All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S03E09.1080p.DSCP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[eng]

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.