All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S02E03.1080p.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.

Objects and phenomena
Which defy explanation.

I can't believe this.
This can't be.

Narrator: a weird,
Deadly black blob

Is threatening the florida keys.

It was not supposed to be there.

Narrator: signs of a brutal
Murder caught on satellite.

Man: this feels
Like a classic hollywood story.

This murder was caught
By accident.

Narrator: strange spiral
Markings in the african desert.

Man: these circles have been
Linked to the ancient lost city

Of the kalahari.

Narrator: baffling phenomena,
Mysteries from space --

What on earth are they?

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

Captions paid for by
Discovery communications

Satellites orbiting earth,

Showing us the world like
We've never seen it before --

A new space-age
Early warning system.

But what exactly
Has this satellite captured?

January 2002,

The sea star satellite monitors
The world's oceans.

It beams data
Of florida's unspoiled waters

To marine scientist
Professor frank muller-karger.

You typically see a bright piece
Of ocean.

Narrator: but he's stunned
By what the satellite shows.

It looks like a big, dark patch
Of water, almost black.

Narrator: a massive dark blob
Has appeared in the clear waters

Off the florida coast.

It shocks researchers.

This is huge.

I've never seen
Anything like this before.

Narrator: the blob is over
30 miles wide, covering an area

More than three times
The size of new york.

Experts struggle
To understand what is causing it

And the kind of danger
It might pose.

I -- I don't know
How to explain it.

It was not supposed to be there.

Narrator: the ominous shadow
Is just 10 miles from land.

Man: it's so close to land,
It's kind of scary

'cause you've got miami
Right there,

You've got tampa, two
Large populations in the u.S.

We got to figure out
What this is.

Narrator: from a control room,

Experts monitor
The satellite feed.

They notice that the dark mass
Is slowly rotating.

Could this be some kind
Of gigantic whirlpool sucking

In everything around it,

What oceanographers
Call a black hole?

They call it a black hole
Because nothing can escape

From this big, swirling eddy.

Narrator:
Just like black holes in space,
Oceanic black holes are huge,

Spinning vortices
That swallow anything

That gets too close
To their dark embrace.

These are 100 miles
Across and a mile deep.

They're that big, very fast.

Narrator: formed of billions
Of tons of water,

Black holes menace the oceans.

Almost nothing
Can escape their pull.

Nelson: we're all fairly
Familiar with eddies

Swirling around in rivers.

That also happens in oceans
But on a much bigger scale.

Narrator: the gulf of mexico
Is shaped like a bowl,

Forcing oceanic currents
To bend in on themselves,

Perfect for creating
Black hole whirlpools.

But the blob moving towards
Florida is in the wrong place.

We can see the massive eddy
Was very far away,

Literally 150 miles away.

Narrator: supersized whirlpools
Form in the middle of the ocean,

Not near the coast.

The blob is twisting, but it's
Not a black hole whirlpool.

So why does the normally clear

Blue water
Appear to be stained black?

Black water in
The gulf of mexico

Usually means one thing --

Oil.

In 2010, the deepwater
Horizon oil rig exploded,

Pouring millions of barrels
Of toxic oil into the gulf.

It was so large that you
Could see it from space.

Narrator: black gold
Turned into black death,

Killing hundreds of animals
And devastating the coastline.

Could an oil spill
Explain the black hole?

If this is an oil spill,
Then it's absolutely massive.

Narrator:
Experts analyze the satellite
Images for evidence of oil

In the dark water.

When you're studying oil spills,

Especially
From satellite images,

The first thing that you're
Going to notice is sun glints.

Narrator: sun glints are
Bright white reflections

Caught by satellites
As light bounces off the oil.

Nelson: oil spills act
Like a giant reflective surface.

And so they're taking
The sun's rays

And reflecting it back
To the satellite image.

But we're not seeing that.

It doesn't make any sense.

Narrator: the satellite images
Of the dark water

Don't show any sun glint.

The weird blob
Is not a whirlpool,

And it's not an oil spill.

As it moves across the water,
Satellites track its path.

