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.

You certainly don't expect To see that every day.

Whatever it is, It can't be good.

Narrator: a german forest hides A giant swastika

Of living trees.

The neo-nazi movement

Is still very powerful In germany.

Narrator: a mystic symbol In the peruvian desert

Poses a riddle.

Whoever put this together

Was tryin' to send A message to the future.

Narrator: And a human-shaped figure soars

Above the california hills.

Whatever it is, it's very hot.

Narrator: baffling phenomena. Mysteries from space.

What on earth are they?

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

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

Narrator: Eastern germany, 1992.

Three years after the fall Of the berlin wall,

The country is still rebuilding After years of communist rule.

An intern at a german Landscaping company

Is searching through Government aerial photos,

When a picture taken over A remote patch of forest

Stops him in his tracks.

It's a giant swastika, 200 feet across.

What the heck Is a swastika doing

In the middle of a forest?

Narrator: the image comes From kutzerower heath,

A pine forest near Zernikow, northeast germany.

The discovery of the banned Symbol ignites a media frenzy.

A news agency charters a plane

To fly over the forest To confirm the sighting.

Reading about the swastika,

French president Francois mitterrand

Pressures the german authorities To remove the offending symbol.

At the time of the discovery,

Forester ulrich koch Was employed

To maintain This area of woodland.

He didn't even know The symbol was there.

[ speaking german ]

Narrator: Initial attempts to identify

Who made the swastika Come to nothing.

The mystery of its creation

Remains unsolved For more than 20 years.

Investigators consider whether The bright yellow foliage

That forms the swastika shape

Might be a freak result Of a natural phenomenon.

We do know that lightning Can create

A burn or a-a kill zone

That extends out From a central location.

But occasionally we have A strong enough strike

That will not only kill the tree

But disfigure surrounding trees Into a distinguishable pattern.

Narrator: From the aerial imagery alone,

A lightning strike, While unlikely,

Can't be ruled out.

But a ground-level Investigation reveals

That the trees aren't yellow

Because they were damaged.

They're yellow because They're a different species

To the pine trees That surround them.

The only known yellow trees

In this particular place In the world are larch trees.

They're a pretty Unique coniferous tree

In that they lose their leaves And turn yellow in the autumn.

So for 9 months of the year It blends in completely

With all the other green trees,

But then in the autumn, A bright yellow swastika.

That is strange.

Pavelec: it's weird to have A giant swastika

That can only be seen In the fall.

It's even more strange to have It in the middle of a forest

Where it can only be seen From the air.

That's very bizarre.

Narrator: this new discovery Proves the larch trees

Must have been planted Deliberately.

There are dozens And dozens of trees.

Someone had to go To a lot of trouble

To make this happen.

[ speaking german ]

Narrator: for local residents And people all across europe,

The most alarming possibility Is that the swastika was created

By resurgent neo-fascists,

Stamping their mark On the territory.

After the end of The second world war,

Over 9,000 nazis escaped.

Some of them fled To foreign countries.

Some stayed in germany.

The neo-nazi movement is still Very powerful in germany

A-a-and is a real threat.

Narrator: This region of brandenburg

Was a heartland Of the original nazi movement.

And even today, it's known For racist violence.

Several outlawed neo-nazi groups

Are thought To have cells operating here.

They attack shops and businesses Run by immigrants,

Often burning them To the ground.

[ cheering ]

It could be the indication

Of a stronghold Or a meeting place.

Narrator: For the swastika to be connected

To modern neo-nazis,

The trees would have To be planted

Within the last 30 to 40 years.

The only way to get To the exact age of a tree,

Especially in these Northern regions,

Is to count the rings.

And when they cut down Some of these trees,

They found that they were About 80 years old.

This is an old-growth forest. These are old-growth trees.

They were planted in the 1930s,

Which is right at the beginning Of the rise of nazism.

Narrator: The fact the trees change color

For such a short period of time

And you have to see them From the air helps explain

How the swastika went Unnoticed for so long.

But who planted the trees, And why?

It was common in nazi germany To show loyalty by displaying,

In some form, the swastika.

