Original subtitles

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.

What is that?

Narrator: in the middle Of the gobi desert,

A perplexing mile-wide Rectangular grid

Of jagged lines.

There's no way These features are natural.

Narrator: A weird pattern in the clouds

That some link To the bermuda triangle.

Being underneath One of those can be

A pretty bad experience on land

And if you're in a boat, It could be a whole lot worse.

Narrator: What looks like a huge iron door In the antarctic --

Evidence of a secret nazi base?

The germans definitely Had the know-how

To build and construct In extreme environments.

Narrator: And could satellites lead us to A lost city of fabulous wealth,

The atlantis of the sands?

If we have found it, This is a huge discovery.

Narrator: baffling phenomena Seen from space.

What on earth are they?

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

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

In 1972,

The crew of apollo 17 take A famous photograph of the earth

As they travel towards the moon.

They call it "The blue marble."

Miller: It really just floored everyone

And just gave the sense Of we're all connected.

Narrator: 40 years later,

Satellite technology Has advanced so much

It produces this image --

"The black marble."

At night now, With "The black marble,"

We're seeing so much more.

The things that stand out to you Right away are the cities.

Kourounis: The earth at night, from space,

Is like a brilliant light show.

Everywhere That there's human civilization,

There's gonna be light.

Narrator: in 2012, The suomi npp satellite passes

Over the vast, empty wilderness

Of the western australia outback At night.

It captures on camera A series of lights

That can't be fully explained.

There's lights there where You know there shouldn't be.

It demands your attention.

There's something going on There that I don't understand.

Narrator: western australia Is vast and empty.

It's about a million Square miles.

That's 1 1/2 alaskas,

And yet it has the same Population as brooklyn.

So it makes no sense

That there are so many lights Across the country.

There's more light here than in The biggest cities on the coast.

There are no cities out there, So what could those be?

Narrator: A clue could be in the way The image was produced.

This is not a single photo,

But a composite Of multiple images.

Agass: The composite image was taken

Over 9 days in april And 12 days in october 2012.

So the areas of light

That we see in the imagine May not have all been

Present on the same night.

Narrator: could this be A series of forest fires,

Which the satellite computer Has gathered together

Into one image?

Kourounis: australia is Routinely plagued by drought,

And forest fires Accompany that quite regularly.

Narrator: but some analysts Think this is unlikely.

The light is simply too bright,

And the area covered, Too big to be forest fires.

These are huge.

If these are forest fires, They must be massive.

The fire's on a scale

That we're not used to seeing Anywhere else in the world.

Narrator: But if they're not forest fires, What could they be?

Following a hunch, scientists Compare the satellite image

With another, taken at night Over north dakota.

This sparsely populated state Only shows up

On nighttime satellite images As a patch of darkness.

And yet, one satellite image Taken in 2012

Reveals a cluster of lights.

It looks like chicago moved To north dakota.

The night-lights are, you know, That bright there.

Narrator: Analysts attempt to explain it

As something to do With the oil fracking industry.

Evans: It's big business.

They've gone at it Like no other time in history.

It's like a gold rush right now.

In order to get the oil out,

You have to put explosives Down there.

And you frack it by essentially Blowing up the reservoir

And allowing the oil to escape.

Narrator: oil fracking produces A by-product -- natural gas.

It's hard to capture it And store it,

So, instead, it's burnt off -- A process called flaring.

Across north dakota,

In the night sky, Are flared wells.

Narrator: Fracking does take place In australia,

But most of australia's Fracking sites

Are concentrated on the eastern Side of the country,

Over 1,000 miles from lights In the satellite image.

So it can't be fracking.

Scientists consider Another exciting possibility.

Could the image be evidence Of something

Never caught on satellite camera Before --

Ball lightning?

Kourounis: Ball lightning has got to be

One of the most bizarre Phenomena on the planet.

So few people have witnessed it

That science is only just Barely understanding

That the phenomena exists.

Some ball lightning Just disappears.

Other ball lightning Will literally explode.

We found some historical events,

Where things like chimneys

Have literally exploded Into a mass of bricks

When a ball of lightning Went into the chimney

And then ignited.

Narrator: But lightning researchers Don't buy this theory.