This event lasted for well
Over a month, almost 2 months.

Is it natural?
Is it unnatural?

I mean, we got to get
To the bottom of this mystery.

Narrator: to understand where
The black shape has come from,

Oceanographers jim ivey

And dave english move
In to study it up close.

In the center of the blob,
The sea is dead calm.

They drop cameras
Into the water.

Something is not right.

Ivey: soon as the camera
Penetrated the surface,

That's when we saw
All the jellies,

Hundreds of thousands

Of little comb jellies moving
Through the water column.

Narrator: something is causing
Vast numbers of jellyfish

To rise up from the deep.

To figure out what,

Jim and dave must take samples
To analyze the water.

Anything that could affect
The color of the water,

We had interest
In measuring that.

Narrator: back on dry land,

Professor muller-karger
Follows a hunch

And checks the infrared band
On the satellite feed.

He spots a disturbing signal.

Muller-karger: whenever you see
Something in that red channel,

There's no question about it.

This has to be a red tide.

Narrator: what sailors call
A red tide

Is in fact a deadly plague,

A vast cloud
Of poisonous red microorganisms

Which turns the ocean
The color of blood.

Mike colby has witnessed
A red tide up close.

It looks like just something
That -- that, uh,

Came from another planet.

Narrator: the red algae
Multiplies so fast

They form a block of blood red

That can be seen from space,
A huge, lethal blob.

Colby: well, the red tide
Can kill thousands,

Hundreds of thousands,
Perhaps millions of fish.

Seeing that many dead fish

Almost brought you to tears.

Narrator: and it's not just fish
That are in danger.

Humans, too, are at risk.

The red tide algae
Is harmful to people

When it becomes airborne
Off the water.

And, all of a sudden,
You're exposed,

And you're scared to death that
You won't be able to breathe.

Nothing else seems to matter
When you can't breathe.

Nelson: if this is a red tide,
Then we have a real problem.

But then we're gonna have
To solve another problem first

Because red tides are red.

This one is black.

Narrator:
In the heart of the black hole,

Jim and dave's test results
Come in.

What they reveal is baffling.

Just as the satellite predicted,

The water
Contains lethal red tide algae.

But it contains more than that.

Mixed in with the algae

Is the rotting residue
Of thousands of dead plants,

Contaminating the coastline.

So you mix that in with algae
In the water,

It appears black
From a satellite.

Narrator: but where did all
Those dead plants come from?

Weather satellites show
Heavy rain flushing dead matter

Out of the everglades
Into the ocean.

It looks like
The black swamp water

Has mutated
With the red tide,

Giving birth
To a maritime monster.

Ivey: it was kind
Of the perfect storm.

You had the toxic algae,

And you had the currents
Just right.

Narrator: scientists
Now think they know

What the black blob is,

But they are powerless
To do anything about it.

There are many things
In the ocean

That we're still
Completely unable to comprehend.

Narrator: this time,
Florida has a lucky escape.

The weather comes to the rescue.

Had storms in that area
That churned the water column.

So instead of being
Stagnant water,

We suddenly have water
That was well-mixed.

And that is what
Finally got rid of it.

Narrator: after months
Of menacing the coastline,

The black blob
Is chased away by nature itself.

Ivey: this is just one of
Of those mysteries of the ocean.

There's not much
We can do about it.

Narrator: a nasa satellite
Discovers something

Shocking hidden beneath
The frozen wastes of antarctica.

Something is exerting
A massive gravitational pull,

But it's under so much ice

There's no way
For us to see what it is.

Narrator: investigators discover
It is not of this world.

Man: there is something buried
Deep underneath the ice.

But the question is,
"What is it?"

Narrator: the implications
Are literally earth-shattering.

Can't believe this.
This can't be.

Narrator:
Satellite imagery has given us

A new perspective on our world.

Today, your phone or laptop can
Show what astronauts are seeing.

It can even show you things
That are invisible

To the naked eye.

In march 2002,
The rokot launch vehicle

Blasts off
From the plesetsk spaceport.

In orbit,
It deploys its payload --

Nasa's twin grace satellites.

