All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S01E02.1080p.DSCP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[eng]

Narrator: eyes in the sky,
Watching us from space.

Hundreds of satellites,

Showing us the world
Like we've never seen it before,

Capturing images which are
Breathtaking but bizarre,

Objects and phenomena
Which defy explanation.

Baker: what is that?

Narrator:
An island the size of manhattan
That's vanished from the ocean.

Capps: the island is completely
Missing, gone.

Not hidden under the water,
But gone.

Narrator:
Remnants of an amazonian city
That could be el dorado.

Gough: our understanding
Of civilizations

In the amazon jungle
Will never be the same again.

Narrator: bizarre patterns
That seem to unleash a torrent

Of devastating weather.

Cerveny: there's no possible way
These could be natural.

And has a u.S. Spy satellite
Made a biblical discovery?

Huston: there's only one boat

That could possibly have come
To rest on mount ararat,

And that's noah's ark.

Narrator: baffling phenomena
Seen from space.

What on earth are they?

-- captions by vitac --
Www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by
Discovery communications

December 12, 2008,

The geoeye-1 satellite orbits
423 miles above namibia

In west africa
When it captures this image...

...Rings, like pock marks
On the desert floor.

Analysts zoom out
To get a wider view.

Then, the extraordinary number
Of rings is revealed --

Countless thousands
Of mysterious circles

Stretching 1,200 miles from
Mang'ola down the skeleton coast

Through namibia
Into south africa.

Analysis indicates that
The rings vary in size

From 6 to 65 feet across.

If this is a natural phenomenon,
It's like no other on earth.

They're just freaks of nature.

Kays:
When you see them from space,
They're just so mysterious,

All these different circles
In such a regular pattern.

And it just makes you wonder,
"What made these circles?"

Narrator: scientists pore over
The satellite images,

But no one is able to explain
The rings.

They need to be examined
At ground level.

Raphael scriba is
A namibian journalist

Who has been sent
To investigate.

He's heading from the capital

Southwest into the vast
Namib wilderness.

This desert has been here for
As long as 80 million years.

It's the oldest on earth.

Scriba finally reaches
The rings.

They stretch as far as
The eye can see.

He notices one thing
They all have in common.

Scriba:
It is a perfect circle.

As you see,
There's no grass inside,

But all of the grass
Is outside the circle.

Narrator:
Grass cannot survive inside
The circles, but that's not all.

The rings seem devoid
Of all life.

To sustain life, there needs to
Be some water in the ground.

Scriba tests it
With a moisture meter.

Scriba: and my testing says
Absolutely dry.

There is no moisture in the --
In the ground.

Nothing grows inside here.

Narrator:
Desert grass grows in the namib

Because, even in an arid place
Like this, there is rainfall.

But scriba's test show
No moisture.

An unexplained dead zone
Framed by a circle of grass.

And he's found something else.

The local nomadic tribespeople

Say their ancestors
Knew about the rings.

Locals called them
Rings of death,

And you can totally
Understand why.

Narrator:
Deadly circles, within which
Nothing can survive.

But how can this be?

One of the ideas is that

These were actually formed
By termites.

The termites would live in
The ground,

Killing the plants
That lived over them.

Narrator:
There are 32 types of termite
In southern africa.

Billions of the creatures
Are busy building

Countless huge nests beneath
The surface of the namib.

Dr. Walter tschinkel,
A termite specialist,

Is drafted in to investigate.

Well, the test we did
Was to dig trenches

To look for termite sign,
To look for nests of termites,

To map the location
Of termite nests

In relation to the circles.

And there was no association.

There just simply wasn't any.

Narrator: searching for
Another explanation,

Dr. Tschinkel analyzes
Satellite images of the rings

Taken at different times.

What I did was to compare images
From 2004 and 2008

And look for circles
That had either disappeared

Or appeared
In that period of time.

So, in this way,
I was able to establish

That the circles have
A life cycle, that they're born,

And they mature
To some stable size,

And then they disappear again
After some period of time.

Narrator:
Dr. Tschinkel's findings
Are shocking.

These rings are acting like
They're alive.

And they're growing.

Science, it seems,
Has no answers.

The locals believe the death
Rings have supernatural origins.

The native himba people believe
The circles are formed

By the poisonous breath of
A dragon

That lives beneath the ground.

Might there be an element
Of truth in the legend?

Could there be subterranean
Toxic gases

Poisoning the desert's soil
From below?

