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, theres something Weird going on here.

Something out of The twilight zone.

Narrator: new york faces Total annihilation.

But this is no movie.

This threatened apocalypse Is for real.

That is an existential threat To the united states

Narrator: Huge unexplained marks, Hundreds of them,

In the remotest reaches Of the amazon jungle.

We don't know Who made these things

Or when they were made,

Even less about What they represent.

Narrator: And a terrifying force field Appears 'round the planet.

Something strange is happening To the atmosphere.

Narrator: baffling phenomena. Mysteries from space.

What on earth are they?

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

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

June 19th, 2006.

The vast, dense, Steamy amazon jungle,

Seething with exotic life, But deadly to humans.

Yet when satellites scan areas Recently cleared,

They reveal something No archaeologist is expecting.

A geometric pattern Carved into the ground.

Then another, and another.

Satellite investigations Reveal no fewer than

400 unexplained shapes Over a staggering

59,000 square miles.

It's odd that you would have So many of these shapes

Sort of clustered In this one part of the jungle.

Why are they there?

We don't know Who made these things

Or when they were made, uh,

Even less about What they represent.

Narrator: the shapes are found On the brazil bolivian border.

This vast tract of jungle Was thought until recently

To be beyond the reach of Civilization, ancient or modern.

This is a really large area, A vast extension of rainforest.

We're talking about, You know, miles of wilderness.

Narrator: satellite images Clearly show lines

That are not natural.

Nor are they recent.

However these shapes Came to exist,

It happened hundreds, Possibly thousands of years ago.

What made them and who made them Is not known.

Nor do scientists understand What they're for.

Experts turn to other Ancient jungle cultures

To look for possible clues,

But none of the obvious Explanations make sense.

It's not uncommon In different parts of the world

To see agricultural practices Make interesting shapes.

Think of rice paddies In southeast asia.

You have these wonderful Terraced structures.

Could this actually be Something similar to that?

Narrator: this region is one Of the wettest on earth,

With over 80 inches Of rain a year.

Are the shapes evidence Of a complex drainage system,

The work of some advanced, Ancient civilization?

[ luz speaking native language ]

But it doesn't add up.

Many of these weird shapes Are too high up.

Nobody irrigates a mountain.

Many of these circular Shapes have been found on,

You know, something like A 200-meter-high plateau.

[ eagle caws ]

Narrator: Whoever built these things,

They weren't interested In water.

Is there a clue In the other civilizations

Known to have existed nearby?

The first of The great civilizations

To come anywhere Near this area was the inca.

The incas had an empire That stretched up

And down the spine of the andes.

And the eastern Quarter was the area

That extended down The slopes of the andes

And into the amazon.

Is there perhaps an offshoot

Or a subgroup Of the incan people

That decided To leave the mountains

And take up shop in the jungle?

It's a possibility.

Narrator: But the techniques of the incas

Are well known To archaeologists.

Whoever was responsible For these weird shapes,

It wasn't them.

[ speaking native language ]

It looks to me like These are such large earthworks

That you would need A large population

To build them,

Not just a small Breakaway group of incas.

Narrator: scientists are now Looking at the possibility

Of a vast, advanced, Previously unknown civilization

Hidden within the amazon jungle.

Is this a tantalizing glimpse Of the fabled el dorado?

If you see the chronicles

Of the very first explorers Of the amazon,

They described large cities With large populations

Occupying the entire length Of the amazon river.

Most of those accounts Were later discredited.

Maybe these descriptions Were far more accurate

Than has been thought.

Narrator: core samples Are taken from the weird shapes

And subjected to the latest Forensic archaeological tests.

Scientists are amazed At the results.

These unexplained formations are An astounding 6,000 years old.

As far back as six millennia -- This is pretty incredible.

Narrator: 14 centuries Before the egyptian pyramids,

A previously unheard of Ancient people built an empire

The size of georgia In the amazon basin.

Here we have evidence Of a civilization

That goes back some 6,000 years, And it's vast.

Narrator: further analysis of The sediment samples produces

Another shocking discovery --

This was a time and area Untouched by human agriculture,

Yet here are unmistakable signs Of ancient corn.

And corn is cultivated on farms.

