it were true?

Did ancient aliens really
help to shape our history?

And if so, might they have come
from the red planet of Mars?

Cape Canaveral, Florida,
August 20, 1975.

MAN Ignition,
we have liftoff.

NARRATOR: The United States
launches a Titan rocket,

carrying the Viking spacecraft.

Viking is embarking
on a 420 million

mile journey to one
of the most prominent

sites in the night sky--

Mars.

If all goes well, in 11
months, the unmanned probe

will touch down on the
Martian surface and search

for evidence of life.

Mainstream scientists say Mars
is most likely a dead planet

because of its incredible
temperature swings

and high levels of
solar radiation.

So why is NASA spending
a billion to explore it?

JONATHAN YOUNG: The night
sky is an astounding thing.

To the naked eye, the
red planet could be

seen with its special colors.

After all, it's
the biggest thing

you see up there past the moon.

So it's been a special object
of fascination and reverence,

because religious
systems often were

associated with planets and
the stars, the sky in general.

Speculations abound.

What's there?

Is intelligent life
there or the gods there?

That's gone on for a long time.

ROBERT FRISBEE: Our
dream for life on Mars

probably goes back even
to the ancient times,

when we were just doing
naked eye observation.

It's the planet that
really stands out

that we now know is very
close to Earth in terms

of physical conditions.

Even though Venus is much more
like Earth in size and gravity,

it's a hell hole in
the solar system.

But Mars-- Mars is out
there, within our grasp.

NARRATOR: Among
the first to record

this fiery red ball
in the night sky

were ancient
Egyptian astronomers.

In 1534 BC, they placed
Mars on humanity's

first chart of the known
cosmos, the Senemut star map.

2 and 1/2 centuries later, the
Egyptians painted the planet

Mars on the ceiling
of the tomb of Seti I.

But while the
Egyptians honored Mars,

many other ancient
cultures feared it

because they associated
the red planet with death,

destruction, and war.

According to some
anthropologists,

this is because the planet glows
red, like the color of blood

spilled on the battlefield.

The association of the red
planet with the gods of war

goes way back.

In ancient Babylon, Mars
was named after Nergal,

the god of fire,
death, and destruction,

essentially a god of war.

The Greeks named Mars after
Ares, their god of war.

The Romans, Mars, that
is their god of war.

Rome was a warrior culture.

So this martial emphasis all
connected to the red planet

is accounting for the great
armies that conquered the known

world, a very successful
story, and very much

aligned with the planet Mars.

NARRATOR: In 42 BC, the
Roman forces of Augustus

waged the Battle of Philippi
against Marcus Brutus,

as Augustus tried to avenge
the assassination of his

adopted father, Julius Caesar.

Augustus pledged to
the god of war, Mars,

that if he won this
battle, he would

build a great temple for him.

JOHN BRANDENBURG: So
he won the battle,

became Caesar Augustus,
one of the greatest

of the Roman emperors.

And he created the
Temple of Mars.

And whenever Rome
would declare war,

the temple doors
would be thrown open.

RICHARD RADER: It was called
a temple to Mars the Avenger.

Famously, we say the gates
of war, nowadays, right.

And it was the gates
of Mars's temple

that were opened or closed,
depending upon whether there

was a war going on.

From India to Rome, all
of the ancient societies

had a reverence for Mars,
a great closeness to Mars--

very important in their
pantheon, very important

in the imagination of
the people that some kind

of connection with that
red planet be maintained.

NARRATOR: But while
many ancient societies

felt a bond with Mars,
most did not identify

it as a planet like Earth.

The ancients thought
the planets were

as uninhabitable as the sun.

They saw them as
wandering stars.

In fact, the word
"planet" means in Greek

"wandering star," planeta.

You have the fixed stars,
the constellations.

But then you have these
stars wandering about.

They seem to follow the
sun because they appear

to move against the
background of the fixed stars

the same way the sun does.

NARRATOR: It wasn't until
the 17th and 18th centuries

when astronomers finally had
telescopes powerful enough

to make out features
on the surface of Mars

that we started to imagine
life on the red planet

as a real possibility.

