Original subtitles

Narrator: they're watching you.

More than 4,000 satellites Circle the earth.

Every day, they uncover New mysterious phenomena.

Some defy explanation.

Bam! This sticks out Like a sore thumb.

It must be something Very big or very bad.

Narrator: a giant swastika marks The desert outside roswell.

It's meant to be seen From space.

Narrator: scientists discover A weapon from another world.

No one in the world Is capable of producing

That kind of metal.

Narrator: and mysterious Black holes appear

In the australian outback.

You see these black circles, And your mind just boggles.

How did they get there?

Narrator: baffling phenomena.

Mysteries from space --

What on earth are they?

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

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

Narrator: new mexico, 2016.

An image on a mapping website Causes an internet sensation.

At first glance, All that's visible

Is a giant Cross-shaped structure

Embedded in the ground.

Looking at the size of the Thing, it's 400 meters across.

Narrator: but what catches People's attention

Is the symbol concealed Within the cross.

A symbol that is recognized And feared all over the world.

It's a swastika.

This particular swastika Isn't lying just anywhere.

It's lying just outside roswell.

Roswell, I mean, the big ufo site.

On the ground, You wouldn't see it at all.

It's meant to be seen From space.

You have to ask yourself,

"Who's looking at it? Who's the audience?"

Maybe they are welcoming signs.

Maybe it is a way Of saying, "We are here.

This is what we believe in.

This is what we think about."

Maybe. Who knows?

It might be a message To other people,

Viewed best from hundreds Of miles in the air.

Narrator: the proximity Of the symbol

To such a notorious site Sparks intense speculation.

The swastika only means One thing --

The nazis.

You have a gut reaction to it, And it's usually revulsion.

So what is one Of the most notorious,

Maybe hated, signs Of prejudice in the world

Doing in the middle Of the sands of new mexico?

Is someone putting out A political message?

Narrator: some have suggested The strange symbol

Could be the mark Of an ancient culture

Communing with its sky gods.

The swastika symbol Is actually common

To some native American tribes,

And large geoglyphs Carved into the earth

Are also common to some tribes.

So it's not that big of A stretch to think

That could be the source.

First swastika is about 10,000 years ago.

It's found on paleolithic art.

Which also has the association

With ancient religions In the east,

Particularly hinduism And buddhism.

Narrator: In the american southwest,

The swastika is sacred To a particular people.

One of the groups That's used swastika

And swastika-type symbology

Are a native american group Living in this area, the navajo.

Narrator: the navajo Are known for including

This symbol in large,

Ornate designs known As sand paintings.

Horton: altering the earth In this way

Is a prehistoric thing.

A sort of innate Human thing to do.

So it's not impossible That this is one such example.

Narrator: comparing the scale And design of the symbol

With other examples Of ancient art

Reveals a problem With this theory.

This isn't just A few meters across,

This is hundreds Of meters in size.

And, while the ancient people Did have great capabilities,

To do something quite on

That scale would be Very unlikely.

Watkins: if you look Closely at the image,

You'll see that the image Of the swastika, itself,

Is not as distinct and clear As a native american tribe

Would have wanted it to be.

Narrator: Local resident harold brown

Has firsthand knowledge Of the area.

He is certain there are more Of the mysterious symbols

In the roswell desert.

When I was a child, here, They were everywhere.

That was 70 years ago,

And you don't notice them now.

But there was a lot of them.

I don't know, I'll bet You there was near 50

In a 150 mile radius.

Narrator: it leads Some to suspect

That there is more To this mystery

Than first meets the eye.

Looking at the entire picture,

Not only is there This swastika in the middle,

But there's other Areas and markings.

The concentric circles That surround the swastika.

There are rectangles With circles within them.

Narrator: to image analyst Marc d'antonio,

The shapes surrounding The pattern

Reveal its true purpose.

This is actually part of a much

More complex pattern Seen in the land, here.

When we look at this Object up at the top,

It's actually a battleship.