Pushing satellite science
To new limits,

Grace can locate places on earth
Where gravity is...

Different.

You would think that the earth's
Gravity field is even,

But it's not.

Narrator:
Everything on earth has mass,

Pulling on the satellites
Above them with gravity.

The bigger the geological
Feature, the greater the mass

And the larger the gravitational
Anomaly.

Gravitational anomalies
Have a lot of applications.

And they're used
For looking for oil and gas,

For minerals, for water,

Things that may produce
Earthquakes

Or affect earthquake response.

Narrator:
But when the grace satellites

Pass over an obscure corner of
Antarctica known as wilkes land,

The strange data they beam down

Makes geophysicist
Ralph von frese

Sit up and take notice.

Suddenly, the gravity
Is just jumping out of sight.

I can't believe this.
This can't be.

Narrator: something buried deep
Within this fortress of solitude

Is reaching 300 miles
Into the atmosphere

And acting like a tractor beam,
Pulling the satellites down.

The question is, "What is it?"

Man: it's under so much ice

There's no way
For us to see what it is.

Narrator: such a massive
Gravitational pull is worrying.

Some commentators fear
A mega volcano may be concealed

Under wilkes land.

Certain kinds of magma
From deep in the earth's mantle

Contain high amounts of iron.

Such an eruption beneath the ice

Could certainly bring heavy,
High-density material

At least to
The near-surface levels.

Narrator:
But investigator ralph von frese
Is not convinced.

Von frese: when you have
Volcanic activity,

That adds mass to the crust.

And we see that the crust
Is thin in wilkes land.

And so this can't be
A volcanic feature.

Narrator: geologists know
That earth's crust is thin here.

But what could have more mass
And power than a super volcano?

Could vast quantities
Of moving ice

Be exerting
A strange gravitational pull?

Lester: glaciers are bulldozers.

Glaciers move because there's
Something pushing on them,

Either the glacial ice
Above or because of movement

Somewhere else in that ice mass.

Narrator: though antarctica
Is covered in thick ice,

Its glaciers simply

Aren't massive enough to exert
Such a gravitational pull.

So we've got two explanations
For this.

One could be volcanic,
Geological, and that's not it.

The other could be some sort
Of massive glacial movement,

And that's not it.
So what does that leave?

Narrator:
There is no other earthly force

Strong enough to pull
On satellites like this.

To investigate further,
Ralph von frese

Must penetrate more than a mile
Of ice to see what lies beneath.

He uses ice-penetrating radar.

Without satellites, we never
Would have found this thing.

But airborne ice-probing radar

Suddenly began to open up
The mystery a bit

And pulled back the curtain on
What might be going on beneath

3 to 4 kilometers
Of an ice sheet.

Potts:
He looks at a gravity map,

And he sees something unusual
That he's never seen before.

So he calls me over,

And he asks me, "What do you
See in this map?"

And I looked at it,

And I go close,
And I put my finger on,

And I say, "That is
An impact structure."

There was a signature

In the topography
That looked like a crater.

Narrator:
This is no ordinary crater.

The entire state of pennsylvania
Could fit inside it.

From outer space, a giant object
Has hit the earth.

Before now, the most
Famous large asteroid impact

Was the giant chicxulub crater
In the yucatan peninsula.

But the crater caused
By this impact

Is three times bigger,
The size of a small state.

Von frese: the chicxulub rock

Is considered to be about
A 10-kilometer-diameter rock.

The wilkes land rock,

It would have been about 40
To 60 kilometers in diameter.

And the central crater
Is about 500 kilometers across,

So the entire state of ohio

Fits in the central part
Of the basin.

If this turns out
To be for real,

Then it's the biggest impact
Basin on the planet earth.

But it's been under ice for
Several hundred million years.

Scientists believe
That the chicxulub impact

Killed off the dinosaurs
65 million years ago.

But there was another great
Dying 250 million years ago.

Nearly 90 percent
Of all species on planet earth

Were simply cut down.

Woman:
Around 250 million years ago,

There was a massive outpouring
Of lava in the region

That is now siberia.