Kourounis: if this phenomenon In western australia

Really is ball lightning,

Then it would have To be ball lightning

On a scale That is uncomprehendible.

narrator: so what can be made of the remarkable lights

Captured on satellite cameras Over australia?

Aboriginal francis firebrace Thinks he might know --

A phenomenon he first Witnessed as a child.

I can remember On several occasions

Driving along with my father,

I looked out the window

And I said, "Dad, That min min light there.

See that light?"

And he used to say, "Don't worry about it, boy."

But it would follow us.

Narrator: for centuries, Aboriginal peoples have told

Stories of bright, Hovering lights in australia.

They're known as min min lights.

This light would appear from --

It seems from out of nowhere.

I can't explain it,

But it was a shimmering ball Of fire-like substance.

It would dance through the trees To a timed rhythm, it seemed.

It would hover there and Shimmer, and then -- whew! --

It was gone.

Narrator: There have been thousands Of reports of min min lights.

Eyewitnesses described seeing Glowing orbs in the sky.

There are many theories About the min min lights

But none have been Scientifically verified.

Whatever they were,

The extraordinary lights Captured by satellite

Have now gone.

A satellite passing over The frozen antarctic wilderness

Photographs something strange.

Gough: I'm looking at this image And I'm thinking,

"It looks like a door,

A big, steel door into the earth In the antarctic."

Narrator: Could this image be a clue

To nazi activities Prior to world war ii?

Summerhayes: The germans went to antarctica

To do a reconnaissance To build a base.

Narrator: Is this the entrance of a secret Underground facility?

You really could not find A better place

To hide than antarctica.

It is at the end of the earth.

No one is gonna chase you there.

Narrator: a satellite flying Over the antarctic wilderness

Captures what appears to be The mouth of a cave

Or some sort Of entrance into the ground.

Gough: I'm looking at this image And I'm thinking,

"It looks like a door,

A big, steel door into the earth In the antarctic."

Narrator: There have been dozens of bases

Established in the antarctic Which have since been abandoned.

Is this one of which there is No official record?

Summerhayes: the germans had Three expeditions to antarctica.

The third one is the one In 1938-39 which was run

Under the aegis Of hermann goring.

They were looking for a spot On the antarctic coast

Where they could build Their own base.

Narrator: Nobody knows for sure why the Nazis wanted an antarctic base.

And, if they built one, There's no record of it.

You really could not find A better place

To hide than antarctica.

It is at the end of earth.

No one is gonna chase you there.

Narrator: Building a base in the antarctic

Poses huge Logistical challenges.

Pavelec: we're talking About the antarctic here,

The least hospitable And least accessible place

On the entire planet.

Narrator: Anyone building a base

Could certainly Have worked unobserved.

The antarctic is 5.5 million Square miles

Of barren, Uninhabited nothingness.

But the conditions are brutal --

Ground temperatures Of minus 30 degrees fahrenheit.

Icy winds of up to 200 miles per hour.

Analysts scrutinize The satellite image.

By counting the pixels,

They calculate That the fissure in the center

Is 120 feet across.

Could this strange, Gray object be natural?

Colin summerhayes Is a polar research specialist.

That seems far too large To be a man-made object.

It's probably some natural Feature of the surroundings.

Narrator: but what?

Geologists compare the image With examples of ice crevasses,

But this seems different.

This looks more like A gigantic cave entrance.

But it's the object At the entrance to the cave

That suggests something Man-made.

To some, it looks mechanical,

Like some curved, Gray metal door.

And around the rim, huge rivets.

But if it is man-made, How did it get here?

Fretwell: Antarctica is the only place With no indigenous people.

Humans are an alien species On this continent.

Narrator: The object is big.

If this is engineered,

It's engineering On an impressive scale.

Constructing this would take Industrial know-how

And some powerful motivation.

Who would have the logistics Or the reasoning

To put a hole this far Into this extreme environment?

Narrator: at the start Of the 20th century,

A number of leading world powers

Were making exploratory Expeditions to the antarctic --

The british, the japanese And the germans.

Summerhayes: the germans had Three expeditions to antarctica.

The third one is the one In 1938-39 which was run

Under the aegis Of hermann goring.