Narrator: The seasonal appearance Of the living tree swastika

Inspires speculation.

It could be linked to some kind Of huge nazi celebration.

The biggest event In the nazi calendar

Was actually hitler's birthday. It was huge.

There were events All across the country.

Hitler's subordinates would try To impress him

With things like Parades and rallies

And all kinds of things To honor the fuhrer.

So could this big, Huge tree swastika

In the middle of the forest

Be connected To hitler's birthday?

Narrator: there's one big Stumbling block to this theory.

The dates don't work.

The trees don't change Color till the autumn,

And hitler's birthday Was in april.

Narrator: whatever purpose The giant swastika served,

It was not to mark The fuhrer's birthday.

Eight years after It was first spotted

And following Intense media pressure,

In december 2000,

Local officials finally order Forestry workers

To cut down the offending trees.

[ speaking german ]

Narrator: The identity of the swastika's

Mysterious creator Is lost to history.

[ speaking german ]

Narrator: an explorer Flying over peru

Spots a huge and elaborate Symbol on the ground.

Kind of like a crop circle, But there's no crops.

Narrator: The strange shape is discovered

Close to the famous nazca lines.

Seems to me to have a kind Of a mystical shape to it.

Whoever put this together

Was tryin' to send a message To the future.

Narrator: october 1983.

Explorer johan reinhard Is flying over

The dry deserts of peru.

He spots a large complex pattern On the ground below him.

It's a giant and incredibly Elaborate pattern --

A near-perfect circle, Lots of right angles.

So what is it?

Narrator: the shape was spotted Over the palpa province of peru,

200 miles From the capital, lima.

The site remains A mystery for 30 years.

But then, in 2016,

New high-resolution Drone footage with g.P.S.

Tracking reveals The mysterious symbol

In much greater detail.

The shape is more Complex than first thought.

Local archaeologist Johny isla travels

To the site to investigate.

[ speaking spanish ]

The people who constructed this Were expecting stars,

Or the gods, or whoever, Looking down,

Could see that drawing.

Narrator: this strange pattern Is located close

To one of the most famous

And mysterious archaeological Sites in the world.

This is really close To the nazca lines,

Massive carvings in the ground That are legendary, famous.

You have to wonder if There's some sort of connection.

The nazca lines comprise A variety of forms,

Uh, of straight lines, Of triangles

And trapezoids, uh, Marked on the desert floor.

Though, they were constructed Over a long period of time.

Narrator: the nazca lines Were made 1,500

To 2,500 thousand years ago For unknown purposes.

At several of the sites, Archaeologists have even

Unearthed strange-shaped Humanoid skulls.

The discoveries Have fueled speculation

That the lines' creators Were not human.

One of the concerns Over the many years

Of study of the nazca Lines is that,

"Well, they couldn't See them from the ground.

So they must have been Made by space aliens."

Narrator: archaeologists now Believe the bizarre skulls

Belonged to nazca priests,

Who most likely Reshaped their heads

Using a painful binding process

To give themselves An inhuman appearance.

These priest rulers Might have used

The nazca lines and rituals To commune with spirit beings

In the skies.

Could the elaborate symbol In the image

Also be some kind Of a mystic pattern?

There's a strong resemblance

To an ancient hindu Religious symbol,

Something called a mandala.

Narrator: the mandala Represents a cosmic,

Spiritual journey,

Connecting people To their environment

And the universe.

[ speaking spanish ]

Narrator: The mandala shape itself

Can play an active part In ritual worship.

Mandalas can be made by -- By footsteps beating

A trail into the ground

By devoted religious followers.

So walking through them,

Dancing through them, In fact in --

Incorporating these figures Of celestial entities

Into the bodies Of the celebrates themselves.

One of the things that struck me

Was the cross shape In the middle.

That immediately resonates With the medicine wheel,

Which you will find Throughout the americas.

This mandala on the ground,

It is like a sacred fire

That connects heaven and earth.

Narrator: but the mandala Is an unusual symbol

To find in this part Of the world.

It's surprising To see it in peru,

Considering that the mandala

Is usually associated With india and the east.