Maybe the revered, timeless, Amazonian rainforest

Isn't so timeless after all.

Kourounis: so that suggests That the climate

Was very different back then Than it is now.

And that could change Our understanding

Completely of what The rainforest is like.

Narrator: the people who created These strange shapes disappeared

As mysteriously As they appeared,

Evidence of their work covered Up by the ferocious jungle.

Van gijseghem: When these people disappeared,

The forests kind of Reclaimed these areas.

And the image that we have Of a pristine landscape

Is actually, perhaps, A very recent one.

Narrator: no one knows what This huge civilization was,

Who they were, Where they came from,

Or what they knew.

But the physical echo Of their lost world

Can be clearly seen from space.

We don't even know Who built this.

This is a huge mystery.

This could be one of The biggest game changers

In south american archaeology That has ever been.

Narrator: The total destruction Of new york.

Millions dead.

A city wiped from the map.

That is an existential threat To the united states

Narrator: not a sci-fi fantasy.

Not a horror movie.

This time a very real threat From a dangerous madman.

Moran: there are very few places In the world that could actually

Kick-start world war iii.

But this is one of them.

Narrator: sinpo shipyard, North korea, 2016.

A surveillance satellite keeps A vigilant eye on the rogue

Nation's most feared Military complex.

Hanham: everyone Is watching this site --

The us, uk, south korean, Chinese, russian, japanese.

Narrator: strategically located On the east coast

Of the korean peninsula --

The shipyard faces the regime's Mortal enemies --

Its neighbors south korea And japan.

The port of sinpo is officially A port for fishing vessels,

Although we've known for a long Time that it is indeed

Where north korea keeps Its submarine fleet.

Narrator: us spy satellites Monitor north korea's fleet

Of 70 submarines.

Most are small 330 ton submersibles.

These things are only dangerous To other ships.

But now image analysts like Melissa hanham have observed

Something defense experts Have long feared.

Using satellite imagery You can track changes

In what's happening here --

There's new roofs Going onto buildings,

More dry docks Being constructed.

It's clear that kim jong-un Is investing

A lot of resources In his submarine programme.

Narrator: a satellite photograph Taken in january 2016

Shows something in the harbor Analysts have never seen before:

A new class of submarine --

They want to know What is this capable of?

When we get an image like this, What we start doing

Is taking measurements.

Then we immediately Start comparing it

To other submarines In the world.

And then from there We can build 3d models.

Narrator: the new sub Is 220-feet long,

And and looks bigger Than anything north korea

Has produced before.

How much of a threat it poses

Depends on the weapons It can carry.

If it's big enough to launch Ballistic missiles,

The sub is potentially A doomsday device.

The most important thing Right now is looking at the,

What we call the sail height Of the submarine.

And we can see a shadow that Is cast from the submarine,

And because we know the exact Moment that the image was taken,

We can do just a little bit Of geometry,

And we can learn the height Of the sail.

Narrator: Scale analysis reveals the So-called sail is 20-feet high,

Giving this sub a launch tube Capacity of around 30 feet.

It tells experts that the sub Has been designed

With one clear purpose --

To launch the 30-foot-long Pukkuksong-1 ballistic missile,

A terrifying weapon recently Revealed in this rare footage

From north korean State television.

Moran: when we see A ballistic missile submarine

In a shipyard in north korea, We have to pay attention.

Narrator: this is The nightmare scenario.

They could launch A missile anywhere

That they can send That submarine.

Narrator: Untraceable by satellite, This sub in stealth mode

Can move within range Of any target country on earth.

But firing a rocket underwater

Is a massive Technological challenge

Believed to be beyond North korea's capabilities.

Until now.

In august 2016, north korean State tv broadcasts

A successful test-launch Of the pukkuksong missile.

Marshall: that's pretty High calibre technology.

Narrator: the missile flew 311 Miles across the sea of japan --

Deliberately violating japan's Air defense zone.

But japan is not the target.

Kim jong-un publicly vows To reduce the us 'to ashes'

And promises that americans Will 'meet their final doom'.

A doomsday device capable Of wiping out manhattan.

And no one would see it coming.

Sixteen days after The submarine launch,

North korea demonstrates Its ambitions --

With claims that it has Detonated a particular type

Of nuclear device.