Narrator: Goring, who founded the gestapo,

Was second only to hitler In the nazi hierarchy.

For him to personally oversee An expedition to the antarctic,

It must be considered Of great strategic importance.

Summerhayes: The germans went to antarctica In 1938-39

To do a reconnaissance To build a base.

Narrator: the germans Were not the only world power

With a strategic interest In the antarctic,

But they were one of the few

With the ability To do anything about it.

Pavelec: the germans definitely Had the know-how

To build and construct In extreme environments,

Like underground and in mines.

Narrator: History does not record

If the nazis built their base.

It's usually assumed They were too preoccupied

Fighting on the eastern And western fronts.

But at the end of the war,

Something curious Occurred in argentina,

A staging post for expeditions To the antarctic.

It was a great surprise

When two u-boats Turned up in argentina

Immediately after the war.

In the middle of july, One u-boat arrived,

And then, In the middle of august,

Another u-boat arrived.

Narrator: were these u-boats Delivering supplies

Or transporting people To a secret nazi antarctic base?

It seems too incredible To be true,

And yet, Shortly after the war ended,

The u.S. Military turned Its attention to the region.

[ air horn honks ]

In 1946, the u.S. Government

Sent a large military task force To the antarctic.

The operation included Two icebreakers, a submarine,

An aircraft carrier, Two destroyers,

Multiple aircraft, And 5,000 troops.

It was called Operation highjump.

Summerhayes: One of the ideas

About the american Highjump expedition

Was that it had been Sent to antarctica

To deal with this german menace,

A supposed german fortress In antarctica.

Narrator: but that was not The official purpose.

Pope: The official explanation is this Was just military exercises.

Thousands of people Going halfway around the world

To play a few war games In the snow

Doesn't quite add up to me.

If america really wanted just to Do some cold-weather training,

There are plenty of places they Could go much closer to home --

Alaska, canada.

Why go to the south pole?

Narrator: Most historians think the idea

Of a secret nazi ice station Is too farfetched.

Summerhayes: It's highly unlikely

That the germans Were able to build a base there,

A huge base That would contain hundreds

Or even thousands of people.

You just have to imagine The huge logistical challenge.

Narrator: And yet, there is no denying Goring's antarctic expedition

Or the explicit desire Of the nazis

To establish an antarctic base

Or the appearance in argentina After the war

Of two u-boats.

This satellite image May be a trick of the light

Or a strange rock formation,

But it may be something more.

Fretwell: Until you get on the ground,

You can never be Absolutely certain.

Narrator: the space shuttle endeavour

Takes an image Of the american midwest

That stuns geologists.

Rampino: there are these Eight circular scars

That stretch from illinois To kansas.

Narrator: Like a straight line of craters From eight meteor impacts.

It would be, like, A hiroshima-level bomb

Hitting In each of these eight sites.

Narrator: February 2000.

the space shuttle endeavour embarks upon an 11-day mission

To create a detailed 3d picture Of the earth.

Passing high Over western missouri,

It captures valleys, Rivers, and creeks.

But the shuttle's radar Reveals something else --

A vast, circular crater In the earth.

But intriguingly, This just one of eight craters

Stretching 450 miles From the east to west,

Forming a straight line

That seems to run Along the 38th parallel.

What are these craters, And why are they in a line?

Geologist kevin evans

Is investigating the largest Of the craters

Revealed by the shuttle endeavour,

Known as weaubleau.

Evans: weaubleau's structure Is 12 miles across.

That's the outer part Of the ring.

The inner ring is about 3 1/2 to 4 miles across,

So it's an unusual Sort of feature.

Narrator: as a geologist, Evans has examined many craters.

But this one is unlike anything He has seen before.

It's surrounded by what Looked like bizarre eggs.

So these are weaubleau eggs.

They can get smaller Than the size of an acorn

But they can get As big as a basketball.

Narrator: These stone eggs have been Found nowhere else on earth.

Dixon: So there are mysterious holes.

Around them are these weird, Egg-like objects.

Sounds like something Out of a science-fiction movie.

Narrator: Could the eggs be explained By the strange line of craters?

One of the most common causes Of a huge crater

Is volcanic activity.