Seen in outline On the desert floor.

And then, when we look at The other objects over here,

This object could be An old petroleum refinery.

If you actually take A broader view of the site

And go outside The actual swastika itself,

You realize, actually, It's a military zone.

Narrator: in popular culture, Roswell is ufo central.

But during the cold war, The nearby airfield

Was a base for bombers Carrying atomic weapons.

Roswell was a major U.S. Army air force base,

With its origins back Into the second world war.

Narrator: the town's Military history

Is the key To uncovering the nature

Of these mysterious Desert symbols.

What we have here, Is a totally abandoned

And almost forgotten bomb site.

What you're looking at, Then, are targets.

They're all designed To allow people

To practice bombing

On different sizes of targets,

Depending on what kind of Ordinance they're dropping.

Brown: we had to have bomb sites

Because we couldn't Practice bomb our cities

Or anything like that.

Narrator: the discovery That the strange pattern

Is part of a bombing range

Leaves one question Still unanswered.

We still don't know why there's A swastika in the middle of it.

I think the swastikas Were, basically, there

To incense the bomb crews.

"Lookit, we're gonna go be Over there bombing these people.

Here's what we're bombing."

I gotta tell you, If I'm a pilot

In world war ii Wanting to practice,

That's the way I'd wanna do it.

Narrator: still to come, An impossible dagger...

No one in the world is capable Of producing that kind of metal.

Narrator: ...Creates An enduring mystery.

How did king tut obtain iron

When iron, basically, Didn't exist?

Narrator: but satellites Might now provide a solution.

Is it possible that this Is a source of that dagger?

Narrator: 2014 --

Aerial archaeologists Capture images

Of a strange looking feature In the jordan valley.

Van gijseghem: Satellite images of a place

Called tell el-hemmeh in jordan,

Brought archaeologists To investigate the site.

Narrator: analysis of data From the site reveals

Something completely unexpected.

Turned out that it was A large slag heap.

It's relatively easy To identify metal slag

Using satellite images

If you have the correct range Of bandwidths to work with.

Narrator: the satellite data Indicates that tell el-hemmeh

Is saturated with iron.

As they dug deeper, Archaeologist realized

They had struck Something very unusual.

An ancient ironworks, Dating back to a time

Before most of mankind Could work the metal.

The site has links With an ancient culture

Called the mitanni.

Dodson: they were one Of the great powers

In the near east For a couple of hundred years.

They had started off As the enemies of egypt,

Because the egyptians were Expanding the empire northwards.

But after a while, They became allies,

And there is certainly A lot of correspondence

Surviving between the kings.

Narrator: the discovery Of a source of prehistoric iron

Could offer an answer To a mystery

That's eluded archaeologists For more than 90 years.

The mystery begins in The valley of the kings, egypt.

Here, ancient egyptian pharaohs

Once lay buried among Untold riches of gold and gems.

In 1922, british archaeologist Howard carter stumbled across

The biggest archaeological Discovery of the 20th century.

The tomb of tutankhamun Remains one of the most stunning

Archaeological discoveries Of all time.

Dodson: the tomb really Captured people's imagination.

It was led to a whole Outbursts of egyptomania

Where everything egyptian Was sexy and cool.

Narrator: The 3,300-year-old tomb Was filled with treasure.

Tutankhamun's mummy was Absolutely covered in jewelry,

Collars, amulets, But also two daggers.

And one of those daggers Had an iron blade.

Narrator: but king tut lived During egypt's bronze age,

At a time when iron manufacture

Was technologically impossible.

How did king tut obtain iron

When iron, basically, Didn't exist?

Narrator: one possible answer Comes from a set of tablets

Written in an ancient Middle eastern script

At the time of king Tut's grandfather.

The amarna letters are A series of ancient texts

That date from the time period

Right before Tutankhamun's reign.

And among other things, They mention

A series of gifts sent to egypt

By rulers of Neighboring kingdoms.

Included in this list

Is a number of daggers With iron blades.