Narrator: at ground level, Isla searches for any evidence

To back up the theory that this

Is an ancient site To harness mystic power.

But he comes up short.

[ speaking spanish ]

Narrator: close comparison Of the symbol

With known nazca sites reveals

Some fundamental differences.

This particular geoglyph, uh, If it was ancient,

It would be A departure from --

From the way in which Ancient geoglyphs are made.

This one is made by piling Stones, uh, along the lines.

This is something that The nazca people did not do.

[ speaking spanish ]

Narrator: isla now doubts That the symbol

Was built by the nazca at all.

[ speaking spanish ]

Narrator: if these wooden stakes Were used thousands of years ago

To create the huge symbol,

It's unlikely they would Still be here today.

[ speaking spanish ]

I would not be surprised If it's not that old.

Narrator: all attempts to Identify the creators

Have so far proved unsuccessful.

But its proximity to the famous Nazca lines offers

A tantalizing clue To their motivations.

Nazca has been a place

Where fantasies Have been projected.

My own presumption would be

That somebody Put a mandala there

Because they wanted To sort of increase

This air of mystery connected With the nazca lines.

With a shape of that size,

It might well be that

All they were interested In was the aerial photographer.

My guess is that someone Just wanted to have fun.

Narrator: A weather satellite orbiting

Over northern china Captures a sudden

And unexpected plume of heat On its infrared camera.

This image has all the hallmarks

Of a very sudden And violent explosion.

Whatever it is, is actually Getting bigger over time.

Narrator: the chinese government Instigates

A total media lockdown.

Chinese and foreign journalists Weren't allowed into the area.

Posts, tweets that Were made regarding it

Were just scrapped By the censors.

Narrator: august 12, 2015.

Japan's himowari-8 Weather satellite

Is orbiting over northern china.

It captures a sudden And unexpected heat signal

On its infrared camera.

With the chinese, you never know What's actually going on.

Whatever it is, is actually Getting bigger over time.

We're very unsure As what to -- had happened.

Narrator: the flash of heat Was caught somewhere

Within the port city of tianjin In northeastern china.

The chinese government Makes no official comment

To explain The mysterious heat spike.

Western intelligence agencies Are left with just

The satellite imagery To search for clues.

Hot spots seen On satellite infrared cameras

Can be naturally Occurring events caused

By violent volcanic eruptions.

Volcanos give out heat. They give out hot rock.

That would be picked up Best in an infrared picture,

Satellite image where the heat Would be showing up as,

Like, a white spot Or dot in the image.

Even a small volcano Erupting can be seen from space.

Narrator: tianjin is The third-largest

Urban center in china After beijing and shanghai.

A volcano erupting anywhere

Near the city Would be devastating.

Analysis of the satellite Imagery over time reveals

That the heat spike Has a short duration.

The red color in the image Also suggests

That it's not hot enough To be molten lava.

I don't think this is a volcano Because in the infrared image,

We don't see the white dots,

The white pixels That you always see

When you look at volcanos From other parts of the world.

Narrator: The little evidence available

Points to a man-made Catastrophe.

This image has all the hallmarks

Of a very sudden And violent explosion.

Narrator: rumors of a horrific Incident start to spread.

But the chinese authorities Initiate a total media

Lockdown in the area.

With the chinese, you never Know what they are up to.

They really don't want us To know what actually blew up.

It's very hard to understand What's going on

Because they're not Interested in transparency.

Chinese and foreign journalists Weren't allowed into the area.

No discussion of the blast On the internet

Was allowed by the chinese.

Any, uh, posts or tweets That were made regarding it

Were just scrubbed By the sensors.

Narrator: But the evidence provided

By the satellite image Is indisputable.

Uh, the signature is a very, Very significant explosion.

[ explosion ]

Narrator: the first available Video of the disaster comes

From cellphone footage shot On the ground in tianjin.

It shows a vast Chemical explosion

Ripping through the industrial Heart of the city.

woman: a fireball over northeast china.

cargo explodes at a port, leveling part of the city.

There were so many warehouses

And factories storing chemicals And hazardous materials.