More than 1.2 million
Cubic miles of lava

Poured from the ground
And buried the landscape.

This was enough to cover
The united states

In more than a 1/2 mile of lava.

This eruption coincides with one
Of the largest extinction events

On earth.

Narrator:
One of the few survivors
Of this planetary disaster

Was a species
Of small proto reptile.

But these tough little critters
Didn't stay small.

This was the start
Of the dinosaurs.

Yet in this pre-dinosaur
Disaster,

The deadly volcanic eruption
Happened in siberia.

How could an extraterrestrial
Event in antarctica

Have triggered such a cataclysm?

Man: when you have, uh,

An impact on a planet
At one side, all of the energy

Goes around the planet
In these seismic waves,

And then they concentrate again
At the opposite end.

Narrator: 250 million years ago,

Directly opposite
The greatest asteroid strike

The world has ever known

Was the largest volcanic
Eruption in history.

This impact
In wilkes land in antarctica

Is a viable candidate
For the cause

Because it
Transmitted shock waves

Around the whole globe,
Out into siberia,

Causing massive eruptions
And the great dying.

Narrator:
If the investigators are right,

They've discovered a missing
Link in earth's history --

The critical event

That triggered
The greatest extinction ever,

Preparing the earth
For the reign of the dinosaurs.

Lester: if, indeed,
The wilkes land crater

Is the one that brought about
The extinction

250 million years ago,
Then the dinosaurs

Are sandwiched between two
Enormous asteroid impact events.

The wilkes land crater

Is a reminder
That large impacts do occur.

It's not a matter of if they
Will happen in the future.

It's a matter of when.

Narrator: a satellite
Over south africa

Captures something bizarre
In the arid landscape.

Man: just look as this image.
It's incredible.

You see these huge spheres,
These huge circles,

And you have to ask yourself,
"What are they doing

In the middle of the desert?"

Man: the question is,
"Who made them?

When were they made?
And why were they made?"

Narrator:
There are still vast tracts

Of earth's surface
Which remain largely unexplored,

So sparsely populated
That we need satellites

To see what's there.

In may 2013, satellite
Researcher jaimy visser

Is using google earth to search
For lost archaeological ruins.

There was this one site
Which was called verneukpan,

Which is in south africa.

And we heard rumors
That there were some

Weird some formations
Around that area.

Narrator:
The rumors proved to be true.

A satellite passing
Over a remote region

Of the kalahari desert
Captures this image.

Visser: when I zoomed in, there
Were hundreds of these spirals

Just littering the area.

I mean,
These were really weird spirals

Unlike anything I'd ever seen.

Narrator: the spirals form
A mysterious triangular shape.

Could they be a quirk of nature,

The result of some strange
Desert weather phenomenon

Or freak geological event?

Exploring other
Known desert formations,

Visser concludes these hypnotic
Patterns can't be natural.

Well, what first caught my eye
Was all these vertical lines

Right next to it,

Which definitely meant that that
Could not have been some kind

Of weird natural process.

Narrator: if these are man-made,
Then who put them here?

To search for answers, visser
Publishes his discovery

And is contacted
By south african author

Michael tellinger.

Tellinger has published a set of
Controversial satellite images

Showing stone circles
East of the kalahari.

He believes they were created no
Less than 200,000 years ago,

Long, long before the rise
Of human civilization.

He thought my spirals
Might be connected to it

Because they're located
In the kalahari desert,

And they might give us a clue

On where the other civilization
Might have gone.

Man: even though the kalahari
Is a desert,

It has a very, very long history
Of human occupation.

Narrator: there have long been
Incredible rumors

Of an ancient civilization
Hidden in the kalahari.

One man convinced
Of this was the 19th century

Explorer william leonard hunt.

But hunt was no archaeologist.

In fact,
He was a daredevil entertainer.

He called himself
The great farini.

The great farini was,
First and foremost, a showman.

He invented the human
Cannonball.

And, in fact, he was a tightrope
Walker like no one of his era.