There are places on earth
Where natural gases escape.

And they come out naturally.

They can kill trees,

They can kill animals,

And it can kill people.

Narrator: it's happened before.

In 1897, the corpses of several
Bears were discovered

In a canyon in yellowstone park.

The deaths were attributed to
Asphyxiation by carbon dioxide.

The canyon is called
Death gulch.

Can the african death rings be
Blamed on deadly volcanic gases

Bubbling up from beneath
The soil?

Scriba is here to find out.

[ gas monitor beeps ]

What I have here, it's a gas
Monitor that tests poisoned gas.

Narrator: scriba's equipment
Can detect and identify

A wide range of gases
Both toxic and combustible.

[ beeping continues ]

No, there's nothing.
No poisonous gas.

It's still a mystery.

Narrator: if it's not gas
And it's not termites,

Could there be some other
Organic explanation

For the death rings?

Evans:
Nonrandom patterns like this

Where there's equal spacing
Of these features,

Very commonly,
These are biological organisms.

Narrator:
From the air, it looks almost
Like a viral skin infection.

From space, too,
It looks like a disease.

Could this be a clue?

Wickramasinghe:
Across the entire planet,

The total mass of viruses
Exceeds the mass of all life

By a huge factor.

And this population of viruses
Is constantly changing.

So we are in an environment
Of viruses

That are uncharted in terms
Of what they're going to do

Or what they are.

Narrator:
Is this some viral infection
Of the earth?

if this is a deadly disease,

It's one for which
We have no cure.

Kays: scientists have flocked
To this area

And taken all sorts of different
Measurements about the soil,

About the insects,
About the plants.

And yet we still don't know
What causes these circles.

Narrator:
A satellite image taken over
The south pacific

Shows what appears to be
An island.

In later photos of the same
Spot, the island has vanished.

An island that was there and is
Now not there is a huge mystery.

How do you lose
An entire island?

Narrator: in november 2012,
500 miles east of australia,

An image is released of a
Pacific island

Captured by
An earth observation satellite.

But the island
Has been blacked out.

Capps: this island shows up on
Open-source satellite footage,

But a lot of it's been
Pixilated,

Which is what you do when
You're trying to hide something,

Like a military base
Or whatever.

Pope: if you see pixilation,

You think, "Wait a minute,
What is this, censorship?"

There's something there that
Someone doesn't want us to see.

Narrator:
It's not like the land mass
Is a secret.

Sandy island has been charted
Numerous times

And featured on nautical maps
Going back 250 years.

In 2012,

Intrigued by the pixilated land
Mass in the satellite image,

Professor stephen micklethwaite
Sets sail

To find out what's being hidden.

Micklethwaite:
We saw this island
In the google earth data,

And it looked really weird.

And we thought,
"Well, we'll just check it out."

It was pretty big.

It was 26 kilometers long.

We looked at
The satellite photos

Of the surface of this island.

It was black.

Narrator: his research vessel
Eventually reaches the island.

Micklethwaite: we got there
In the middle of the night.

It was a starry night.

We could see
A reasonable amount,

And there was just no island.

Stephen and his team
Check the navigation systems.

They're fully operational.

And the coordinates
Are accurate.

Capps: the island is completely
Missing, gone,

Not hidden under the water,
But gone.

Narrator:
Ships and planes have vanished
In the bermuda triangle.

Submarines have sunk
Without a trace.

But an entire island?

Micklethwaite: I remember going
Up to the bridge

Where the captain was and
Saying, "Congratulations, john.

You've just undiscovered
An island."

Narrator: the disappearance
Presents investigators

With a bizarre challenge --

How to find a scientific
Explanation

For an island
That's gone missing.

An island that was there and
Is not there is a huge mystery.

Narrator: there are a number
Of competing theories.

One, it has been submerged
Beneath the waves.

Marchetti: the sea level goes up
A little bit,

The island is going to
Disappear.

When the sea level goes back
Down, the island will reappear.

Narrator: but satellite data
Shows global sea levels climbing

At just 1/10 inch
Per year.

If it is submerged, the island
Must have been incredibly flat,

And it should be sitting
Just below the surface.

To get an accurate sonar reading
Of what's below,

Professor micklethwaite
Takes the boat

As near as he dares
To the island,

Taking care not to run aground.

The sonar maps the sea bed

And reveals something
Even more perplexing.