When one blew up,

The blast perpetuated itself

And moved from one warehouse

And factory To another and became

A blast of Such enormous magnitude

That it could be seen From space.

[ explosion ]

Narrator: the heat spike Captured by the japanese

Weather satellite Was caused by at least

Two enormous chemical explosions

In the tianjin port area.

It was a magnitude approximately 24 tons of tnt going off.

It was picked up By satellite coverage, uh,

As if there had been Some nuclear test

That had gone on somewhere.

This was a massive explosion.

[ explosion ]

Narrator: satellite imagery Thrust the disaster

Into the global spotlight.

The explosion was catastrophic.

What people assumed Was that the owners

Of the chemical storage facility

Must be connected To the communist party

Because they're the only people With the ability

To ban all reporting Of an event.

Narrator: the crisis doesn't end With the explosion.

A day later, Nasa's terra satellite

Spots a cloud of unidentified Brown vapor

Ghosting across the sea, 100 miles from tianjin.

Analysts fear it could Be deadly chemicals

Released by the explosion.

Nobody was able to capture What the chemical makeup was.

And the chinese government Never came clean

As to what it was.

Narrator: an investigation Of the explosion site

Confirms worst fears.

The destroyed warehouses

Contained 700 tons

Of the deadly poison Sodium cyanide.

Firemen have been sent To the blast zone,

Uh, even though it was known

That it was an industrial park Where chemicals

And hazardous Waste were stored, uh,

Without being given proper Breathing equipment,

Without being given Proper protection.

And so the death toll Among the firemen

That responded to the blast Was -- was extremely high.

Narrator: the final death toll For the explosion

At tianjin port was 173.

104 were firefighters.

The heat of the devastating Blast was visible from space.

That single, brief Red flash captured

By satellite represents One of the darkest moments

In china's industrial history.

A satellite orbiting over Antarctica spots strange,

Dark stains spreading across The brilliant white ice.

Antarctica is a giant place

That's super cold And super remote

With a lot we don't know about.

Could this actually be something Caused by global warming,

Melting the ice?

Narrator: december 2002.

Nasa's landsat 7 satellite

Captures an image of The antarctic ice shelf.

Huge, dark stains Up to 2,000 feet

Across disfigure The pristine white

Of the polar landscape.

This part of antarctica Is virgin land.

You can see some other shadows Around the ice chunks.

And then there's This brown stain.

Narrator: The mysterious marks show up

Along the shores Of northeast antarctica,

A region barely touched By humanity.

Antarctica Is the coldest place on earth,

The lowest temperatures, The strongest winds

Being measured in antarctica.

Narrator: the most common Cause of stains

Like this, seen from space,

Is waste from human activity.

There are a number Of permanent bases

And roaming research Bases in antarctica.

Not many. I think it's 30 or 40.

Maybe it's waste pollution From the research stations.

Narrator: but anyone visiting Or working on antarctica

Is prohibited from leaving waste Or garbage behind.

There are very, very Strict environmental protocols

About how you operate In antarctica.

And, uh, it means That any waste,

Human waste, um, uh, in --

Inorganic waste, You know, like, materials,

All has to be taken Out of antarctica

When you're doing Research there.

Kays: any responsible research Station is going to,

Uh, keep their waste together And get it shipped out.

But not every research station Is so responsible.

Narrator: The location of the dark stains

Is in one of the most Remote corners

Of this largely empty continent.

Kays: in this case, There's no research stations

Anywhere near here.

So we really don't think It's a human-caused phenomenon.

If these marks Are not man-made,

Then they must be Something natural.

Narrator: in other icy regions Of the world,

Dark stains seen From the air can mean death.

On august 26, 2016,

More than 300 deer were killed By a lightning strike in norway.

They formed a dark carpet Of corpses where they fell.

Today, there are no Large mammals

Running wild across the barren Antarctic wastes.

But millions of years ago,

This land was home to huge And terrifying creatures.

Could this stained ice

Be a dark remnant Of their passing?

Dinosaurs in antarctica Seems like a crazy idea.

But, in fact, antarctica used To be in a much warmer place.

And there were dinosaurs Living there.

So it is possible to find Dinosaur remains in antarctica.