SETH SHOSTAK: By the 1860s,
an Italian astronomer

by the name of Angelo Secchi
thought he saw straight lines

crisscrossing the surface
of our little ruddy buddy

up there, Mars.

And he called them canali.

The idea was picked up
by an American astronomer

by the name of Percival Lowell.

And Percival Lowell
built his own observatory

down in Flagstaff, Arizona.

He spent a lot of time looking
through a telescope at Mars,

and he wrote books about this.

He was articulate.
He was clever.

And he convinced a
lot of the public

and some of the
scientific establishment

that there really was
a civilization on Mars

busy digging up their
planet because they

needed to irrigate their crops.

NARRATOR: But why
has Mars fascinated

humankind throughout history?

Is it simply due to the
planet's proximity to Earth

and its striking red
color in the night sky?

Or is it possible, as ancient
astronaut theorists contend,

that Mars really was at one time
inhabited by intelligent life?

The Cydonia region of
Mars, July 20, 1976.

An alien spacecraft
sent from Earth touches

down on the red planet.

MAN Nav is
green for touchdown.

NARRATOR: After a
10 month journey,

Viking 1 has reached
its destination.

MAN Touchdown.
We have touchdown.

NARRATOR: To NASA scientists,
it's a momentous event.

For the first time
in its history,

the United States has a
probe on another planet.

Viking was the
first spacecraft

to actually attempt a
soft landing on Mars

and give us an actual feel, a
taste, for what the conditions

were on the surface.

We looked out at those
pictures of the surface,

and they looked so much
like the Pacific deserts

here, like Death Valley.

We all half-expected
to see a miner

and his burrow come walking
up over the nearest rise.

NARRATOR: Scientists
knew that finding

definitive signs of life
on Mars was a long shot.

But when the Viking Lander
performed four tests

on the Martian soil
looking for microbial life,

it returned surprising
and controversial results.

Dr. Gil Levin designed
one of the tests

that the Viking probe performed.

GIL LEVIN: Microorganisms
breathe, just like you

or I or anything else.

And then they give
off carbon dioxide.

So we got a tiny sample, a
thimble full, of the soil

put into a little container.

It was monitored for
seven days continuously

to see if there are any
bubbles forming in the tube.

Surprisingly, the
test came up positive

for life by the criteria that
had been approved by NASA.

NARRATOR: However, the result
of another important test,

one looking for organic
matter on the Martian surface,

was negative.

But Dr. Levin says the
other test wasn't nearly

as sensitive as his experiment.

It needed 3 million bacteria in
a thimble full of Martian soil

to find signs of life,
while Dr. Levin's

test only required 30 bacteria.

So there was a vast
discrepancy in the sensitivity

of the two experiments.

And I immediately
said, well, you know,

they both could be right.

We detected life,
but maybe there

aren't enough bacteria
per unit of soil

for the organic analysis
instrument to find.

But NASA was very
cautious, and they opted

to say, no organic matter.

There goes the ball game.
No life.

NARRATOR: Dr. Levin has fought
NASA for almost 40 years

on whether the Viking probe
found evidence of life on Mars.

If he was right about
the results of his test,

this would be the first proof
accepted by mainstream science

that life exists
outside our planet.

But ancient astronaut
theorists say

an even more profound discovery
regarding the red planet

has been uncovered
right here on Earth.

Mysterious relics that may
reveal an actual visitation

of beings from Mars.

Teotihuacan, Mexico.

In 2003, archeologists
in this ancient city

made a startling discovery.

A previously unknown
tunnel lies 45 feet

beneath the Temple of
the Feathered Serpent,

one of the most sacred
pyramids on the continent.

Working underground,
scientists methodically

explored the debris-filled
tunnel using a robotic probe

with an infrared scanner.

After some 250 feet,
they reached a side cave.

JOHN BRANDENBURG: The tail
end of the tunnel-- terminus

of the tunnel was loaded with
yellowish, metallic-looking

orbs, apparently colored clay.