There is nothing
Just beneath the surface,

Just a straight drop
To the ocean floor

Some 4,500 feet below.

Sandy island hasn't sunk.

It's vanished.

How could an island the size
Of manhattan disappear?

Another theory is that

The original 18th-century maps
Charting sandy island

Were flawed.

Early explorers had no gps

Or other sophisticated
Mapping tools.

Mistakes were made.

For example,
The famous pitcairn island,

Where the "Mutiny on the bounty"
Boys settled,

Was safe territory for them

Because they discovered
That pitcairn had been misplaced

On the maps
By several hundred miles.

The most likely explanation
For sandy island

Is that it was
One of those cases.

But sandy island was originally
Charted by captain james cook,

Arguably the most
Celebrated cartographer

In nautical history.

Pope: captain cook saw
An island there,

And he's
A pretty reliable source.

Narrator:
In the late 18th century,

Cook mapped lands
From new zealand to hawaii,

Surveyed islands
Right across europe.

He was a pioneer of modern,
Accurate cartography.

What's more,

This island has been repeatedly
Observed and charted.

French navigators recorded it
Two decades after cook.

English sailors on
the whaling ship velocity

Observed it 80 years after that.

An alternate theory suggests
That sandy island

Wasn't an island at all,
But rather, floating pumice,

A buoyant rock formed by
Volcanic activity.

Nelson:
The problem with this idea

Is that pumice islands
Are relatively fluid structures.

They move around a lot.

They don't have beaches
Or waves breaking on them.

Narrator:
Pumice rafts don't stay
In one place.

They drift.

When krakatoa erupted in 1883,

Pumice rafts carrying
Burnt human skeletons

Drifted 4,000 miles
Across the indian ocean.

And, even if the most famous
Cartographer of his day

Mistook drifting pumice
For an island,

Then what did sailors
on the velocity see

At the exact same spot
100 years later?

According to multiple
Eyewitnesses,

Sandy island was real.

So where has it gone?

Capps: an island going away

Is not something you see happen
In a quick way.

You have to wonder,
"Was it moved by man?"

Narrator: with no obvious
Logical explanation

For the disappearance,

More outlandish theories
Are put forward.

The whole area, of course,

Is one that was used extensively
By the u.S. Military.

The military would love
This kind of technology

To make something disappear.

Narrator: in 1943,

The u.S. Military is alleged
To have conducted an exercise

Codenamed
The philadelphia experiment.

Pope:
The philadelphia experiment

Was an attempt
To make a ship disappear,

And it's claimed that
Albert einstein was involved.

According to some people, a u.S.
navy ship, the uss eldridge,

Completely vanished.

Now, some people say that
It just became invisible.

Other rumors were that it
Had somehow gone back in time.

Narrator:
But the u.S. Navy deny that any
Such experiment ever took place.

And scientists dismissed
The idea as fantastical.

Yet the problem remains
That sandy island is missing.

Maps that once included
The island have erased it.

On the latest satellite images,
There is nothing but sea.

No one knows what happened
To sandy island,

Or if they do,
It's a well-guarded secret.

A set of weird circular shapes

Appear on meteorology maps
Of australia.

They can't possibly be real.

Narrator:
Each one seems to preempt freak,
Extreme weather.

Marrs: we would see
These weird formations,

And then, all of a sudden,
There was torrential rain.

Narrator:
January 22, 2010,

Meteorologists in australia spot
A bizarre disc of glowing rings

On their satellite radar images.

It's like nothing
They've ever seen --

A strange,
Giant white circle

Hanging over the city
Of melbourne.

Within this sort of outer band,

There was just lots of little
Dots, speckled areas.

Cerveny:
When I first saw pictures
Of these spiral images,

I thought to myself,

"There's no possible way
These could be natural."

Narrator:
The disc spans an area of tens
Of thousands of square miles

Across southeast australia,

Reaching out to the island
Of tasmania off the south coast.

Prior to the appearance
Of the white rings,

There have been no storms
Or violent weather.

Quite the opposite --

The country is experiencing

One of its longest droughts
On record.

The spiral mystifies
Australia's meteorologists.

Coleman: this sort of situation
Is quite abnormal.

Something quite wrong
Is going on.

Narrator:
The weather scientists try
To find a logical explanation.

Wilby: it was very difficult
At that time

To necessarily know
Exactly what was going on.

We just thought
Maybe there was a radar issue.