Narrator: during the age Of the dinosaurs,

Antarctica was not the barren,

Frozen wilderness we see today.

The entire continent was Covered in dense woodland.

The climate 50 or 60 Million years ago

Was completely different From what it is today.

And so antarctica Was relatively mild.

Narrator: The extinction of the dinosaurs

65 million years ago Would have created mass graves

Where thousands of animals died In a single location.

Such a site has been Discovered in antarctica,

When melting ice and snow Revealed their existence.

Now that it's warming up again,

Are these bones Poking out of the ground?

Narrator: But if dinosaur graveyards

Do exist in antarctica,

They would be very hard To spot by satellite.

If there were Any dinosaur bones there,

They would be underneath Thousands of feet of ice now.

Narrator: Some investigators consider

The satellite image Might be showing

The warning signs Of an ecological disaster.

Is it something to do with Global warming melting the ice?

Narrator: could the dark stains Be evidence the ice sheets

Are melting faster Than previously thought?

Antarctica is actually A real continent.

There's -- there -- There is soil under that ice.

So maybe it's poking through.

Round the edges of antarctica,

Parts of the ice Are relatively thin,

Perhaps just a few Tens of feet thick.

In those areas, you --

You could expect bedrock

To be exposed over time.

Narrator: But comparing the location

Of the brown marks With that of antarctica's

Solid bedrock rules out the idea

It could be rocks Poking through the ice.

Where this location is, If that ice were not there,

What we would see Instead would be open water.

This is not new rock Being exposed.

There must be Some other explanation.

Narrator: something about these Stains doesn't add up.

Scientists expand Their investigation

To include The possibility the marks

Could be linked To the local wildlife.

The most likely explanation For what we're looking at here

Is some sort of Ecological footprint.

And there aren't many Species in antarctica.

Narrator: But antarctica is home

To one of the most Unusual birds on the planet --

The emperor penguin.

Emperor penguins Are amazing birds

Because they can live In this frigid wasteland.

And they find their food By swimming around in the sea.

And then they come back up And form these giant colonies

Where they have their babies.

They group together, you know, To keep themselves warm.

Narrator: biologists Studying the distribution

Of the stains discover They line up perfectly

With several vast colonies Of emperor penguins,

Made up of tens of thousands Of individual birds.

There's more recent Satellite imagery

That we have access To that's high resolution

Where we can even count The number of penguins

That we're looking at.

Narrator: The higher-resolution images

Make it clear how the penguins

Are causing the brown stains.

It really is amazing To me that we --

What we're looking at here Is penguin poo from space.

Narrator: it turns out that Hundreds of thousands

Of penguins Have left an indelible mark

On the icy landscape In their poo.

Today, scientists can Use satellite images

Of the massive Skid marks on antarctica

As a way of actually monitoring The resident penguin population.

One of the things I find Particularly remarkable is that

If a group of birds

Can create enough guano To be seen from space,

Then that means that It's doin' pretty well.

Narrator: a weird white line Streaks across

A dangerous conflict zone In the western sahara.

This big scar on the image, On the land,

In the air, not quite sure.

I've never seen anything Like this before.

Narrator: the image arouses Concerns of terrorist activity.

This area's become A breeding ground

And a hiding sanctuary For isis fighters

And other radical Terrorist groups.

Narrator: december 2013.

The landsat 8 satellite captures An image of a strange white line

Stretching across The north african desert.

There's this big scar On the land, in the air.

Not quite sure.

Where I'm looking At things in space,

I know that Very few things in nature,

Uh, form these really Straight lines.

Narrator: The photograph was taken above

A dangerous conflict zone

At the edge of the sahara desert In northwest africa.

For two decades, this arid Land has been a battleground.

Today, this whole region

Is at the front line In the war on terror.

Today, the western sahara Is relatively ungoverned.

And it has become A breeding ground

And a hiding sanctuary For isis fighters

And other Radical terrorist groups.

Narrator: The area's troubled history

Provokes concerns the white line

Could be a vapor trail From a missile launch.

But it makes a sudden turn, Something missiles can't do.

Investigators explore other, More natural possibilities.