For the first time they revealed A purported nuclear warhead.

That's designed clearly To fit into many,

Many of their missiles.

That is an existential threat To the united states

And any other adversary Of north korea.

What a nuclear capacity At sea gives north korea

Is the ability to really, Really hurt the united states

In a way that they don't Normally have.

When you go watch Some of those tests

That the u.S. Did After the second world war,

And you watch What a nuclear weapon

Would do to A u.S. Carrier task force,

And it would be brutal.

Driscoll: A north korean sub

Armed with nuclear missiles Is a nightmare.

We cannot afford to take Our eyes off of this place.

Narrator: giant monsters --

Creatures that scientists Had never imagined even existed,

Concealed beneath the ice.

There's a whole world under There we haven't seen before.

Narrator: now the eyes in The sky have uncovered

A hidden world Of unimaginable secrets.

What we're finding Is kind of amazing.

Narrator: a nasa survey of The frozen arctic wastes reveals

Signs of a vast Underground cavern,

A portal to a lost world.

Almost two times the size Of the grand canyon,

Hidden just below the ice.

Narrator: what starts As a cold war mystery

Ends in a monster hunt.

What I found was something Completely new.

An amazing creature From the dawn of animal life.

Narrator: creatures wholly Unknown to modern science.

When we looked in detail,

We found a really Strange-looking feature.

These animals, they were big.

They were truly humongous

Narrator: using aerial Reconnaissance, nasa is going

Where no explorer Has dared to venture.

Operation ice bridge --

The biggest aerial survey of The planet's polar ice caps

Ever undertaken, is starting to Find things the like of which

Have never been seen before.

Ice-penetrating radar operates At a frequency which is

Where the ice is transparent.

You send a pulse of radar energy Down to the surface

And it actually travels through The ice and it bounces off.

The bedrock at the base Of the ice.

We are, in effect, Looking through the ice.

Narrator: beneath the ice,

You might expect To find more ice.

But that's not what happens When the nasa craft

Flies over the icy wilderness Of greenland.

Greenland has been an island Shrouded in mystery,

Since as far back As we can remember.

In the centre of greenland,

The ice is almost Two miles thick --

It's about 10,000 feet thick.

Narrator: but what nasa Scientists find

Beneath the ice Defies expectations.

When we looked in detail,

We found a really Strange-looking feature.

Narrator: hidden deep Beneath the ice is a vast

Otherworldly chasm Of incredible dimensions.

It's the longest canyon in the World, at least 450 miles long.

Almost two times the size Of the grand canyon,

Hidden just below the ice.

Narrator: but this is more Than a massive, hidden ravine.

This is a gateway To a secret world.

It turns out that the landscape Beneath the ice

Is covered with numerous ridges And valleys.

Narrator: the first thing That amazes scientists,

Is the minerals which are found

To be flowing Out of this icy ravine.

It's like an arctic gold rush.

There are billions Upon billions of dollars'

Worth of precious minerals here.

Greenland could be the site Of the next gold rush.

Lester: it's conceivable That these canyons

May have accumulated Really important quantities

Of precious metals or minerals.

Narrator: this hidden world Is spewing up minerals

Even more valuable than gold -- So called rare earth minerals.

They're in cell phones,

They're in almost Everything we use.

Without them, our world Would be a different place.

Narrator: But for defense agencies Examining nasa's findings,

It's not gold or precious metals They're looking for.

The guys from the pentagon Have lost a bomb.

Greenland was the site Of one of the us air force's

Greatest embarrassments.

Uh, we lost an h-bomb.

Narrator: at the height Of the cold war,

The us air force launches Operation chrome dome,

A secret plan to operate 24 hour patrols

Of nuclear-armed b52 bombers, Ready to launch

Devastating strikes against The soviet union

At a moment's notice.

The bombers' patrol route Takes them right over greenland.

It was a period of time When tensions were very high

And it wasn't clear that There wouldn't be a nuclear war.

In january of 1968,

One of the b52's on station In greenland

Crashed into the ice.

The pentagon said that All four of the nuclear weapons

On board had been destroyed.

In 2008, the bbc looking Into united states records

Through the freedom Of information act found

That one of those Missing warheads

Had actually Never been recovered.