There are 169 volcanoes In the u.S.,

But most are found on the Geologically volatile west coast

And alaska.

That would make This line of craters

The most easterly volcanoes In north america.

But why are they in a line? Are they linked?

Are these calderas or craters Part of some terrifying complex

Of volcanoes Running across the u.S.?

Some of the most dangerous Volcanoes

Are those that erupt So much magma

That the cone actually Collapses into the ground

And you're left with just A large hole, or caldera.

Narrator: super eruptions From such craters

Can be one of the most Destructive forces

On the planet.

A super eruption would be The ultimate geologic hazard.

A super eruption wouldn't just have local impacts.

it would have global impacts.

Narrator: the idea that eight Giant volcanic eruptions

Caused this 450-mile-long chain Of craters

Seems a logical theory

Until evans discovers something At the weaubleau crater.

Shocked quartz. Boom. There it was.

It's like, "No, is that really what it is?"

Narrator: shocked quartz Was first discovered

In nevada in the 1960s

In craters produced By nuclear explosions.

It's not the product Of volcanic activity

But from immensely violent Events,

Such as humans letting off A massive nuclear bomb

Or a huge meteor impact...

Something came from outer space.

It would have taken About seven seconds

To come all the way through The atmosphere...

...Strike the earth 20 times Faster than a speeding bullet.

When that meteorite hit, It would have caused tsunamis.

It would have shaken the ground In this area.

And so, what we have here today Is the remains of that impact.

Narrator: The meteorite strike theory

Could explain The crater at weaubleau

And maybe the bizarre eggs.

This is one That's been broken open.

This is the yolk.

It's silt stone.

When this meteorite impact Occurred,

It blasted all sorts of rocks Out of here.

And one of the rocks that it hit Was a silt stone rock body.

It was deep inside Of the impact.

And when it got blasted out As ejecta,

It would have been red-hot.

Narrator: Red-hot fragments of silt stone

Would have been thrown Into the air

And cooled slowly over time.

Microscopic quartz crystals

Begin to accumulate Around that silt stone class,

And if you can imagine,

Year after year, Perhaps even thousands of years,

This accumulated a growth, And it grew right in the rock.

Narrator: The shocked quartz and the eggs Point to a meteor strike,

But why are there eight craters All in a line?

To have a set Of circular structures

Across the middle Of the united states

In and of itself is nothing All that remarkable.

But what are the chances You'd put everything in a line?

You can do that calculation,

And it turns out It's literally

About 1 in a 2.5 billion chance.

Narrator: One clue to how this happened Can be found in space.

In 1994, Gene shoemaker,

The man who discovered Shocked quartz,

Also sighting a comet Hurdling towards jupiter

At over 100,000 miles per hour.

Durda: Jupiter's gravity tore apart,

Just ripped to shreds, Comet shoemaker-levy 9,

Making this set of impacts All at about one latitude.

And that gave us that Sort of "Aha!" moment,

That clue, that understanding

Of a new process We hadn't thought of before.

The same way a machine gun Will leave

A line of holes in a wall...

[ machine gun fire ]

...These comets Were leaving a line

Of impact scars on the earth.

It would be like A hiroshima-level bomb

Hitting at each Of these eight sites.

Narrator: And alarmingly,

It's a catastrophe That's due again.

Every 30 million years, There's a pulse of impacts,

Probably comets Hitting the earth.

And the last of these pulses

Was about 30 or so million years ago.

So, you might say, according To that kind of time scale,

The time has come For another impact period.

Narrator: Radar reveals strange markings Hidden beneath arabia.

This thing is like a mirage Coming out of the desert.

Narrator: could these marks Lead to a lost, ancient city,

The legendary Atlantis of the sands?

If we've actually Found it from space,

Well, then, That's quite a thing.

Narrator: April 13th, 1994.

space shuttle endeavor is passing over southern oman

On the arabian peninsula.

It's carrying state-of-the-art Radar technology.

It scans oman's So-called empty quarter.

At 250,000 square miles,

It's the largest, continuous Stretch of sand on earth.

Huston: the empty quarter Is empty for a reason,

And that's because there's just Not much there,

Let alone water or the ability To cross it with any confidence.

Narrator: the radar identifies A series of tracks,

Invisible to the naked eye.