Could the strange line In the desert be

A rare cloud phenomenon?

Wave clouds, also known As morning glory,

Can stretch in a line For 600 miles.

They contain So much turbulent air,

They pose a threat to aircraft.

But the cloud theory Has a problem.

Sahara clouds do not Last terribly long.

The heat is so intense.

The water is so limiting

That a cloud in the sahara Just won't last.

That tells us that It's probably not a cloud

Because clouds would move.

And this is not moving.

Narrator: on closer examination Of the image,

Analysts notice something odd About the line.

The line is so sharp And among the lower,

Right-hand side.

And then it kind of blurs Off to the other side,

Which tells us that maybe Something's raising dust.

And the wind is blowing In that direction.

Could this be a roadway, right,

Where there are lots Of vehicles traveling,

Kicking up dust?

Narrator: there is a 2,800-mile Trans-saharan highway.

But it's located 1,000 miles to the east.

Roads are not The only straight lines

Crossing the desert.

There is a train line In this part of the sahara,

The western area of the desert.

So it's possible that The train line is responsible

For what is a linear feature.

Narrator: A massive 220-car train

Does cross this part Of the desert,

Ferrying iron ore from mines

To ships waiting On the atlantic coast.

[ train whistle blows ]

But the railroad track is In neighboring mauritania,

250 miles south of the line Visible in the image.

The transportation Infrastructure

In the western sahara

Is really mostly limited To the large cities.

Transportation Through the desert is often

By, you know, live camels

Or four-wheel drive vehicles Or something else.

Narrator: so what could be Moving across the desert?

When analysts trace The line south,

They discover that it ends At a place called bukra,

A huge phosphate mine.

Phosphate has many uses, Right, in modern society.

The -- the primary One is in manufacturing

Chemical fertilizers.

It's also used to make Other chemicals

That contain The element phosphorous,

Um, ranging from explosives To pesticides.

Clearly this white material

Is being brought To the coastline

To be shipped away.

Narrator: the clues seem To indicate the line

In the image is part of some

Massive mineral Transport system.

But it looks nothing Like any other phosphate

Processing facility In the world.

Phosphate is an ore, A rock fundamentally,

That's crushed For its phosphate.

In more humid environments, Uh, phosphate is hydroblasted.

So it's effectively Mixed with water.

And then you can pump it Along a pipe line.

Narrator: there's not enough Water in the desert

To pump the phosphate Through a pipeline.

And there's no road or railroad

Directly linking The mine to the coast.

Something else has been built To transport the rock.

Rare archive footage reveals Exactly what it is.

The answer is to build A conveyor belt

That's 60 miles long,

Transporting thousands of tons Of phosphate per hour

All the way from a mine Out to the ocean.

If it's exposed To the moving air, then that --

Some of that dust Will be picked up.

And that fits in, Really with the image

Because it shows the dust Moving in one direction,

Probably carried by the wind.

Narrator: The satellite image has captured

The longest conveyor belt In the world.

It's amazing that something Built by us us puny humans

Can have enough of a visual Effect to be visible from space.

Narrator: An imaging satellite photographs

A bright, human-shaped object

Flying over california's Sierra nevada hills.

It looks like it has legs And arms and a head.

That's taken in infrared, uh, Which means it picks up heat.

Whatever it is, is very hot.

Narrator: august 2014.

The worldview-2 satellite Orbiting over the pacific ocean

Looks north along The u.S. West coast.

It captures And unusual photograph

Of the californian landscape.

So what you're seeing here

Is an oblique angle view Of the ground.

And this is when We take the satellite.

And we actually tilt it So that the camera

Is pointing at an oblique angle.

And it's letting you see The full breadth of landscape,

Everything from the earth's Surface to stars above.

Narrator: the image covers A vast stretch of central

And northern california.

It shows a single, bright,

Shining object standing out From the rugged terrain.

Well, it looks Humanoid in nature.

It has legs And arms and a head.

Narrator: the object in The image seems inconsistent

With its surroundings.

My first thought would be that

That's some kind of A defect in the photograph.

Looks like it's just A little white scratch

Or a piece of missing data In the, uh, the actual file.