Narrator: the planet-destroying M28 thermonuclear warhead

Has the unimaginable power Of 100 hiroshima bombs.

And now, this man-made nightmare Is lying somewhere

Beneath the ice in greenland.

Just like the movie "Ice station zebra,"

The us navy is forced to launch A perilous submarine mission

To retrieve their bomb.

A few months after the crash,

The united states sent A submarine to try to find

The lost nuclear weapon.

They never found it.

Almost feels like a scene From the captain america movie.

We've lost a super weapon In the ice.

Narrator: the discovery of this Hidden world beneath the ice

Offers new hopes that america's Missing nuke can be found

Before something Terrible happens.

Could it be missing In one of those grand canyons?

Narrator: but when investigators Ventured across greenland

To examine the mouth Of the chasm up close,

It isn't a nuke they find.

What I found was something Completely new.

An amazing creature From the dawn of animal life.

Narrator: jacob vinther Notices something unusual

About the rocks around The great cavern.

When he splits them open,

It's like a lost world Of monsters

Has revealed itself to him.

When I cracked open this rock I was absolutely gobsmacked.

I hadn't seen anything Like that before.

Narrator: jakob discovers A bizarre prehistoric creature.

Perhaps the first Of many down there.

It resembles A strange mix between

A whale, a squid, and a shark.

One of the most interesting Fossils that we've found

Up there was of an animal That we call an anomalocarid.

Anomalocarids were Really weird animals.

They had a very, Very specialized anatomy.

They had a pair of big Stalk eyes to spot their prey.

In front of their mouth They had a couple

Of really large appendages They were using

To capture their prey with.

Narrator: It's the discovery of a world That time forgot,

Trapped in ice.

A world populated by creatures Never before seen

Or imagined by scientists.

A world of strange animals Who dominated the earth

Half a billion years ago.

Vinther: These animals, they were big.

They were truly humongous.

They were the sharks and The whales of this time period.

Narrator: these beasts ruled the World long before the dinosaurs.

And their remains Are being discovered

In one of the strangest Places on earth,

Which scientists Are only beginning to explore.

An icy lost world Discovered from space.

Vinther: greenland has already Been yielding

Some really amazing discoveries.

Endless amounts of discoveries Could potentially be made

In the years to come.

It's big. It's yellow. It's unbelievable!

D'antonio: this was probably One of the, uh,

Craziest cases I've ever had to look at.

Narrator: but first...

What looks like a force field Around planet earth.

It kind of almost Looks like a halo.

Something strange is happening To the atmosphere.

Narrator: the blurred trails Of two unidentified space craft.

And unexplained events Seen from earth.

A huge orange light over russia.

How is it happening?

Narrator: august 17th, 2014.

Astronaut reid wiseman Is circling the earth

On-board the international Space station,

When he captures on camera Something weird and worrying.

Cerveny: something strange Is happening to the atmosphere.

What's causing those colours?

Narrator: We've all seen pictures Of the earth taken from space.

It's surrounded by A shining envelope of air

That keeps us all alive.

But that atmosphere Doesn't have some alien,

Glowing ring surrounding it.

I've seen a lot Of weird-looking skies,

But the banded colours That we see here,

Just do something That I have never seen

In a satellite image before.

Narrator: the eerie glow is like Something out of a sci-fi movie.

It looks like A strange force field

Encircling the planet.

Adding to the mystery Are what appears to be

The blurred trails of two Strange unidentified craft.

Could the image have possibly Captured the moment

Two satellites broke up?

You can have satellites That will break up

In the upper atmosphere And completely disintegrate.

Narrator: but it would be A one in a million chance

That such an event Would be caught on camera.

And even then, It would not explain

The weird orange glow Surrounding the planet.

The mystery deepens When locals in russia

Report seeing a brilliant Orange light in the skies,

An event which is caught by Motorists on their dash cams.

Huston: it's remarkable!

These guys are driving around With dash-cams on their cars,

You know, completely oblivious.

Then, all of a sudden, Here comes this huge explosion,

Right in front of them.

A huge orange light over russia

Is something we're going To pay attention to.

Narrator: to begin with, Scientists suggest

It might have been What's called a bolide flash.