Is it possible that this Is a source of that dagger?

Narrator: according To the amarna tablets,

The pharaoh of egypt Received iron daggers

From people with close links To the iron smelting site

Discovered in jordan.

If we could identify one Of these daggers

Sent by the king of mitanni To tutankhamun's grandfather

As being the one Found on his mummy,

That would be wonderful.

But there's no real means

Of being able To join the dots here.

Narrator: on the face of it,

The coincidence Of the amarna letters

With the iron smelting site Looks compelling,

But when archaeologists Investigate further,

They realize the dates Don't match.

Tuttle: it's a very Disputed site.

The dating is very, Very disputed.

Narrator: though archaeologists

Still debate The exact start date,

The site at tell el-hemmeh

May have started production Too late for tutankhamun.

This dates to, Probably, about 1000 b.C.,

Which makes it 300 years or so After tutankhamun.

Narrator: but some experts claim The mainstream egyptian timeline

Could be off by As much as 300 years,

Which would put tutankhamun Back in the frame.

Yet there is another, More significant obstacle

To the idea The dagger was forged

By egypt's advanced neighbors.

Chemical analysis of its iron Yields shocking results.

This particular dagger Doesn't rust,

And that's What makes it special.

The quality of the iron Is fantastic.

It's pure, almost.

Made in a kind of technology

That would happen Only centuries later,

When people became Experts at creating iron.

Narrator: the blade is so pure That in over 3,000 years,

It hasn't rusted at all.

No one in the world is capable Of producing that kind of metal,

In pre-modern times.

Narrator: the people Of tell el-hemmeh

May have been good metalworkers,

But no one on earth Was capable of making

Such high quality iron Back then.

All the clues lead to The same remarkable conclusion.

This iron wasn't mined by man.

So there's a high content Of nickel and traces of cobalt,

Which indicates, In all likelihood,

That this metal Is not from earth.

Narrator: the discovery leaves Only one possible conclusion.

This iron came from the sky.

The sky is hugely important For egyptian mythology.

There are gods of the sky.

Any kind of things Coming from the sky

Would be seen As potentially gifts

Or some kind of offering Of the gods.

Narrator: ancient hieroglyphs Throw further light

On these deities.

When you look at some Early religious texts,

It talks about the bones Of the gods being made of iron.

Not only that, But the term for iron was

"Bi-a-n-pt," which means "Iron from the skies."

Narrator: the ancient egyptians

Believed that iron Came from the heavens.

While the dagger may not have Been delivered by a god,

Modern satellite images Have shed light

On how it could Have gotten here.

There are a lot of scientists Who scan satellite imagery

For interesting features On earth's surface.

Well, a really interesting Feature was found

In egypt in about 2008.

Van gijseghem: a mineralogist Found on satellite imagery

A perfectly preserved crater

Surrounded by more than 1,000 Kilograms of meteoric iron.

It's very possible That a clever blacksmith

Recognized the metallic Qualities of this stone

And decided to experiment,

And discovered that, in fact, He could hammer it into a blade.

Narrator: when archaeologists Investigate the site,

They analyze fragments From the ground.

So we can reconstruct the Compositional characteristics

Of the meteorite,

And the bad news is That it's not a match.

So it's very unlikely That the dagger was

Crafted out Of that specific metal.

Narrator: this particular Meteorite is not

The source of the dagger,

But the search continues.

We are clear that it Is meteoric iron,

So that's absolutely certain.

Now the question is,

Can we find A specific site, perhaps,

Where this dagger May have come from?

Narrator: the site might One day still be found,

But the impossible dagger's

Mysterious maker Remains unknown.

Tutankhamun's dagger has been A mystery for some time,

And it's likely To remain that way.

Narrator: an israeli satellite Spots suspicious containers

On an island In the south china sea.

Moran: if this Actually is weaponry,

Then the whole game Could be about to change.

Narrator: tension mounts As the u.S. And chinese navies

Face off across The disputed waters.