Narrator:
Ground-based radar technology

Combines with satellite imagery
To create a real-time map

Of changing weather
Across australia.

But radar is an old
And reliable technology.

It doesn't normally pick up
Stuff that isn't there.

Then, more circular shapes
Begin to appear

In other parts of australia.

One, on the northwest coast,
Spans around 400 miles.

Around a red and white eye
Is a black circle

With black lines radiating out.

Then, another on the south coast
Similar to the first,

A disc of dotted glowing rings.

More images appear,

And the meteorologists
Begin to think

Their systems are either failing
Or being interfered with.

Is this some computer virus
Threatening to bring down

Australia's entire
Weather-surveillance system?

Considering the processing
That it takes

To take an image from space,
Process it through a computer,

Stream it along bandwidth
To an earth center,

Reprocess it into an image...

It looks like a computer glitch.

Narrator:
But what happens next suggests
This is no computer virus.

The appearance of
Each strange symbol

Seems to herald extraordinary
And extreme weather.

Melbourne is engulfed in
One of the worst storms

In the city's history.

[ thunder crashes ]

Flash floods, 4-inch hailstorms,

A month's rain in just 48 hours,
And a mini tornado.

The timing of these events
Is really unusual.

Before these images were taken,

There had been a very
Long-lasting drought

Over australia.

After these images happened,

We suddenly get massive,
Big thunderstorms.

Narrator: from one
Weather extreme to another,

A record-breaking drought

Suddenly turns into
The wettest spring on record.

It may just be a coincidence,
But whenever the circles appear,

Reports follow
From each location

Of freak weather events.

Just what are these circles
And spirals?

Speculation spreads.

Is this some kind of
Experimental weather weapon?

[ thunder crashes ]

We had historical incidents

Where the military has had
Projects to try to,

For example, control hurricanes.

To be able to control
The weather

At the flick of a switch,
That's scary stuff.

Marrs:
If you can intensify a storm,

And you can guide it
To one place or another,

Then you have the foundation

For what has been known
For a long time as weather war.

You cause an earthquake
Or a typhoon or a hurricane,

Lots of destruction
In your enemy's country.

Narrator:
It sounds like something
Out of science fiction,

But weather manipulation weapons
Do exist

And have been used before.

The united states conducted
Operation popeye

During the vietnam war
From 1967 to '72,

Where they would seed the clouds
To make it rain.

Narrator:
U.S. Military aircraft

Pumped huge quantities
Of cloud-seeding chemicals

Into the air above
Enemy territory in vietnam.

The aim was to cause
Devastation.

The resulting downpour

Is said to have turned
Dirt tracks into rivers of mud,

Created landslides,

Made it impossible
To move vehicles and troops.

The monsoon season was extended
By weeks, destroying harvests.

The u.S. Military had found
Themselves a new mega weapon,

The weather.

But research into more
Sophisticated weather weapons,

If it's taking place,
Is top secret.

That was 40 years ago,

So you can kind of imagine
How much more advanced

They must be today.

Narrator: weather weapon or not,
One thing is for sure --

Something happened here,

Something meteorologists
Are still unable to explain.

As satellites track over
The amazon jungle,

They spot a strange shape
In a clearing.

The first time I saw the images,
I thought, "Wow."

Narrator: an area once inhabited
By cannibals.

Could a satellite
Have captured el dorado,

The fabled city of gold?

There's a whole lot of gold
Waiting to be discovered.

Narrator:
November 20, 2001,

The geoeye-1
Earth observation satellite

Is orbiting high above
The amazon rainforest to brazil.

Below,
There is logging taking place.

And as it does,
It uncovers land

Which has remained concealed
For centuries.

As the satellite passes over,

It captures lines carved into
The landscape

Of what appears to be trenches,
Ditches, and mounds.

These are not the scars
Of logging machines,

Nor are they natural.

They form some kind of pattern,
Manmade,

In one of the most remote areas
On earth.

The first time I saw the images,
I thought, "Wow."

They look, literally,

Almost like a geometric equation
Etched into the earth.

There's no way
These things are natural.

Narrator:
The satellite image shows a
Rectangular plateau

Surrounded by a supporting mound

With other longer lines
In the ground nearby

Extending into the jungle.

Analysis shows that
The main feature is large,

Around 850 feet long
And 650 feet wide.

if these are manmade,

Then there was once something
Much bigger

Than a jungle village here.

Huston: these are not just
Ordinary structures.

When you look at the images,
They appear to be walls.