That happens when A gigantic meteor explodes

As it hits our atmosphere.

But there's a problem.

There's no way A bolide flash could cause

The orange force field Observed from space.

Huston: I don't think that's the case.

You would see the streak Of the meteorite

In the atmosphere As it approached before it hit.

And there's no streak.

Narrator: but what else?

Is there any way these events Could be explained away

As some kind of weird variation Of an aurora?

The likelihood is that This isn't the aurora,

Simply because we're not near The normal places

Where we'd expect To see the aurora.

Normally we're only going to see Them at the north magnetic pole

And the south magnetic pole.

Narrator: The image captured from space

Doesn't show an area Near enough to either pole.

But then, when the image Is enhanced,

The true nature of the two 'spacecraft' becomes apparent.

Because what we see In the foreground here

Is the international Space station.

Narrator: the strange shapes in The image are almost certainly

The space station's Solar panels,

But seen from the side.

The trails are thought To be blurring caused

By their movement during The camera's long exposure.

But the orange glow above The earth's surface

Still remains a mystery.

Scientists calculate that When the picture was taken,

The iss was actually orbiting Over australia,

At a time when unusually High pressure led

To very clear skies and A rise in ultra violet light.

Could this be the explanation?

Majedvadia: gas atoms In the atmosphere are energized

During the day by uv radiation From the sun.

They've been excited By high energy sunlight.

Narrator: as the atoms return To their previous state,

They release the energy As light.

We think this process Is airglow,

And a particular class Of airglow that occurs at night.

Narrator: the remarkable colours Are no alien energy force field,

But rather, scientists believe,

A series of chemical reactions In the atmosphere.

So what's really cool about This is that it's the air itself

Essentially creating its own Little rainbow.

Sodium atoms in our atmosphere Give off a yellow light.

Oxygen atoms in our atmosphere Give off a greenish light.

And oxygen at higher altitudes Gives off a reddish light

Which we see here.

Miller: the processes Are similar

To your glow in the dark Silly putty,

Where light is being absorbed And then re-emitted afterwards,

Through chemical reactions.

Narrator: it well be that The bright flash in the skies

Of russia was a meteorite Crashing to earth.

That fact that the orange halo Was caught on camera from space

Is now thought to be no more Than a coincidence.

Cerveny: we still don't know Everything that there is to know

About our atmosphere, that we're Constantly finding out

New things and we're discovering Different ways to look at it.

Narrator: the mystery of A missing american warplane

And a bizarre plane crash, Killing hundreds.

Filbrook: got a lot of divers That are searching for wreckage.

Yeah, it's a little eerie.

What is this plane, How did it get there?

Narrator: there's something Weird happening

In this minnesota lake.

Narrator: february 24, 2016. Minneapolis.

A reporter at The star tribune newspaper

Gets a lead on a story From an anxious reader.

A resident of minneapolis writes To the local newspaper

And says they're seeing In a satellite image

What appears to be an outline Of an airplane

Smack in the middle Of lake harriet in minneapolis.

Narrator: the editor immediately Breaks the story online.

Pappalardo: So this sparks a huge reaction.

What is this plane, How did it get there?

Everyone seems to want to know.

Narrator: professional Wreck diver steve filbrook

Is hooked by the image.

He's determined to be The first to solve this mystery.

We have an idea where The plane is rumored to lay.

It's gonna be a large object.

We hope to find it.

Narrator: in the past, Steve has come across

A range of dangerous, Submerged objects.

Filbrook: We see a lot of different things In the water --

Sunken boats, trash, shipwrecks.

Narrator: minnesota has almost 12,000 lakes, most of them

Still unexplored Below surface level.

Filbrook: we've got a lot Of divers that are searching

For wreckage because there are A lot of wrecks

That have not been found.

And bodies still exist In some of those wrecks.

Yeah, it's a little eerie.

Narrator: the region's Notoriously harsh weather

Can make the waters And the skies above them

Dangerous to the unwary.

Super cold winters.

Big large thunderstorms.

Tornadoes.

We are susceptible To some pretty big storms here.

We've got lakes here that have Some airplanes and helicopters

Known to go down.