I regard the south china sea As the most dangerous flashpoint

In the 21st century.

Narrator: february 14, 2016 --

The commercial eros-b Satellite passes over

Chinese-occupied woody island

In the troubled waters Off the south china sea.

When defense analysts compare

The new satellite image Of the island

With another taken 2 weeks earlier,

They spot something disturbing.

In this image, The beach is clear.

Two weeks later, The beach is full of equipment.

We have to ask ourselves, "What is this stuff?"

What's going on here?

Narrator: defense experts fear The mystery objects on the beach

Could be advanced weaponry.

The u.S. And china's neighbors

Are deeply concerned That woody island

Could be the beginning Of a chinese empire

In the south china sea.

Think of it as either Stepping stones or lily pads.

They have the mainland And they have,

Amongst many others, Woody island.

And if you have a lily pad

From the mainland To island to island,

You can then say, "This whole area is ours.

You have to ask us

If you want to fly over it Or sail through it."

Narrator: any weaponry Deployed on this island

Would be able to strike Deep into one of the world's

Busiest shipping lanes,

Holding the world's Economy for ransom.

Nearly 5 trillion dollars In cargo and natural resources

Pass through The china sea every year.

Marshall: they intend To absolutely dominate it.

China wants an economic empire. It wants to safeguard it.

And part of safeguarding An economic empire

Is to make sure That you control sea lanes.

In september 2015,

President xi of china Visits the white house

And tells president obama The chinese are not

Militarizing The south china sea.

But analysis of the satellite Image tells a different story.

I noticed that when we looked At these trucks over here,

We see apparent symmetry.

There's two trucks And then a smaller one.

Two trucks, then a smaller one.

This, to me, says "Okay, Those three trucks go together."

When I did a search, And I looked for imagery,

I came up with this image.

Look!

Two trucks, And one in the center.

This is a command and control Radar-type truck,

And these trucks Are linked by wires.

These are the chinese Hq-9 launchers.

This is an anti-ship capability, Range of hundreds of miles,

And can sink A majority of the ships

That move through that area.

Narrator: the hq-9 Missile system

Doesn't only blow ships Out of the water.

It also shoots aircraft Out of the sky.

It turns out our Worst fears are realized.

This equipment contains Surface-to-air missile systems,

And this is bad news.

Narrator: china Denies accusations

Of militarizing the area.

Carter: china claims That the installation

Of this surface-to-air Missile system

Is just for their self-defense.

China is the most Dominant presence

In the area, So you have to ask,

"Who are they defending Themselves against?"

Narrator: marc d'antonio's Search notices even more

Attack-ready military equipment On woody island.

We can zoom in On this image right here.

We find two shenyang jets.

Narrator: the satellite Has spotted

Two state-of-the-art Shenyang j-11 fighters.

Warren: this is A multi-role fighter.

That gives the chinese Yet another capability,

Another power projection Capability out of woody island.

We've got a fully-operational S.A.M missile site.

Now we've got Chinese fighter jets

Stationed on woody island?

This is going The wrong direction.

Narrator: there are Worrying signs

That the situation In the area

Is already getting Out of control.

In response To growing concerns,

The us navy deploys A carrier group

To patrol the area.

The americans Guarantee the seaways.

They guarantee to keep them Open for world trade

And for their navy.

Narrator: in june 2016,

The carrier group receives

An uninvited chinese Naval escort.

Warren: It was certainly something That raised our eyebrows,

As we saw the chinese move some Legitimate military capability

Towards our vessels, Conducting this very legitimate,

Very internationally-recognized Freedom of navigation operation.

Marshall: what the chinese Are doing is not saying

"Next time you do that, We'll blow you out the water."

They're saying, "In the long-term,

We will have The ability to do that."

Narrator: if this image Does show the beginning

Of a chinese empire In the region,

It could be disastrous,

Not just for southeast asia, But for the entire world.