Farini's claim to fame is that,
In 1885,

He became the first westerner
To cross the kalahari desert.

He finds a city,
And he writes a book about it.

And he becomes a bit
Of a celebrity as a result.

Narrator: explorers set out
To retrace farini's footsteps

To find his lost city.

But if there was anything there,

The desert is keeping
Its secret well-hidden.

Farini's notes
Don't make that much sense.

They're not that clear.

They don't lead
To a specific place

That can be recognized
As a lost city.

Gough: in 30 expeditions,
They find nothing.

Planes crisscrossing
Over the desert

Where he says the city is.

Nobody can find a thing.

And now, all of sudden, people

Are starting
To doubt his discovery.

Narrator: but now, this.

Satellites uncover giant shapes
Etched into the earth.

Was farini right all along?

Visser: the exciting
Thing is that,

If there was a kalahari city
That is now lost,

A real vanished civilization
Of sorts, these spirals

Might give us a clue
On where these were.

The vertical lines
Next to the spirals

Might even be a big arrow

Pointing towards the supposed
Location of this city.

Narrator: analysis of the image

Reveals that the arrow shape
Points almost directly north.

Gough: the fact that the spirals
Form an arrow and point

To the vicinity of where farini

Found his city has to be
More than just coincidence.

Narrator:
The discovery of this clue
Inspires archaeological explorer

Robin matthews to head
Into the desert on a quest

To find farini's lost city.

Farini's journal
Describes a ruin,

Like part of a great wall,

Blasted perhaps
By some earthquake.

And when matthews arrives at the
Place the giant arrow points to,

That is exactly what he finds.

This row of rocks here
Looks remarkably like a wall,

Possibly what farini
Was referring to when he said he

Had found the ancient lost city
Of the kalahari.

Narrator: this is wilderness.

There is no civilization known
To have established itself here.

And yet there is a wall.

Matthews explores the structure
More closely.

It certainly looks manmade.

This looks as though
It has been masoned

By somebody,
Put together

And almost evidence of cement
That would have held the rocks

Together but has now
Eroded over the years.

But are these really the ruins
Of a massive manmade wall?

The stone is dolerite,
A volcanic rock.

Dolerite is formed when
Magma rises through the crust,

Either vertically
Or intruding laterally,

And cools slowly over time.

It often can be found
In joints or blocks because,

When lava cools, it contracts.

And it can actually form
What looks like a wall of rock.

Narrator: so this wall may be
An optical illusion created when

Molten magma cools and contracts
Into strange patterns.

Lester: sometimes,
That contraction in those cracks

Will produce grooves
In such rocks

That might look like the grooves
That were designed for building

Or cut into the rock
By human beings.

I could see how,
Perhaps, a non-geologist

May mistake it for something
That could have been a wall.

Gough: in all fairness,

If an explorer
Sees these lava blocks

That have formed together
As though they were designed

To look like that, well,

Why wouldn't they conclude
That that was an ancient city

With gargantuan walls?

It only makes sense.

Narrator:
But if this wall of rocks

Is just a freak
Geological formation,

Why do the desert spirals point
In this direction?

To find the answer, matthews

Must make the 400-mile journey
South to examine the circles.

These circles have been linked
To the ancient lost city

Of the kalahari.

Narrator:
There, he will find the truth.

Narrator: archaeological
Explorer robin matthews

Is trying to find out

What's behind dozens
Of bizarre spiral shapes

Clustered in the kalahari.

He heads south to investigate.

Up close, he soon realizes that
These spirals may not be as old

As people imagined.

Matthews: I'm not certain
How long ago they were made,

But if I understand
That this is an old salt pan,

And a lot of water
Flows in here,

One would think that that
Would be worn over over time.

I don't believe
That they're ancient.

Narrator: matthews thinks that
These might be modern creations.

He dispatches a drone to search
For evidence of recent activity.

From the air, he discovers that
Some of the spirals are barren,

But others appear to have
Vegetation growing in them.

These spirals are not natural.

They're not the relics
Of an ancient structure.

But they do display evidence
Of an intelligent design.

The following morning,
He returns to explore

More of the site...