Narrator: in 1890 almost A hundred people drowned

When a devastating tornado hit A paddle steamer on lake pepin.

If a similar disaster plunged An airliner to the lake bottom,

It's likely there Would be no survivors.

Pappalardo: obviously something Terrible must have happened

To this flight, if it's At the bottom of a lake.

It's a nightmare scenario.

Visibility at lake harriet Is limited,

Especially as you get towards The middle part of a lake.

Man: and we'll get an idea Of what the bottom looks like.

Filbrook: We've got a depth finder That we're going to use

And go down And see what we could find

When we get to the spot.

Man: drop right on it.

Drop right on top of it.

Narrator: If a passenger jet had run into Difficulty over minneapolis,

Lake harriet would have been An obvious place to ditch.

Pilots are taught to use water To crash land.

Pappalardo: minneapolis Is a major metropolitan area.

If one did get in trouble,

They wouldn't want to land In a residential area.

They might see a lake And steer right towards it

And try to set down there.

Narrator: but some analysts Are perplexed

By the condition Of the wrecked plane.

Large aircraft on approach To landing

Travel upwards Of 180 miles per hour --

Way too fast to hit the water And sink in one piece.

I think there's Got to be another answer.

Here we have another plane That hit the water,

But if you look, It's missing sections

And pieces of it had broken off, All right.

So, that's what a plane looks Like when it's hitting the water

And it's underwater.

It's gonna be in more Than one piece.

It's not gonna be intact.

Narrator: But other analysts disagree.

Pappalardo: I don't have A problem with the plane

Being intact at the bottom Of a lake.

If it was a successful Water landing,

It wouldn't have broken up.

Narrator: recent history shows It is possible for a plane

To remain intact if the descent Is skillfully controlled.

In 2009 a us airways a320 airbus Crash-landed

Into the waters Of the hudson river.

In what became known As 'the miracle on the hudson'

The aircraft, and all 155 Passengers and crew survived.

Could the same thing Have happened here?

Where are the passengers, Where are the pilots,

Where are the witnesses To this incident?

Lake harriet is in the middle Of a very densely

Populated residential area.

So if a plane did go down,

It would be quite likely That somebody would notice it.

Narrator: there are no recent Reports of planes

Ditching over minnesota lakes.

Perhaps this wreck is the Remains of an earlier incident,

Which has been forgotten Or which never made the news?

The idea of a plane going Missing today is something

That would cause all sorts Of world news.

In the second world war There was so much going on,

Actually, aircraft were lost And simply not reported.

It could have lain at the bottom Of that lake for a long time.

Narrator: as it happens,

There was a plane That disappeared in this area.

In 1950,

Northwest orient airlines Flight 2501 went missing

And lake harriet sits right Under its doomed flight path.

Flight 2501 Has never been found.

If steve filbrook's dive team Can find its remains,

They will answer one of The longest standing mysteries

In the history of aviation.

The divers descend to 90 feet.

At this depth, Visibility is so poor

They can barely see beyond An outstretched arm.

A shape looms out Of the darkness.

In the underwater gloom,

It looks like part of the tail Of an aircraft.

But the divers' high-power Lights reveal it to be

Nothing more than a piece Of discarded junk.

So far, they can find no wreck.

Well, not a lot of visibility. There's nothing down there.

Narrator: the mysterious wreck, Visible from space,

Seems to have become A ghost plane.

In search of answers,

Journalists Investigating the story

Turn to the source Of the satellite image.

We reached out and notified them

And we asked them For some kind of explanation.

Narrator: the satellite image Providers launch

Their own investigation, Which comes to the conclusion

That there never was a plane In the waters of lake harriet.

Here's the thing About satellite images --

They're not just one picture --

It's a ton of them Stitched together

Into this composite image.

For fast-moving objects, This creates a problem,

Since it can be picked up By one of the pictures

But not by others,

Creating a sort of ghost object In the image.

Narrator: Analysts believe images Have been merged together,

Creating the ghostly impression Of a submerged jet.

For steve filbrook And his dive team,

Lake harriet is a bust.

But the chilled waters Of minnesota's 12,000 lakes

Hold many more secrets For them to find.

Something weird is happening In hong kong harbor.

Looking at the image, I've got no idea what this is.