They appear to be foundational
Structures.

Narrator: the main pattern,
Or structure,

Resembles the earthwork
Foundations

Of ancient
And medieval structures,

The palaces and temples
Of the ancient near east,

And the forts and castles
Of feudal europe.

But temples and castles are the
Work of developed civilizations,

And they're usually found
In easily habitable places,

Not the middle of the amazon.

That was such a brutal
Environment in the jungle,

That it could only support

Very small, isolated
Tribal communities,

And that the environment was
Simply not able to sustain

Large populations.

Narrator:
So, what strange kingdom
Could have existed

In this inhospitable,
Dense jungle?

There may be a clue written
In the notes of an explorer

Who, in 1925,
Manages to reach this far

Into the amazonian jungle --

English soldier lt. Colonel
Percival harrison fawcett.

Percy harrison fawcett
Was really the last

Of the great victorian
And edwardian explorers,

These people who would
Venture off

Into the blank spaces of the map
With little more than a machete.

Narrator:
Fawcett goes to south america,

Sent by the royal geographical
Society, to map the jungle.

But his study of historical
Records and ancient legends

Convinces him that,
Hidden in the jungle,

Are the remains
Of an ancient city

That some believe is
The legendary el dorado.

Huston: el dorado
Was the city of gold,

Which was thought to be
On the shores of a lake.

Others thought it was deep
In the amazon.

Narrator: south america
Was valued as a colony

By the spanish because of its
Rich natural deposits of gold.

The conquistadors even learned

Of a jungle kingdom
Where gold was so abundant,

They covered their king
In gold dust.

He became known to the spanish
As el hombre dorado,

The golden man.

Man: expeditions were
Sent out on numerous occasions,

All ending in a disaster.

Narrator: at this time,

The vast amazon jungle is
Inhabited by savage tribes

Who have never seen a european.

Grann:
Hundreds upon hundreds

Of people died
On these expeditions.

They would be killed
By the natives.

Narrator: but fawcett has a gift
For appeasing jungle tribes,

For winning their friendship
And their help.

Following clues given to him
By tribespeople,

He penetrates deep
Into the jungle.

His search for the lost city
Of z, as he calls it,

Finally brings him to an area

Close to the spot captured
In the satellite image.

What he finds there,
He records in his notes.

Grann: he described climbing up
An enormous earth mound.

And, when he looked out,

He could see another earth mound
Across the way.

And connecting these
Earth mounds looked like,

Buried under the jungle,

He could swear were
These parallel lines.

They looked like a causeway.

Narrator:
Could fawcett's earth mounds

Be the same ones
Found by satellite,

Or are there others nearby?

Fawcett believes he is about
To discover his lost city.

But the trail leads him
Into an area of jungle

Infested with cannibals.

His guides become frightened
And refuse to go on.

So fawcett and two others
Go alone.

The last account
Of fawcett alive

Comes from a tribe he befriended
Called the kalapalo.

They had this epic story
That was passed down

From generation to generation.

And, in that account,
It describes how fawcett

And two other people
Were determined

To keep heading towards
What the kalapalos call

"The fierce indians."

And they begged him not to go.

And they beseeched him
Not to go,

Saying, "You won't survive."

But fawcett was insistent.

He set out, and they were never
Heard from again.

Narrator: fawcett believed
He had found his lost city.

But if he was right,

It must have been at the center
Of a great kingdom,

A kingdom which has long since
Been devoured by jungle.

Sure enough, a combination

Of logging and satellite imagery

Is uncovering evidence
Of such a civilization.

Many more sights
Have been identified

Across an area
Almost as big as texas,

Spreading from brazil
Into bolivia.

They bear the telltale signs

Of a sophisticated
Ancient settlement.

It seems that fawcett was right.

There does appear to have been

Some kind of great
Ancient kingdom here.

This must have been one of

The wealthiest ancient
Civilizations on earth.

This discovery now gives,
For the first time,

Some credence to the existence
Of el dorado.

Narrator: technology which
Fawcett could not have imagined

May have succeeded
Where he failed.

If satellites have unlocked
The mystery of el dorado,

A dazzling bounty awaits anyone
Who can find it.

There is a whole lot of gold
Waiting to be discovered.

Narrator:
A cold war spy satellite

Captures something
That may prove to be

One of the greatest
Archaeological finds in history.

It looks similar to the shape
Of a boat,

And it's very interesting.