EDWIN BARNHART: The orbs are
very interesting objects.

I've never seen
anything like them

in any kind of other
archeological context.

On the inside, they are clay.

On the outside, they're coated
with some sort of gold flecks,

so they look like golden balls.

NARRATOR: What purpose these
golden balls served is unknown.

But some archeologists
believe the cavern

in which they were found was
a place of sacred ritual.

Like the clay balls,
the walls were

also covered in gold flecks.

So if the cavern was illuminated
by a torch during a ceremony,

it would have shimmered
with 1,000 points of light,

resembling the cosmos.

DAVID WILCOCK: These beautiful
orbs of yellow material

strongly suggest that someone
was illustrating planets.

We do know that the Mayan
calendar is heavily calibrated

to the orbital parameters of
the planets in our solar system,

specifically the inner planets.

NARRATOR: The red
planet's connection

to the Mayan calendar is
portrayed in the Dresden Codex.

This rare book from
Mayan antiquity

describes the
calendar in relation

to Mars' movements
across the sky.

The Dresden Codex is one
of four remaining books

that the Maya wrote.

It is, in many regards,
an astronomical almanac.

There are many
different sections

of the book that talk about
different astronomical phenomena.

One of them is the planet Mars.

There is an almanac near the end
of the book that breaks up days

into 10 groups of 78
days, equaling 780 days,

which is the cyanotic period of
Mars-- in other words, the time

in which it takes
Mars to get back

to the same place on the horizon
from a human perspective.

NARRATOR: Scholars
believe Mars played

an important role in the
Maya astrology that's

described in the Dresden Codex.

Above that Almanac
is a sky band

shown with various aspects
of celestial symbols

we recognize out of hieroglyphs.

And hanging off of it
is this interesting

dragon-like creature.

That dragon-like creature is
recognized as the face of Mars.

NARRATOR: Why did the
planet Mars feature so

prominently in Maya astronomy?

Ancient astronaut theorists
suggest the answer may be found

in a little known
myth surrounding

the story of the feathered
serpent god,

whose temple sits above
the secret tunnel

that contains the golden orbs.

In the Mayan tradition,
their great god, often pictured

as a feathered serpent,
was said to have

been responsible for the
death of the god of Mars.

Flayed him to death.
That's stripping off the skin.

It's a horrific ritual
that was actually done

in other ways in that culture.

But the idea is,
death by that means

absorbs the power of the enemy.

But the name of the god also
is associated with the comets.

EDWIN BARNHART: There
are certain drawings that

show comets that
look like they have

feathers coming off the back.

The flames are
depicted as feathers.

And some scholars
believe there's

a connection between the look
of the flying feathered serpent

and these comets.

NARRATOR: Is it possible
that the Mayan myth

of the feathered serpent
describes an actual event,

a cataclysmic comet
strike that destroyed

the Martian atmosphere?

After studying the red
planet for decades,

mainstream scientists
admit it's entirely

possible this impact occurred
on Mars in the distant past.

JOHN BRANDENBURG: If you look
at the Martian landscape,

it's heavily cratered
compared to Earth.

Mars is next to the asteroid
belt. In fact, in some ways,

it defines the inner edge
of the asteroid belt.

So Mars is constantly
being hammered

by asteroids relative to Earth.

You always have the risk, and
of course we've seen that here

on Earth, of having
large asteroids

or comets hit the
planet and cause

tremendous ecological damage.

The most famous example of
that is the Chicxulub asteroid

that may or may not
have been the final nail

in the dinosaurs' coffin.

And certainly that could have
happened at Mars because it

doesn't have a large moon
to help shield the planet

and possibly deflect asteroids.

NARRATOR: In his book,
"Life and Death on Mars,"

physicist John Brandenburg
describes an impact

crater in the Leo region
of Mars that's more

than 125 miles in diameter.

He believes this
comet strike may

have caused a
profound disruption

to Mars' planetary system.

JOHN BRANDENBURG: It's a
large double ring crater.