And discovers
That the truth is out there.

He stumbles upon farmer
Louis salzmann.

Louis and his family have been
Working here for generations.

They plow their land
Before the annual rains arrive.

Me and father-in-law,
Night after night,

We plow the circles.

Narrator: salzmann hopes
That these spiral furrows

Will trap enough water

To irrigate his crops
During the dry months.

Actually, that kind of makes
Sense because we do see spirals

Or circular patterns
In agriculture.

I just didn't expect
To see something like that

In such an arid desert.

For some people,
It's a huge joke.

But for us, we just wanted
To get the vegetation back.

Narrator: so the desert spirals
Are the ingenious work of man,

But he's not quite as ancient
As some would like him to be.

The idea that satellites
Float above us,

Monitoring everything we do has
Always been popular in fiction.

But could we now
Be entering a new era,

Where even our darkest secrets
Can no longer remain hidden?

In april 2013,

An internet blogger posts
A picture on the web titled

"A murder near my house
On google maps."

The image, taken near amsterdam,
Holland, goes viral.

Despite intense speculation,
No victim or suspects are found.

Then, 2 years later,

Image analyst marc d'antonio
Returns to the picture.

On first examination,
It seems compelling.

Here we see
A trail of blood

Coming down
The wooden boardwalk

And then onto this dock.

You see that the blood
Loops around,

And it's pooled right here.

You also see an individual
Standing right here

And another individual standing
Right here, in a dark shirt.

They dragged his body
Down the pier, laid it down,

And these two people
Are in the process

Of disposing of it
In the water.

[ sirens wailing ]

A murder caught on camera
From space?

Satellites have captured acts
Of slaughter before,

But they're not always
What they seem.

This is somalia.
These are fishermen.

And they're gutting their fish
Right there on the seashore.

So what we're literally seeing
Is fish guts from space.

I can actually see blood
On the sand.

Narrator:
Satellite experts are confident
They can identify bloodstains

From animal slaughter.

But have they ever seen signs
Of murder?

I can't answer that.

The investigation switches
From satellite image analysis

To crime scene forensics.

California-based blood spatter
Analyst tina young steps in.

Young: the whole image
Looks very suspicious.

There is what appears to be
Quite a volume

Of what looks like
The characteristics of blood.

It's worthy of an investigation.

Narrator: if it's blood
In the image,

What could have caused the
Pattern it makes on the jetty?

Tina conducts three blood
Spatter tests to find out.

Young:
One will be a splash pattern.

I will take this blood
And pour it on the floor.

And the second
Will be an impact pattern.

I'll hit the blood
With the mallet.

And the third
Will be a transfer drag.

And I'll use a cloth
To drag through the blood.

What we've done here looks very
Similar to the satellite image.

It looks like a splash pattern,
Possibly also an impact.

And it does look
Like a drag pattern was created.

Narrator: but tina's test
Cannot confirm

Whether the stain
On the jetty is blood.

In order to tell if it is blood,

There would be tests that would
Need to be done at the jetty.

We may have found this initially
With satellite image,

But there's no way we're gonna
Know what happened for sure

Till we get boots on the ground,

Get a csi team out there,
And take a look.

Narrator:
The satellite image showing
What looks like blood spatter

On a small jetty in holland
Was taken in 2009.

A crime scene investigation team
In holland

Decides to check it out.

The marks are long gone,
But if it was blood,

The forensics team
Hopes some trace of it remains.

We use a specially handmade
Solution,

Which is extremely powerful.

It's like those light sticks
You break.

Two fluids come together,
And they emit light.

Well, this is similar.

We spray a solution.

When it comes in contact
To blood, it will lighten up.

We did a test on it.

But, sadly, no results.

It could still be there.
Yeah.

But we are not able to find it.

Narrator:
With no trace of blood,

The murder theory
Is thrown into doubt.

The amsterdam police take

The decision
Not to investigate the incident.

So here's
The million-dollar question.

If there's no blood there,
Then what is it?

Narrator: satellite analysts
Start looking for other clues.