It's excessively brighter than Every other feature around it.

It's actually saturating Our sensors with light,

So much light that the light

Is bleeding into The surrounding pixels

And causing this Anomaly to occur.

Narrator: The bright white figure bears

Some resemblance To a mountain-top statue.

Perhaps the most famous Statue of this kind

Is rio de janeiro's Iconic christ the redeemer.

It stands 125 feet tall

And took 9 years to build.

The similarity to the shape

In the satellite image Is striking.

But further analysis uncovers

A technical detail Which changes everything.

The photo was taken by A heat-sensing camera.

Petford: the interesting thing About this image

Is that it's taken in infrared,

Uh, which means It picks up heat.

A bright white image, uh, Is clearly telling us

That whatever it is, Is very hot.

Narrator: scientists use Satellite thermal imaging

To monitor potentially Dangerous natural phenomenon.

One explosive candidate That could be responsible

For the rogue Heat trace is a volcano.

So we could be Looking at the very,

Very initial eruption

Of a big volcano as the lava

And the magma shoots up Vertically into the air,

Before it starts to fragment And billow into plumes

And clouds of ash and dust.

Narrator: Active volcanoes do exist

On the west coast Of the united states.

In nearby washington state,

The devastating 1980 Eruption of mount st. Helen's

Shot superheated rock And gas high into the sky.

But in california, Geological records

Tell a different story.

There have been volcanoes

Erupting in the past In california.

Uh, but there's nothing There now at all,

In any way, shape or form

That could have produced An image such as this.

It is not volcano country.

Earthquakes, yes, But not volcanoes.

Narrator: If the hot shape in the sky

Is not from A volcanic explosion,

Then what is it?

It's got a large, long, uh,

Relatively thin white column,

A very bright column.

Narrator: closer analysis Reveals a shimmering trail

Visible beneath the object,

Leading investigators to Consider another option.

Jet packs used to be the stuff Of sci-fi and bond movies.

But today, they're very real.

And they're setting New records in aviation.

Delta-wing jet packs

Can travel up To 190 miles per hour

At altitudes Of almost 13,000 feet.

The shape of the bright Feature fits almost perfectly

With the profile of a jet pack.

But scale analysis of The image casts doubt

On the jet pack theory.

I know the scale Of the mountains

Surrounding the feature.

So upon quick glance And a few simple calculations,

I can tell you without a doubt

That this is not A human presence.

This is something different.

Narrator: the figure is around 190 feet tall,

Approximately the same height As the leaning tower of pisa.

That'd be an awfully Tall person. [ laughs ]

Narrator: the discovery Of the object's size

Leaves only one possibility For what it could be.

The hot, flying object Must be a rocket.

I've seen rocket launches, And they're pretty impressive.

You see the whole rocket Engines begin to start.

And then at t-zero, The whole vehicle lifts off.

Uh, I did actually see, Uh, the last part

Of a rocket launch from space During my second mission.

The white column's Clearly visible.

Given the -- the clarity, The crispness of the image,

I would give it A high likelihood

That we're looking at something Shot from a u.S. Platform.

Narrator: Plotting the flight trajectory

Back to the ground Reveals a launch site,

The vandenberg air force base In california.

Vandenberg has been home To some of the u.S. Military's

Most highly classified rocket

And missile tests for more Than half a century.

So has the satellite Photograph captured evidence

Of a secret spacecraft

Taking off from vandenberg?

There are certain things That you would look for.

You'd look for, um, you know, The signature of the rocket.

man: three, two, one, liftoff.

Narrator: u.S. Military records Reveal that on the day

The image was taken,

A rocket launch did Take place from vandenberg.

But it was no secret.

It was the liftoff Of the worldview-3

Earth observation satellite,

Sister to the satellite

That actually took The photograph.

It was very unusual For a satellite

To actually capture The image of launches

From another satellite, Especially,

In this case, uh, One of its twin satellites.

This is one of my favorite Types of satellite imagery.

Narrator: the remarkable image Is nothing less

Than a family photograph

For the silent sister satellites

Now orbiting hundreds of miles Above the earth.