Only, this happened to
a planet that only gets

half the sunlight of Earth.

It has one quarter
of the surface area.

So this would have been
an absolutely devastating

planet climate-changing event.

SETH SHOSTAK: There may have
been a very dramatic event

where some other leftover
piece from the birth

of the solar system,
some big asteroid,

sort of made a close flyby, sort
of a fender bender collision

with Mars and just stripped
off a lot of the atmosphere.

That's a very popular
way to look at what

may have gone wrong with Mars.

NARRATOR: But if Mars
fostered life long ago,

before losing its atmosphere,
could intelligent life

and perhaps even civilization
have existed and even

flourished on the red planet?

And if so, where
would the inhabitants

have gone after the cataclysm?

Some say the answers
to these questions

can be found in the origin story
of Earth's first civilization.

Mosul, Iraq, 1849.

During an excavation of the
biblical city of Nineveh,

a team led by the eminent
British archeologist Austin

Henry Layard discovered the
ruins of the ancient Assyrian

library of Ashurbanipal.

Among the priceless
relics Layard

recovered from the library is
a series of cuneiform tablets

called the "Enuma Eilish,"
also known as the Seven Tablets

of Creation.

M.J. EVANS: The
tablets are essentially

text in columnar style, no
more than 8 to 10 inches tall,

6 to 7 inches wide,
which were made of clay.

And while the clay was just
in the process of setting,

a stylus would be
used by a trained

scribe to etch the stories of
our existence on this planet.

NARRATOR: The Seven
Tablets of Creation

tell a story about
a group of gods

called the Anunnaki who
came from heaven to give

birth to the human race.

But some ancient
astronaut theorists

believe the original
translations, completed

in the 19th century by some of
the best scholars of the day,

are flawed.

ERICH VON DANIKEN: The
professors, certainly

brilliant brains, had
no idea of space travel,

not to speak of
extraterrestrials.

So they all, without exception,
made the translations

in the belief that
the stories had

to do with the Almighty God.

In the old texts, we have, for
example, a world like "heaven."

For example, Abraham
was taken up to heaven

and brought back to Earth.

So we should change the
word "heaven" into the word

"space," so it makes sense.

NARRATOR: Using what they say
is a more accurate translation

of this origin myth,
ancient astronaut theorists

believe the tablets tell
a story about the Anunnaki

coming from the space to
colonize both Mars and Earth.

DAVID CHILDRESS: According
to some researchers,

the Sumerians had a number
of myths about Mars,

including that the Anunnaki
used Mars as a supply base

to come here to Earth.

And subsequently, the
Anunnaki then ruled the earth

as these extraterrestrial
god-kings,

while humans began to create
the many civilizations

on our planet.

And eventually,
the Annunaki left

to go back to their own planet.

Or did they?

NARRATOR: Is it possible
that the Anunnaki gods

in our ancient origin
stories were actually

extraterrestrial
beings and that they

created the structures that
some believe they see on Mars?

And if so, did they
then journey to Earth?

DAVID WILCOCK: We see multiple
references in the cuneiform

tablets that are allegedly
the records of the Annunaki

that, in fact, they did
originate from Mars,

that this is not a dead,
isolated, rocky world

with nothing on it,
but there was life.

NARRATOR: But according to
modern translation of Sumerian

and Babylonian origin
myths, a cataclysmic event

occurred on Mars, an event
that sounds remarkably

similar to ancient
Mesoamerican myths

about a feathered serpent
flaying the red planet.

DAVID CHILDRESS: While the
Annunaki were using Mars

as a supply base for
Earth, at some point

there was a catastrophe.

There was some asteroid/comet
strike on Mars.

It ripped the
atmosphere from Mars.

It changed the climate.

And Mars couldn't be
used as a habitable space

base for the Anunnaki anymore.

And so therefore, as we
explore Mars more and more,

we may find structures,
pyramids, ziggurats,

even giant statues carved into
rock on Mars, which are really

relics of the
Anunnaki and the time

when they occupied that planet.

GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: Some have
suggested that Mars may have

had an atmosphere,
and it got annihilated

about 65 million years ago.

What some have suggested is
that before this annihilation

occurred, that that civilization
was able to escape to Earth.

Now, according to this view, we
might in fact be the Martians.

NARRATOR: Scientists say
they've found powerful evidence

of this lost civilization.

They believe they may have
discovered a nuclear signature

in the Martian
atmosphere that matches

Earth's after a nuclear test.

During the height
of the Cold War,

we were detonating a very large
hydrogen bonds in the open air.

And it produces a
gas called xenon 129.

On Mars, we've also
found a lot of xenon 129.

The only process we know
to produce this xenon 129

is a nuclear explosion.

So apparently, a very large
nuclear weapon or weapons

was detonated on Mars.

If we look at the
Sumerian cuneiform tablets,

there are very clear references
to a variety of advanced

forms of technology.

And it would seem pretty
clear that if we were

able to get a nuclear bomb,
then why couldn't a civilization

that was superior
to our own have

developed the same technology?

There is a Sumerian
myth concerning

the planet Mars having to
do with some colossal battle

of the gods.

So there is elements
in mythology

that look very much like
descriptions of nuclear war.

NARRATOR: Signs of a
possible nuclear blast,

myths of a comet
flame the planet,

and a controversial
NASA experiment

that may have found life--

could these really be traces of
an ancient alien civilization

on Mars?

And if so, is it
possible there are

artificial structures
buried beneath the surface,

even to this day?

The Ares Vallis region
of Mars, July 4, 1997--

NASA's Pathfinder spacecraft
lands on the red planet.

The first probe to
reach the Martian

surface since Viking, Pathfinder
will look for signs of water.

Since the Viking
missions in the 1970s,

mainstream scientists have
come to the conclusion

that the planet may
have once boasted oceans

full of water and complex life.

Billions of years ago,
early in the history

of the solar system, Mars
probably looked, in many ways,

the way the Earth did.

It did build up an
atmosphere and oceans.

The atmosphere probably would
have been equivalent to Earth's

atmosphere at that time.

Life could well have
formed in the oceans.

NARRATOR: One day after
Pathfinder touched down,

the Sojourner Rover began
exploring the Martian surface

for signs of these
ancient lifeforms,

using an X-ray spectrometer
and a high-powered camera.

What they discovered was
yes, Mars, in certain places,

looks like the high
desert on Earth.

And maybe there
are areas which do

seem to be dried out riverbeds.

Maybe there's water
under the surface.

The thing we've learned
from the rovers that's

most interesting, I
think, is the fact

that Mars once had a wet past.

And if there was liquid water
on the surface of Mars long

enough, not just for a couple
of weeks, a couple of years,

a couple of thousand years,
but for millions of years,

hundreds of millions of
years, maybe something cooked

up in that liquid, maybe life.

NARRATOR: As the Pathfinder
Rover snapped photographs

of the Martian surface, it
captured images of something

that puzzled some scientists,

a mountain range they
nicknamed The Twin Peaks.

In his book "Life
and Death on Mars,"

Dr. John Brandenburg says
that because Mars has limited

volcanic and tectonic activity,
it's an open question as to how

these mountains were formed.

This interesting
formation is the tallest

thing for hundreds of miles.

Most of the volcanic
activity on Mars

is concentrated in
the Tharsis region.

How many miles away
is that, approximately?

-Oh, it's like 2,000 miles away.
-All right.

So-- so this area is not
known for any volcanoes

-or anything like that.
-No.

And because we now know so much
more about the climate of Mars

than we did 20 years
ago, it had an ocean.

It had long periods,
apparently, of liquid water

flowing on its surface.

So all of this causes us to
look at everything on Mars

with new eyes.

And so we have these
two interesting objects

that are conjoined.
Not only

are they the
tallest things for 200 miles,

but they're linked
to each other.

And this reminds me of what
we have found on planet Earth.

Now, there's alignment.