You're seeing one of the biggest Bullies in the world, china,

Is starting to be aggressive Towards its smaller neighbors,

And the rest of the world Superpowers have two choices --

Let them keep doing it, Or push back.

And neither one Of them sounds good.

Marshall: nobody wants war In that part of the world.

But everybody is planning ahead And building for that threat

Which, of course, Is a dangerous trajectory.

Narrator: a satellite Captures a bizarre image

Over the desolate Australian outback.

Krueger: you see these Perfectly round black circles

In the middle Of the australian desert,

And your mind just boggles.

Pavelec: they can't be natural.

What sort of natural phenomenon Creates perfect black circles?

The question is, "How did they get there?"

Narrator: The worldview-3 satellite Passes high above

The australian outback.

It picks up a baffling pattern

Of black spots In the desert sand.

They look like big black holes In the middle of the desert.

These really stand out From everything else.

They could be Small bodies of water,

Like ponds or Something like that?

Narrator: the image comes From near the isolated opal

Mining colony of coober pedy,

On the edge of one of the most Barren landscapes on earth,

The great victoria desert.

Krueger: this is right In the middle

Of the driest desert Of the driest state

In the driest continent In the world.

Narrator: one theory Is that these circles

Could be lakes or water holes Dotting the desert.

Unlikely as it sounds, Such lakes do exist

In other arid areas.

Satellite images of china's Badain jaran desert reveal

More than 100 Black circular lakes.

But the australian outback

Is simply too hot For surface water.

Krueger: you don't get water Standing around here.

It evaporates in seconds.

Seems very unlikely they're Due to some natural process.

The alternative is that These are man-made.

But who put them there, and why?

Narrator: the obvious First suspects

Are the local native tribes.

This area is home To the antakirinja,

One of the many Aboriginal tribes

Who live in The inhospitable desert.

Anyone who has seen Aboriginal art

Will recognize that circles Play a very key role

To record history And tell stories.

Narrator: perhaps these Black dots in the desert

Are the remnants Of aboriginal sand paintings.

But aboriginal sand paintings Are patterns of lines and dots,

Not like the solid colors That we see here.

Also, these black circles Have been imaged several times

Since 2002,

And sand paintings typically Last for a few days,

So something else Must be going on here.

Narrator: geologist nick petford Has seen dark circles

Like these before.

Petford: they remind me Of things I've seen flying

Over the midwest In the united states,

Actually, where you get This crop irrigation.

And you can see Areas of farmland,

Which are circular in shape.

It's a technique called "Center pivot irrigation."

Water is distributed via a Large, central sprinkler system.

Basically the arm Goes around in a circle,

And this is why it looks Perfectly regular in size.

Narrator: but for irrigation To be the answer

To the mystery Of the black dots,

There would have to be A massive water supply

In one of the driest Deserts on earth.

Strangely, there is.

Krueger: The great artesian basin,

The world's largest Underwater reserve,

Lies directly below These dark circles.

This cannot be a coincidence.

Narrator: the basin stretches For over 660,000 square miles,

And contains more water

Than all of the great Lakes combined.

So these could be Irrigation circles.

But scale analysis of the dots Reveals a problem.

These black circles Simply aren't big enough

To be organized Desert agriculture.

Mousseau: they're just Way too small.

They're about 60 feet across,

Whereas most plots are

On the order Of 1,000 feet across.

Much, much larger.

Narrator: the black circles In the desert look

Like scorch marks in the sand.

This sends investigators down A darker, more violent path.

Krueger: there are Other parts of the world

Where you see dark circles In the desert.

In new mexico, they are scars From atomic weapons testing.

Narrator: australia does not Possess nuclear weapons.

But this area was used As a test site

For britain's atomic program.

In the 1950s and 1960s,

The british tested About 45 nuclear weapons.

A number of them were tested In south australia

At a special site set aside For weapons testing.

Narrator: during the height Of the cold war,

Britain exploded seven Atomic bombs at maralinga

In the australian outback.