Marchetti:
Once you see the anomaly,

You look at the patterns
Of life around the anomaly.

And that typically tells
The story of what's actually

Occurring on the ground.

If we zoom out a little bit
On the image,

And we rotate it around,

If you're gonna
Get rid of a body,

Why would you do it on
The end of a big pier

Like this in the middle
Of a big public park?

Why not put it somewhere
In the woods on this island

Or somewhere else?

The stain on the dock
That we think might be blood

Could be something else.

This could be water staining
The wood a darker color.

Narrator: how could such an odd
Water trail have gotten there?

One possible answer
Emerges when a local in the area

Claims the damp patches
Were made by their wet dog.

And we know dogs
Love to run in the water,

And the dog could have jumped
In and come right back out,

Dripping all the way.

Maybe this is where the dog
Laid down.

But forensic experts

Are unconvinced
By the soggy dog story.

Young:
Blood doesn't like to break up.

It doesn't like
To flow as much as water.

You would see water
Spread more than blood.

When you look
At the actual satellite image,

It actually does have
That appearance of blood.

It doesn't look like water.

Narrator: whether
Or not satellites

Have captured a murder
Taking place in this image,

One thing is certain --

Satellites can be

And are being used
To detect criminal activity.

D'antonio:
After hurricane katrina,

There were people
That had a home

They claimed was destroyed
By the storm.

But google earth

Showed the house
Was standing after the storm.

When insurance investigators
Showed up,

The house was demolished.

So they were caught
In an insurance scam.

Narrator: the number of
Satellites in orbit is growing,

And their image capture
Technology is developing fast.

The eyes in the sky
Are seeing more than ever.

With 30-centimeter resolution
Of imagery,

We're now able to see details
On the ground

That you wouldn't be able
To see before.

Now we can not only tell
The difference between, say,

A sedan and maybe
An s.U.V. Or a pickup truck,

We can actually tell you
The color of that vehicle.

We can actually tell you if
The passenger left their car --

Their door open
When they exited the vehicle.

Narrator:
The latest satellites have taken
The technology of surveillance

To whole new level,

A terrifying new weapon
In the hands of the state,

But also a new chapter
In the fight against crime.

For the criminal mind,
It's something else

That they have to be aware
Of because there are eyes

Not just watching around them,

But there are eyes
Watching above them.

Narrator: a weather satellite
Spots something

Unusual in the african desert.

Man: we saw a new light
Where there was not one before,

In an area
That was not populated at all.

Narrator:
Is it a force of nature...

It doesn't look like
Lightning to me.

Narrator: ...The work of man...

Man: in order
To see these from space,

The operation going
On there would have to be huge.

Narrator:
...Or something truly horrific?

Man: this is incredibly tragic.
People died.

Narrator: orbiting the earth
Once every 102 minutes,

The suomi national
Polar-orbiting satellite

Monitors the earth's weather
All around the globe.

Part of its package
Of instruments is a sensor

That works
On the so-called day/night band.

Man: working with
The day/night band,

We can see lots of different
Sources of light at night.

And sometimes we can look
For new light sources.

Narrator: in july 2015,

One mysterious light source
Catches the attention

Of technology journalist
Seth porges.

I've seen a lot
Of satellite images,

But none
That look quite like this.

Narrator: two things stand out
On the image.

One is a series
Of horizontal bands

Smeared across the center
Of the picture.

What we're seeing are streaks
Of light

That look unlike anything
We've ever seen before.

What is going on here?

Narrator: the other anomaly
Is even more intriguing.

In the upper corner of the image
Is a single solitary dot

Of light, resembling
A small village or town.

Nothing mysterious about that.

The satellite images
Shows similar dots

All over the picture,

But those are known settlements.

This one is in the middle
Of nowhere.

And the very next day,

It's gone.

This image shows us something

That has never been
Captured on camera before.

Narrator: so there are two
Mysteries to be solved --

The disappearing dot
And the bright streaks of light.

Searching for satellite evidence

Which could explain
The mysterious dot on the image,

The investigation
Spots similar lights

From oil drilling sites
In the middle east.

