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.

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.