Robershaw: if you Test nuclear weapons,

Particularly if you Put the weapon on a tower,

To simulate the way It would go off in the air,

It's going to leave a circular Scorch mark, blast mark.

Basically turn the desert Into molten glass,

Which will then harden. And it will be circular.

Therefore, it's possible That we're looking at

A testing area For nuclear weapons.

But maralinga is over 200 miles away from coober pedy.

And there's something else That doesn't add up.

We know that there Were seven bombs tested.

The site that We're looking at here,

There are 18 circles.

It must, therefore, Be something else.

I think the clue might be, Actually,

In the number 18, Rather than anything else.

Krueger: you don't Have to be a numerologist

To know that the number 18 Is significant.

Narrator: very few people Have been to coober pedy,

But the select few Who know its secret come

For a very specific reason.

They come...To play golf.

The black circles Are, in fact,

Part of one of the hottest Golf courses in the world.

It was created in 1976,

When sports mad locals Came up with the idea

To make grass-less greens.

Borrett: it is strange,

But when you're down At ground level,

It all makes sense,

Because putting greens out here

Would be too expensive For the amount of water

That we would need To keep them looking nice.

Narrator: instead of grass, The greens are made of sand,

Rolled with black motor Oil to stop it

From blowing away In windy weather.

You use a rake to rake Where you're going to putt.

And just scrape the dirt back So the next people

Have got a sort of Even place to putt on.

Narrator: During the summer months, It gets even weirder.

It's too hot during the day, So we come out at night

And use glow in the dark balls.

You can see them for two, 300 meters away.

They're good to play, It's good fun,

And it's nice and cool at night.

It's a uniquely Australian answer

To the question of golf In the desert.

Why would you go through All the trouble of pumping water

To make your greens green When black sand will do?

I guess black is the new green.

Narrator: a network Of satellites is on the hunt

For one of the world's Most wanted men.

Green: he's one Of the most feared

And reviled warlords In central africa.

Driscoll: everybody would like To capture this guy,

But every time they've Come close, he disappears.

Narrator: now Satellite surveillance

May finally have Tracked him down.

Narrator: december 2012 --

The worldview-2 satellite

Photographs the thick jungles Of central africa.

It captures an image That promises to end

One of the longest Manhunts in history.

To the untrained eye, There's not very much to see.

There's a canopy of trees, There's savannah,

But then as you zoom in closer,

You start to see some Very intriguing signs.

What could be found was Grass was burnt down,

So somebody was Clearing out the area.

Huts were appearing In the middle of nowhere.

Driscoll: all the buildings Popped up overnight,

And it is obvious that Someone just came in

And established camp.

Narrator: military analysts Believe they've discovered

The base of one of the world's Most elusive war criminals.

I'm fighting For peace.

The infamous ugandan Warlord joseph kony.

Joseph kony is the leader Of the lord's resistance army,

Or l.R.A.

It's a very notorious Armed group

That's terrorizing the civilian Population in central africa.

It started out as A spiritual movement,

And then turned very violent When joseph kony took it over.

Narrator: kony seized control

Of the extreme Christian rebel group

In the mid-1980s To fight government repression

In northern uganda.

Green: the devastation unleashed By joseph kony's rebellion

Is hard to comprehend.

He's massacred thousands Of villagers,

Abducted many Thousands more children

To press-gang them Into rebel ranks.

Narrator: to enforce His unique brand of terror,

Kony raises an army Of indoctrinated child soldiers.

No one will ever really know How many children kony has

Ordered abducted In the past two decades,

But the number stands At at least 30,000.

He's almost like a pied-piper- Type character from a fairytale.

He marches into villages, Takes children away at night

And yet, disappears Like a puff of smoke.

Narrator: kony is so Difficult to find

Because of the terrain He operates in.

Originally restricted To northern uganda,

Kony has now spread out

Into the uncharted forests Of central africa.

An area almost The size of texas.

With such an expanse To cover,

It's physically impossible To track him on the ground.