The satellite image was captured
Over the west african oil belt.

Perhaps this can provide a clue.

When you look a the region,
There's a lot of oil

And natural gas production,

And that means flares when they
Burn off excess production.

That could be
What's going on here.

A lot of times,
When you have an oil refinery

Or some type of gas plant,

They'll flare off a lot
Of the natural gas

That's a byproduct
Of the drilling operation.

Narrator: these flares form huge
Beacons of red-hot burning gas

That can be seen from orbit.

But they don't just appear
And disappear overnight.

The thing with gas flaring is
That it would be there for weeks

Or even months at a time.

It's not the kind of thing
That would show up one day

And then be gone the next.

So it's probably not that.

Narrator: the bright light
Isn't the only thing

That puzzles investigators.

The strange streaks
Are equally baffling,

And they appear in the middle
Of nowhere.

This is in a very remote part
Of the sahara desert.

Things could happen there,

And no one
Would know about them.

Narrator: what could cause these
Mysterious streaks in the sky?

Astronomy analyst

Marc d'antonio thinks they
Are coming from outer space.

This image,
Taken from a satellite,

Is of meteors entering
The earth's atmosphere.

You can see
That they leave a streak.

Narrator: whatever's happening

Has no obvious
Terrestrial source.

And yet no meteor showers
Were recorded on the night

The picture was taken.

Is there a more
Down-to-earth cause?

You might expect that portion
Of the sahara desert

To be completely dry,
With no rain whatsoever,

But it is a birthplace
Of thunderstorms.

Narrator:
This area of west africa

Is a breeding ground
For apocalyptic storms.

And where you get thunder,
You get lightning.

Most lightning
Occurs in the cloud or below.

But there are a few types
Of very bizarre,

Exotic lightning, red sprites
And blue jets,

That have only recently
Been discovered

And not really well understood.

Narrator: nobody fully
Understands what causes

The eerie pillars of light
Called sprites

Or the equally strange
Phenomenon

Known as intelligent lightning,

But lightning's
A very sudden phenomenon.

Why would it cause such thick,
Straight lines in the image?

If you
Have a long-exposure camera,

And you move a light stick
Or a light bulb through it,

You're gonna
See streaks of light.

That's one theory
As to what's going on here.

Narrator:
Suspecting that lightning might
Play a part in the mystery,

Investigators
Trolled news sources,

Looking for any reports
Of unusual storm activity

In the region.

As they do, one tragic news
Report stands out.

On july 24, 2014,

An algerian passenger
Plane carrying 116 people

Takes off in the middle
Of the night for algiers,

But it never arrives.

It reports that it
Has encountered bad weather

And requests a change in course.

And hour later,

It's lost all contact
With air traffic control.

Narrator:
Could the satellite camera

Have captured
The precise horrific point

Where a passenger jet
Hit the ground?

What are the chances
Of a satellite

Capturing the exact moment
Of a plane crash?

Almost zero, a fraction
Of a fraction of a fraction

Of a percent chance
Of this actually happening.

A satellite captures a plane
Going down at the exact time

And location of the incident.

This is the mother
Of all coincidences.

Narrator: seth tracks down the
Researchers who took the image

To find out whether the light
Could be connected to the crash.

We knew that the flight
Had gone down sometime

During the time frame

Where the satellite
Would be coming over.

So the timing was good
For perhaps seeing something.

And lo and behold,

We saw a new light
Where there was not one before,

In an area
That was not populated at all.

Narrator:
Putting all the pieces together,

It seems most likely

That the streaks on the image
Were lightning flashes

From the storm
That forced flight 5017 down.

And the bright light
At the top of the image

Is the flames of the passenger
Jet at the point of impact.

Incredible to think.
What are the chances?

But what we are seeing
Is the exact moment,

The exact place,

The exact time
That a plane went down.

Man: the chances
Of the satellite being

At the right place

At the time the aircraft
Was down is really small.

I've never seen that before.

But in this case,

The satellite was there
7 minutes after the crash.

And that is really close.

You really don't see
That very often.