All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S03E15.1080p.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.

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.