Narrator:
The image of the boat

Goes all the way
To the white house,

For the attention
Of the president himself.

There's only one boat

That could possibly have come
To rest on mount ararat,

And that's noah's ark.

Narrator: december 1973,

The height of the cold war,

The keyhole-9 spy-satellite

Is scanning the mountain range
On the turkish-soviet border,

A place of high
Strategic significance,

Looking for russian
Troop movements.

This photograph is taken
By onboard cameras.

It films a strange feature
In the landscape

That stands out from the rock
Formations around it.

It looks like a boat,

But the image can't be analyzed
Right away.

It's the early days
Of satellite photography,

And keyhole-9
Still shoots on film.

It takes some time
To get the image

From the satellite
Back to the u.S.

Pavelec: the canister of film
Would drop out of the satellite,

Re-enter the earth's atmosphere,
Deploy a parachute.

A specially designed united
States air force airplane

Would fly past and grab
The parachute out of the air.

Narrator: at cia headquarters
In langley, virginia,

This image is processed
And sent for analysis.

It always comes down to somebody
Hunched over a desk,

Staring at a photo,

Trying to figure out
What the hell he's looking at.

Narrator: the analyst
Who gets this image

Identifies something at the top
Of a mountain.

Marchetti: it looks similar
To the shape of a boat,

And it's very interesting.

Narrator: an oval shape,
But pointed at both ends,

Rising from the landscape
Around it.

The shape is hollowed out with
What looks like a flat bottom.

It's an image
That creates a question,

And they want to answer
The question.

Narrator: it looks to the cia
Like the remains of a boat

Or the impression of a boat.

But what is it doing 17,000 feet
Above sea level?

A boat at nearly 17,000 feet.

That would have to be
Quite some flood

To lift that boat
Above that altitude.

Extraordinary claims require
Extraordinary evidence.

Where's the evidence
For this flood?

Narrator:
But what makes this find

Special for the cia
Is the location.

This is mount ararat,

The mountain described
In the old testament.

According to the bible,

After the great flood sent by
God finally begins to subside,

Noah sails his ark
To the first bit of land

To appear above the water.

The ark comes to rest on the top
Of a mountain.

And that mountain, says
The bible, is mount ararat.

There's only one boat

That could possibly have come
To rest on mount ararat,

And that's noah's ark.

Baker: you can imagine, it
Starts out in the office first.

"I might have found noah's ark."

They're having a cup of coffee
Or maybe eating lunch,

Says, "Oh, what do you got?"

"I got a couple of soviet tanks.
What do you got?"

"Well, I got the ark."

Narrator: further analysis
Of the satellite image

Reveals something extraordinary.

The dimensions of the boat shape

Are estimated to be
Approximately 450 feet long

And 100 feet wide.

According to the bible,

When god told noah
To build an ark,

He specified the dimensions --
300 cubits long and 50 wide...

...Which, amazingly,
Roughly corresponds

To the shape
In the satellite image.

But the cia satellite cameras
Produce low-resolution images.

There's one important question
The cia can't answer.

Is this a geologic material,

Or is this possibly a material

That was made
Of a wooden structure?

What could it be?
A lot of things.

Something that's that long,

That has curvature like that
And a shape like that,

Could be many things
Of ice and rock

Or some combination of it.

Narrator: documents that have
Since been declassified

Show the cia investigation
Is deadly serious.

There were expeditions
To the top of mount ararat,

Uh, that were -- that were done,
Trying to resolve this --

This question.

Narrator: unfortunately,

The results of any further
Cia investigations

Of the ark remain classified.

So remote and dangerous
Is the location

That other reported attempts
To reach it

Have ended in injury
And even death.

The question of what caused
This strange shape

In the landscape
May be resolved

Thanks to new developments in
Satellite imaging technology.

What I would like to do
With noah's ark

Is to actually take
Another look at it

With our super-spectral
Satellite, worldview-3.

Narrator:
The worldview-3 satellite

Has multispectral
Imaging cameras

That can detect organic matter

And a camera that can record
At a resolution of 12 inches.

With the technology
That we have on worldview-3,

We can now
Take another look at it

And maybe unlock that mystery
In the future.

Narrator: all known expeditions
To find the ark have failed.

Today, the turkish authorities
Refuse access,

As it's a restricted
Military zone.

So, for the time being,

A satellite image may be
The closest we can get.

A satellite image taken near
Area 51 captures a strange orb.