Green: you can be Walking down a path,

Zigzagging through this forest,

And you've got no idea What's around the next corner.

It's like a maze.

It's like a green, Leafy labyrinth.

It's the perfect place To wage a guerrilla campaign.

It's the fact that you can look

At this vast Swathe of the map --

Congo, sudan, Central african republic --

And have absolutely No idea where he is.

Narrator: it's no easier From the air.

Driscoll: very difficult For any aerial surveillance

To be successful in this area Because of the foliage.

The jungle is very dense.

Ronan: you can imagine How difficult it is

To find a single person In this vast expanse of green.

Narrator: kony's elusiveness Forces his hunters

To adopt new techniques.

In 2012, human rights Activist paul ronan

Is tipped off by locals In southern sudan

That kony could be in the area.

In late 2012, I talked to people who said

That they had been aware Of where kony was,

And they actually drew me a map

Of where they thought The l.R.A camp was.

Narrator: the map places Kony in kafia kingi,

A disputed enclave On the borders

Of sudan and south sudan.

It's a densely forested area.

Tracking kony by normal means Is close to impossible.

So paul turns To satellite image analysts

Via amnesty international For help.

To narrow down the area Really was a little bit

Like putting together A puzzle, I would say.

Our suspicion was To probably set up

Their hiding camp Close to a river,

Because that's what you Need to survive.

And eventually, we found what we Believe was joseph kony's camp.

Over the next few weeks, We used satellite imagery

To confirm that kony Was actually there.

Narrator: in march 2013,

They were finally Ready to strike.

Ugandan military set up An operation to surround it.

Unfortunately, kony And his troops had left.

Narrator: rumors On the ground suggest

Kony knew the attack was coming.

There was some suspicion That the sudanese military

Had given him this information.

Narrator: Sudan's military is believed

To be using kony As a pawn in their wars

Against their bitter Neighbors, south sudan.

This is one of The most volatile,

Unstable regions on earth.

And someone like kony,

With his band Of very disciplined,

Very committed Ruthless fighters,

Is a very useful asset To have on that chess board.

Narrator: but many believe The day will come,

When just like saddam hussein,

Kony's luck will run out.

Once his usefulness To his protectors is over,

There will be nowhere For him to hide

From the eyes in the sky.

I think kony will be Captured one day.

He cannot escape forever,

And my sincere hope is that He will have his day in court,

Because that's the only way To bring justice

To the many survivors And victims of his reign.

Narrator: a satellite monitoring The most remote region

Of our planet captures A bizarre feature in the ice.

It is a very unusual Looking feature, this.

Porges: it looks like A fortress encased in ice,

The kind of thing superman Might hang out in.

I've never seen anything Like this before.

Narrator: january 2012 --

The geoeye-1 Satellite photographs

A strange oval formation In a wilderness of ice.

It almost looks like superman's Fortress of solitude.

The way it just kind of Sits in the ice and snow.

It looks like maybe A kind of round fortress

With some rooms, even.

It has some kinds Of symmetry to it

That you wouldn't expect To see in nature.

Narrator: analysis Of the image measures

The concentric ovals At 400 feet wide.

Archaeologist mark altaweel Takes a closer look.

The kind of thing that,

When you see it almost Anywhere in the world,

You say immediately it Definitely is man-made.

The rings of the structure Look like the walls

Of some sort of compound,

Like something That's been designed!

Altaweel: we're in the middle Of the antarctic,

So what in the world Is that doing there?

Narrator: the image comes From one of the most remote,

Untouched regions on earth --

The vast, frozen deserts Of east antarctica.

This is in the middle Of nowhere!

One of the most inhospitable Terrains on the planet.

It's the coldest, driest, Windiest place on earth.

It's thousands of miles From any other civilization.

If this is some sort Of man-made compound,

The question is, "What is it, And what was it used for?"

Narrator: a possible lead comes From the feature's shape.

At first glance, It resembles designs

Of known polar research bases.