Mm-hmm.

JOHN BRADENBERG: And
what's interesting,

this is the Giza
Plateau from Egypt.

And it is near Cairo,
which name in Arabic

derives from the name
,, which means

Camp of Mars, Place of Mars.

-MAN: Very interesting.
-Fascinating.

And we also have found out
recently that at one time

the Sphinx was covered
with red paint.

So imagine we are looking at
the Giza complex

and the Sphinx,

and a million years of
erosion has happened.

Wouldn't these things all look
kind of rounded and mounded

like this?
It's conjectural.

Now, notice over here,
because it's the Giza Plateau,

we have the Sphinx.

Has something similar
been discovered

on Mars, specifically
around The Twin Peaks area?

Well, we have this strange
object which is nearby.

And we see that from space
and also in the picture.

And look at this
at this alignment.

Here is the Sphinx on Earth.

Here's the pyramid.

Here's is this object.

And there is what looks
like a mound of stuff.

Who knows if it is
degraded archaeology?

We must look at everything
on Mars now with new eyes.

In fact, when the
Sphinx was originally

found in modern times, it was
buried up to its neck in rubble

and was-- had to be excavated.

MAN: So something similar
could be going on right here.

JOHN BRADENBERG: There
could be a much larger

structure buried beneath.

NARRATOR: Could The
Twin Peaks be evidence

that an ancient civilization
may have once existed on Mars,

a civilization whose
structures appear

to resemble those on Earth?

Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes

and that evidence for
this startling conclusion

has been accumulating
for four decades.

When Viking orbiters

originally started taking pictures
of the surface of Mars,

they took pictures of
very intriguing features

on the Plain of Cydonia.

On July 25, 1976,
they took a picture

of something that looked for
all the world like a human face.

The whole thing kind of blew up
when a NASA project scientist

named Toby Owen put a
magnifying glass over a frame

number named 35-A72.

And said, hey, look at this.

NASA actually held a press
conference the next day,

where Owen and
Gerald Soffen, who

was the chief Viking project
scientist, said, you know,

isn't it peculiar what tricks
of light and shadow can do?

The whole thing kind of went
away a couple hours later

when we took another picture.

The problem with that
is that a couple hours

later, the Viking orbiter
was nowhere near Cydonia,

and it was dark.

So there's no way, that picture
could have ever existed.

NARRATOR: Some believe they
found not only a human face

carved into Martian rock,
but also a pyramid, a cliff,

in fact, an entire city
buried by thousands

of years of sand and soil.

By the late 1980s,
one researcher

had even discovered
what he thought

were mathematical relationship
among the features of Cydonia.

A cartographer and satellite
imagery expert from the Defense

Mapping Agency named Erol Torun
took a look at the pyramid

and concluded that
it was what he called

the Rosetta Stone of Mars.

He found a bunch of mathematical
relationships that pointed

to other objects in the
area that he thought

were artificial looking.

They included the
face, an object

called The Cliff, which
is a straight line that

goes on for hundreds of
meters, a rounded mound called

The Tholus, which appears
to have a pathway that

goes up to the top.

NARRATOR: More than 20 years
after the Viking mission,

NASA rephotographed the
Cydonia region in 1998

and again in 2001.

The face no longer looked human.

But some scientists believe
that was because of wind

and how NASA took
the newer pictures.

DAVID CHILDRESS: They
shot it from the side.

They shot at it morning.

It was as much a
different viewing

geometry and lighting
geometry as possible

from the original pictures.

Based on that evidence,
the face on Mars,

the evidence of past climate
on Mars, a past ocean,

I have concluded that Mars
was apparently the home

of a civilization in the past.

NARRATOR: Is it possible
that an alien civilization

existed on Mars in
the distant past

and built the structures
that recent Martian

probes have photographed?

If so, does the
government know more

than it's telling us about life
and death on the red planet?

Washington, DC, August 7, 1996--

on the South Lawn
of the White House,

30 years after NASA announced
the Viking mission had not

found evidence of life on
Mars, President Bill Clinton

held an historic press
conference to announce

some momentous news.