My first thought was, "This blob
Looks very unnatural."

Narrator: weirder still,
It appears to be flying.

But it doesn't look like
Any aircraft I've ever seen.

Narrator: an earth
Observational satellite

Orbits 280 miles
Above the nevada desert.

In may 2008,
It takes this image.

The resolution is poor,
Almost blurry.

But the image shows
A strange circular blob.

Based on the size of each pixel,

It looks like the blob
Is around 35 feet across.

It is a silvery metallic color.

But what's strange is

It appears to be casting
A shadow,

As though it's flying.

Stranger still is its location.

The image is captured
At a national security site

Surrounding area 51, nevada.

Released on the internet,

It starts a frenzy
Of speculation.

Area 51 is where the government
Goes when it wants to be alone.

It's isolated.
It's well-controlled.

There's no access to outsiders.

Use of deadly force authorized,
It says,

Right on the sign at the gate.

And they mean it.

Narrator:
It's been claimed

That everything
From secret weapons testing

To dissecting aliens
Happened here.

Area 51 has no official purpose.

What is known is this was

A weapons and nuclear bomb
Test site.

In the satellite image,

You can make out craters
Caused from explosions.

Could they be a clue
To the mysterious blob?

When I first looked at it,
I said,

"Well, you know,
I can see the shadow.

I can see the pedestal
It's sitting on.

It is probably a platform

For mounting certain kinds
Of instruments

To monitor for radiation leaks,

Both during a nuclear test
And then afterwards."

Narrator:
But an instrument platform

Would tend to show much sharper
And well-defined edges.

And one of the peculiar features

Of the blob
Is its blurred edges.

Marrs:
My first thought was,

This blob looks
Very unnatural.

And I'm just wondering
If that is a true photograph

Of something like that
On the ground,

Or is it just pixilation

To blur it to cover up something
That's there?

Friedman: there weren't
Any satellites

Flying around the planet

When area 51 was created
Back in the early '50s.

And so that's changed things.

You got to camouflage stuff.

There's a whole game
Being played all the time.

And so, who knows how many
Of the stories

That get told about it are true?

Narrator: so, if the blob has
Been camouflaged, what is it?

Area 51 is officially linked
To edwards air force base.

Its airspace is designated
Special use.

The base is thought to be used

For testing
Experimental aircraft.

Could this explain the blob?

There are eyewitness accounts

Of something strikingly similar
To the blob,

Spotted at night just a couple
Of hundred miles away

In the town of needles.

Ex-police chief frank costigan
Was one of those who saw it.

Costigan: the shape of it
Was an oval, like an egg.

Whatever it was,
It was totally silent.

There was no noise.

The ground illuminated,

Almost like a helicopter
Was flying over,

Shining a spotlight.

I've never seen anything

Resembling what I saw
That night.

Narrator: another witness claims
The orb crashed across town.

There was a loud thump,
No explosion,

No anything,
Hardly any report at all,

Just a thud,

Like if you were to drop
A bowling ball in the sand.

Immediately was
The thump, thump, thump

Of a big, heavy chopper.

They picked this thing up
And flew off,

And it was like
Nothing had happened.

It was gone in 5 minutes.
Everything was gone.

Narrator: so, who took
The mysterious orb?

Local talk-show host david hayes
Thinks he knows.

You're listening to
The tri-state's home of talk,

Ktox 1340 am.

Narrator:
The day after the crash,

He had a strange encounter.

Hayes: there were some vehicles
Coming off the freeway.

And the first vehicle almost
Looked amphibious, black,

Government plates, domes,
All kinds of stealth equipment.

And I thought,
"Wow, that looks strange."

And, as I turned around
The corner, I passed by them,

And the guy kind of stared me
Down with this real hard look.

And I thought, "You know,

You're the one driving the
'star wars' vehicle, not me.

I mean, what do you expect us
To do, not look?"

Narrator: the vehicle suggests
Some agency was involved,

And the eyewitness to the crash
Thinks he knows which one.

They picked this thing up,

And they flew off with it
To the northwest.

And that's the way to nevada...

And area 51.

Narrator: could the blob
Captured by satellite in area 51

Be the same as the orb removed
By helicopter from needles?

The descriptions
Are very similar.

But are the two objects related?

There's no way to verify.

You can't go in there

And talk to the public
Information officer and say,

"Tell me the truth now
About what's going on here."

That's not how security works,
Believe me.