These paths just appear,

And they are clear That they were there in history

And they're not there now.

Narrator: The tracks are 100 miles From the nearest city.

Analysts conclude That they must be ancient,

But why are they here?

Tracks, roads in the desert. They must be leading somewhere.

Clearly is a location Of extreme importance

And the place Where numerous paths

Came together in the old days.

Narrator: The experts are excited.

According to legend, There was once

A fabulously wealthy city Here.

It was said to have been founded By the grandson of noah.

The city was named "Ubar."

It has been called "The atlantis of the sands."

Generations of archaeologists

Have been searching in vain For a while.

If we've actually Found it from space,

Well, then, That's quite a thing.

Huston: even t.E. Lawrence, The famous lawrence of arabia,

Was told of it And had as one of his goals

To go back and find it,

But unfortunately died Before he was able to do that.

Narrator: The quran describes ubar

As a city Of lofty pillars or towers,

The like of which Has never been seen.

In the "Arabian nights," it's Described as paradise on earth.

Thousands of years ago,

Ubar was a rich trading center Of the arab world.

Merchants came to ubar With great caravans of camels,

Weighed down with silks And spices, precious stones,

Aromatic perfumes, And other exotic arabian goods,

Including the most Prized commodity of all --

Frankincense.

Frankincense was as valuable As gold in the ancient world.

Huston: the wealth of ubar Was attributable

Almost exclusively to one thing,

And that was frankincense.

Narrator: Frankincense was produced

From the resin Of the rare boswellia tree,

Hardened by the sun Into a valuable crystal.

It was these perfumed crystals That made ubar so rich.

If a satellite has discovered

The old frankincense Trade route,

It could lead archaeologists To the lost city of the sands.

Following the separate Ancient tracks,

They seem to converge, Like an arrow, to one point.

And at this very spot Are the ruins of a fort.

Are these part Of the ruins of ubar?

Geologists Stumbled on these ruins in 1948,

But they attached no particular Significance to them

And didn't explore them In any depth.

If a city of lofty pillars Did exist here,

How is it possible that nothing Remains but the ruins

Of a solitary fort?

[ people screaming ]

Quran tells us that allah Decimated the city

Because of its wickedness.

In the quran, it says that ubar Was consumed in the sand.

Narrator: a vengeful god Smiting an entire city,

The desert swallowing paradise.

It sounds like a fable...

...But experts think it may Be a fable with a basis in fact.

Dr. Brittany brand believes The real city of ubar

Could have been swallowed By a giant desert sinkhole.

If you have a city that is built On top of an underground cave

And that city is drawing water Out of the grounds,

Then it's perfectly plausible

That part of that cave Can collapse to form a sinkhole.

Sinkholes can happen Catastrophically

Where the ground simply Just collapses in on itself

With no warning.

Narrator: So could there be a huge hole Beneath the desert,

Hidden by thousands Of years of shifting sands?

If so, ubar could be there, Waiting to be discovered.

Excited by the breakthrough Radar image,

Archaeologists move in And excavate

Hundreds of tons of sand From the site,

And they discover something.

Huston: they found pottery.

They found other evidence Of what is certainly a city.

Narrator: And a second discovery

Provides a clue To the identity of the city.

Archaeologists found Eight towers,

Which matches What the quran says.

Narrator: A city of lofty pillars.

That's pretty specific And a good indicator

That this is the real site.

Narrator: More recent images

Show the extent of the site Uncovered by excavation.

They also appear to support The sinkhole theory.

The outline of a vast hole In the sand is clearly visible.

Beneath the ground, Sinkholes can be much bigger

Than their surface size Suggests,

Hundreds of times bigger.

The hidden ruins Of this city could be vast,

A fabulously rich city Swallowed by the earth.

Gough: what we have here Is a fantastic example

Of the tandem Of the satellite technology

With the on-site investigation

Revealing that ubar Was built over a sinkhole.

Narrator: some scholars dispute This is ubar.

If this was a great city,

Where are the skeletal remains Of humans?

The sinkhole is too dangerous To properly excavate.

Only mining equipment Could reveal what's down there.

Until then, No one can say for sure

Whether the fabled Atlantis of the sands

Really has been identified From space.