Because of the wind In antarctica,

One of the common Types of structures

Is sort of a dome, Or a circular facility

That allows snow To move around it.

Narrator: the amundsen-scott Research station

At the south pole was built Under a giant dome

To stop encroaching snow From burying the buildings.

There are a handful Of examples in antarctica

Of bases that have been Abandoned over time.

Some of them have been Consumed by ice.

It does look like it could be, In some way,

Related to an abandoned base.

Narrator: but there's a problem With this theory.

Bamber: we know where Every base has been,

And we know that there Wasn't one there.

There's always a possibility That it's a secret site

That we don't know about, And it's not on the record.

Narrator: research scientists

Have little reason To conceal their bases.

But some people might want

To hide their activities From prying eyes.

Underneath the ice And snow in antarctica

Is an unbelievable wealth Of minerals and metals.

And things that people Would go to unbelievable lengths

To get their hands on.

There's already been quite a bit

Of mineral development In the arctic.

We see companies and countries

Scrambling to claim The mineral deposits

That they think might be there.

It's conceivable That this could happen

In the antarctic, as well.

Narrator: mines and oil rigs In the arctic

Are often surrounded By protective outer walls

Similar to the concentric rings

Seen in the satellite image.

But in antarctica, mineral And oil exploitation is banned.

An international treaty forbids Any sort of drilling

For things like Oil in antarctica.

But it doesn't mean people Haven't tried to maybe

Do it a little bit on the sly, A little bit secretly.

During the energy crisis Of the 1970s,

There were rumors that some Countries considered drilling

For antarctica's Vast oil reserves.

Perhaps someone is secretly Chasing black gold.

A not impossible that Some nation could attempt

To go in and set up Some sort of base there,

But it's an incredibly Difficult place to operate.

Narrator: the image lacks The telltale signs

Of such a complex facility.

I don't believe this image Represents mining activity.

If it were abandoned,

You'd still see evidence Of infrastructure,

Of buildings or an air strip.

We don't see any of that. We just see one circular object.

Narrator: investigators Consider a possible

Natural explanation For the phenomenon.

Could it be A bizarre ice formation

Caused by powerful Antarctic winds?

Bamber: they're called Katabatic winds,

And they can form these Features called sastrugi.

The equivalent of dunes Over snow.

Narrator: sastrugi are sharp,

Wave-like ridges In the snow's surface

That run parallel To the direction of the wind.

They can form Highly-unusual shapes,

But rarely those visible In the image.

Brunt: we are probably not Looking at sastrugi

In this image because The feature here is circular

And not long and linear

Like the general pattern Of sastrugi.

Narrator: there's another Force of nature

Caused by ice melt in antarctica

That might explain The shape of this feature.

Miller: if it was A natural process

That explained this feature,

My first clue would be Those dark splotches.

Bamber: I would say the Dark patches are surface melt.

That surface melt, It tends to pond and form

What are called Superglacial lakes.

Narrator: the surface Of these lakes can re-freeze,

Leaving a pool of liquid Water under the ice.

Miller: if that pond drains out,

It will leave a void Underneath the ice,

Which could then Collapse inward.

And the structure That you see here,

You can almost imagine A circular pond

That has collapsed inward And created these cracks

As the ice could collapse in.

Kinda just a punch effect.

Narrator: collapsing ice Could conceivably create

Similar shapes On a thinly covered pond.

But in antarctica,

The ice sheets Can be incredibly thick.

Three and a half miles of ice Covers most of antarctica.

Narrator: ice sheets miles deep Are unlikely to collapse.

Brunt: we can learn a lot From satellite imagery,

But without actually Going there,

We're not gonna be able To figure out

Exactly what this depression is.

Porges: we don't know what This structure is

And we might never know.

Antarctica is really good At keeping its secrets.

Narrator: there is no Expedition planned

To investigate This mysterious feature.

Until someone sets foot On this barren patch of ice,

Its true nature Will remain unknown.