Microbial life may exist on
the red planet after all.

Scientists had found
what they believed

to be fossilized remains on a
Martian meteorite that crashed

to Earth 12,000 years ago.

It must be confirmed
by other scientists.

But clearly, the fact that
something of this magnitude

is being explored is another
vindication of America's space

program and our continuing
support for it, even

in these tough financial times.

There was enormous
excitement over this discovery.

Based on the chemical
composition of the meteorite,

we could tell that
it was from Mars.

Inside the rock, researchers
found different chemicals

and, in particular,
different physical shapes

of objects that looked extremely
similar to microorganisms

here on Earth.

NARRATOR: Soon after the
president's press conference,

scientists began to backpedal
on whether the meteorite

actually showed signs of life.

They said the original team of
experts may have been wrong.

The image certainly looks like
some kind of a microorganism.

But the opponents said
the microorganism remains

are too small to have
DNA to be inside it,

and therefore it
can't be a fossil.

Since then, microorganisms
have been found that small

which have DNA in them.

But it has not been resolved.

NARRATOR: But given the
controversy surrounding

the possibility that life may
have been discovered on Mars,

starting with the Viking
mission of the 1970s

and continuing to
the present day,

some scientists say NASA almost
seems to be avoiding the issue.

The Space Agency
has never retried

Gil Levin's test for signs
of life on the red planet.

It is very puzzling
as to why NASA

has refused to
send life detection

experiments back to Mars.

My experiment discovered the
most remarkable thing yet

know about Mars, that
there's something

highly reactive in the soil,
chemical or biological.

But we really should
find out what it is.

It is startling that
NASA has made no attempt

to determine that issue.

I truly think NASA knows
there is life on Mars.

But for some reason
unbeknownst to me,

it does not want
that information out.

NARRATOR: Has NASA found
definitive signs of life

on Mars that they're
intentionally

keeping from the public?

And if so, have
they found evidence

that an advanced civilization
once lived on the red planet?

Some ancient astronaut
theorists believe

they have and as evidence
point to a report commissioned

by NASA in 1960

that offers
advice for how to reveal

the news if the American
space program should ever find

proof of extraterrestrial life.

The so-called Brookings
Report essentially said that

in your travels throughout
the solar system,

there is a distinct possibility
that you will discover

artifacts, that you will
actually discover evidence

of an ancient alien presence on
Venus, on the moon, or on Mars.

And the implications of such an
announcement, if it were made,

would be potentially
devastating to the human race.

It could be catastrophic.

In fact, it used the
word disintegrate.

I would imagine that would
be something that would

be kept secret for a while.

I don't think it's a bunch
of men sitting in the room

and then smoking
cigarettes and saying,

we're going to keep this secret.

But it is a responsibility.

And I think that
they would certainly

be very, very careful as to
how to let out this knowledge.

NARRATOR: Is it possible
that not just microbial life,

but also intelligent
beings once called

the red planet their home?

And if so, what would that
mean for the existence of life

elsewhere in the cosmos?

If life used to exist on
Mars, particularly if it formed

independently of Earth life,

life in the universe
is all over the place.

That means that of the
billions of planets discovered now

similar to Earth through
our universe, many of them

would have life on them.

And if there is life different
from life on Earth that

has evolved, there
would be every reason

to suspect such evolution
would have gone on,

on countless other
Earths and that there

would be intelligent
life out there as well.

We want there to
be life on Mars.

We want there to be life
somewhere beyond here.

We want that transcendent
connection to the heavens.

We don't want it to be invaders.

But we don't want to be
alone in the universe.

NARRATOR: Are tales
of life on Mars,

found in cultures across
the world, simply mythology?

Or might Martians
really have visited

Earth in the distant
past, as ancient astronaut

theorists suggest?

If so, could there be
evidence waiting to be

discovered on the red planet?

Perhaps with further
missions to Mars,

we'll find that not only
was it home to alien beings

thousands of years ago,
but it still is

today.