A satellite photographs A bizarre pattern

Of hexagons over the bahamas.

Miller: what is that?

And you go and try to answer That question

That no one's really Been able to explain before.

Narrator: Could these strange clouds

Solve one of the world's Great riddles?

Cerveny: this may provide Some vital clues

To understanding that long-term Bermuda triangle mystery.

Narrator: February 2002.

Nasa's terramoto satellite

Is orbiting 450 miles above The north atlantic.

150 miles Off the coast of florida,

Over the bahamas,

The satellite photographs Coastal clouds

When it captures something Meteorologists find strange.

When they analyze the image,

They spot a series Of hexagon-shaped clouds.

Cerveny: The satellite imagery Is really bizarre,

With the hexagonal shapes Of the cloud formations.

You don't typically See straight edges with clouds.

Most of the time, clouds are Random in their distribution.

Narrator: The hexagons range in size From 20 to 55 miles across.

Clouds like this would be Intriguing anywhere,

But the location Of these makes them fascinating.

This is the western tip Of the bermuda triangle.

This notorious area Of the north atlantic,

Between bermuda, florida, And puerto rico

Is the scene of many Reported disappearances

Of aircraft, ships, and people.

in 1918, the s.S. Cyclops

And over 300 crew members Vanished.

In 1921, the carroll a. Deering ran aground

With no sailors left on board.

In 1945, 5 u.S. Torpedo bombers Flying over the area

Disappeared without a trace.

They became known As "The lost squadron."

Scientists have spent years Trying in vain

To explain these bizarre events,

But now we have satellites.

This type of satellite image May provide some vital clues

To understanding that long-term Bermuda triangle mystery.

Narrator: So, how are these strange, Hexagonal clouds

Connected with the disappearance Of ships and planes?

The answer lies 4,500 miles away

In another satellite image taken Over the turbulent north sea,

Off the coast Of the united kingdom.

More hexagons, spreading Over 35,000 square miles,

Roughly the size of ireland.

This image was captured By the satellite envisat.

Envisat carries radar equipment

That can see through cloud To what's happening below.

Cerveny: With today's radar,

We can actually detect things That, previous to that,

We simply couldn't have seen.

Narrator: A radar image taken At the same time

Reveals sea-level winds Of almost 100 miles an hour.

That's the top Of the beaufort scale,

Powerful enough to generate Waves over 45 feet high.

I would not want to be in a boat Underneath something like that.

Narrator: Scientists believe

The powerful winds recorded By radar in the north sea

Also exist below the hexagonal Clouds over the bahamas.

And meteorologist randy cerveny Thinks they're connected

To a terrifying Atmospheric phenomenon.

These types of hexagonal shapes Over the ocean

Are, in essence, air bombs.

They're formed By what are called microbursts,

And they're blasts of air

That come down Out of the bottom of the cloud

And then hit the ocean

And then create waves

That can sometimes be massive In size

As they start to interact With each other.

Narrator: The blast from an air bomb, Or microburst,

Spreads outwards at speeds Of up to 170 miles per hour,

More than sufficient To tear down trees on land

Or flip ships on water.

Cerveny: I can tell you That being underneath

One of those microbursts

Can be a pretty bad experience On land.

And if you're in a boat, It can be a whole lot worse.

Narrator: Microbursts, or air bombs,

Have been linked With giant rogue waves,

Terrifying walls of water

That seem to appear Out of nowhere.

Cruse ship passenger Ronald clark

Experienced them firsthand.

We're cruising along, Just like in "Titanic."

Everything was great.

We heard a loud crash, Like a boom.

The ship was hit By a rogue wave,

A 70-foot wave, And it was terrifying.

I'm thinking, Like, a missile hit the boat.

Narrator: Clark lived to tell the tale.

Others weren't so lucky.

What's more, Several aircraft disasters

Have been attributed To these terrifying air bombs.

Even a large plane caught In their powerful downdraft

Can lose control.

In 1982, Pan am flight 759 went down

With a loss of 153 lives.

The official report Blamed an air bomb.

If professor cerveny is right And these strange hexagons

Are the signature Of deadly air bombs,

Then this satellite image Could provide an explanation

For the disappearance of ships, like the s.S. Cyclops.