Freak of nature, Or elaborate hoax?

This was probably one Of the craziest cases

I've ever had to look at.

Narrator: 2013, Hong kong, china.

A satellite spots an odd yellow Floating object in the harbour.

So what is this thing?

It's big, it's yellow, it's in The middle of hong kong harbour.

Looking at the image, I've got no idea what this is.

Narrator: if you see A large yellow object

Bobbing about in the ocean, There's a good chance

It's a piece of weather Recording equipment.

We have 1200 weather buoys

Stationed all around The world's oceans.

Narrator: but there are No records of missing

Weather buoys in the area at The time the image was taken.

Anybody who grew up listening To beatles songs

Is totally familiar With the yellow submarine.

Narrator: yellow submarines Do exist outside of cartoons.

Capps: paul allen, Co-founder of microsoft,

He's got this $200 million dollar yacht

And a yellow submarine.

He goes diving, Looking for shipwrecks.

So, potentially he docked That submarine right there.

Narrator: The seas around the area Where the image was taken

Are rich hunting grounds For wreck finders

Like paul allen and the crew Of his sub, the pagoo.

There are more than 500 world war ii ships

Sunk in the neighboring South china sea.

The pagoo is a legitimate Wreck finder.

It's operating in the pacific,

Which is exactly Where hong kong harbour is.

The only problem with this Theory of the yellow submarine

Is simply that the timelines Don't match up.

You see, paul allen's submarine Was exploring the area in 2015,

And this picture was taken Two years before that in 2013.

So it has to be something else.

Narrator: digital enhancement Of the image reveals

The mystery object Looks surprisingly familiar.

When I think yellow floats, I have little kids.

It's a rubber duckie, right?

Narrator: What would a rubber duck Be doing in hong kong harbour?

An accident many years ago Could offer an answer.

January 10th, 1992, A container ship travelling

From hong kong To tacoma, washington,

Loses 12 containers overboard.

One of them sets loose thousands Of tiny yellow plastic ducks

On the currents Of the north pacific.

Narrator: the currents carry The ducks all over the world.

So months later, They start washing up

On the coast of alaska, Turning this toy spill

Into an accidental experiment.

So from the duckie study You get real time data,

About the currents In the north pacific.

Narrator: The accidental duck experiment

Is still providing Information today.

They're almost indestructible.

I mean literally 20 years After they hit the ocean,

They're still washing up On beaches around the world.

Narrator: After two decades of slowly Circulating the pacific,

One of the ducks could have Washed up in hong kong.

But there's an elephant In this particular harbour.

As an analyst, one of the things We'd like to do is try

To figure out The dimensions of this object.

Now the thing is, We look at this duck

And it turns out this ship right Here is just over 50 feet wide,

So, this duck appears to be About 50 feet wide.

Narrator: a giant 50 foot wide Rubber duckie in hong harbour.

Surely that's not possible?

It has to be a fake.

Capps: the internet is covered With image hoaxes.

You think of the helicopter Being attacked by a shark.

Photoshop and imagery go really Well on the internet

And create a lot of excitement.

Here's a great example Of a fake.

This fake is affectionally Known as 'crabzilla',

And it was created By quinton winter,

A british artist, and he put This crab in to the image.

If you make sure That you cover it

With a greenish hue Of another layer.

It puts distance between That crab and the surface

Of the water, making it Look like it's submerged.

Narrator: but the image Containing this mysterious

Yellow object doesn't Come from any amateur source.

It comes direct from one of The world's premier providers

Of satellite imagery -- Digital globe.

Capps: which is a very Well-respected satellite agency.

They provide images to military, Law enforcement.

They didn't send out A hoax shot.

Narrator: this unidentified Weird entity is real

And must have had permission To be in the harbour.

And that can only mean One thing.

It is a giant rubber duck,

Big enough to be seen From space.

Narrator: Hong kong's floating duck Is the crazy creation

Of dutch artist Florentijn hofman.

Since 2007, The giant rubber ducky

Has been shown All around the world.

When it came to hong kong,

More than 8 million people Came to see it.

This was probably one Of the craziest cases

I've ever had to look at.

But, it was one of the most fun.

We're going to need A bigger bath.