It could explain How the lost squadron of '45

Was knocked out of the sky.

It could solve the riddle Of the bermuda triangle.

Now, satellite analysts Are scanning the triangle

For further signs Of these weird clouds.

Cerveny: we can trigger an alarm That will tell the forecaster

That, say, a microburst Has been created.

It's no exaggeration To say that satellites

Are actually lifesavers.

Narrator: A satellite captures

A baffling grid etched Into the gobi desert in china.

There's no way These features are natural.

Narrator: But if not natural,

Who put these lines Onto the landscape and why?

It's clear that the chinese Are pretending it's not there.

So, you have to think, "Something's going on."

Narrator: april 4th, 2009.

Satellite quickbird flies high

Over the gobi desert In northern china,

Almost 1 million square miles Of sand and rock,

And it captures Something weird --

A strange pattern Etched into the desert.

Hill: there's no way These features are natural.

These patterns Are in a very remote area.

They involved a lot of material To create them,

So they must have been put there

For some sort of Important purpose.

Narrator: These straight lines

And unnatural geometric shapes Are baffling.

Experts closely analyze The satellite image.

The grid is big.

It's a mile long And a half a mile across.

The white lines that contrast Sharply with black desert rock

Are as wide As multi-lane freeways.

It's clearly man-made.

It's been clearly Well thought out.

Maybe even city walls Or sort of a street layout.

Narrator: Could these be the ruins

Of some ancient, Long-forgotten city?

800 years ago,

This place was ruled By the great mongol warrior

Emperor genghis khan.

The silk road Ran across this territory.

But historians Can find no mention

In ancient mongolian texts To a city here

Nor is there any reference Which could explain

The large complex structure Captured by satellite cameras.

Some folks Think that maybe desert winds

Had revealed the walls Of an ancient city,

But it really doesn't look Anything like that at all.

Narrator: But if this isn't an ancient structure and it is man-made,

It must have a purpose.

These are highly reflective Surfaces.

It's white paint, maybe,

Or cement that's been laid down.

Narrator: Was this grid actually designed To be seen from space?

Hill: when you launch a camera Into space,

Usually want to look at targets On the ground

That you know Exactly what they look like

So you can verify How your camera's performing.

And so, you build known targets On the ground to look at.

Narrator: it's well known In intelligence circles

That china has launched advanced Spy satellites in recent years.

Is this symbol being used to Calibrate their eyes in the sky?

Pope: I don't buy the satellite Calibration theory.

That's old technology.

That's an old-fashioned way Of doing it.

I think the chinese Have moved way beyond that.

I think Whatever these things are,

They've got another purpose.

Narrator: There is a more worrying theory,

That this isn't a target For calibration.

It's a target For something else,

That this grid in the desert

Represents a key Strategic location

Somewhere else on earth.

Hansen: they are a target For some weapon,

Something that they're shooting.

Narrator: the strange grid Is less than 300 miles

From the city of jiuquan,

Where china's space program Is based,

A program controlled By the chinese military.

If one country weaponizes space,

It's a huge Technological advantage for them

And a massive concern For everybody else.

The military advantage Of getting a weapon in space

That can attack the ground is You will have the high ground.

And if you can shoot at it, So much the better.

Narrator: is china developing Its own version

Of the "Star wars" Space weapon program?

Our security is based on being Prepared to meet all threats.

Reagan's "Star wars" initiative

Was an attempt At shooting at a missile

From a satellite With a laser or a particle beam,

Or some other exotic weapon.

Narrator: so, what are china's Military leaders

Doing with their space port?

If they are conducting research Into space weapons,

Could the bizarre grid, Less than 300 miles away,

Be part of the program?

Pope: some people say That these are city grids.

Well, if this is a city grid, Let's see if we can find a match

And then we'll see what city The chinese are interested in.

Narrator: Analysts compare the pattern With the layouts

Of various world cities.

There are similarities In the desert lines

And circles with urban roads, Intersections, and plazas...

But nothing conclusive.

The chinese authorities, Meanwhile, are saying nothing.

Capps: It's clear that the chinese Are pretending it's not there.

So, you have to think, "Something's going on."