Original subtitles

Narrator: they're watching you.

More than 4,000 satellites Circle the earth.

Every day, they uncover new Mysterious phenomena

That defy explanation.

Hunting jack the ripper From space...

Woman: [ screams ]

With more certainty than ever,

We can show that he was Most probably jack the ripper.

Narrator: ...Fear stalks A vanishing city...

Every night, they go to sleep.

They don't know If they're gonna wake up

In the jaws of a giant lion.

Narrator: ...And signs of a visitation

From another galaxy...

Is this some space visitor That's traveled

Perhaps thousands of light-years Through space

And crash-landed here?

Narrator: ...Baffling phenomena, Mysteries from space...

What on earth are they?

**

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

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

Narrator: since 1970, Serial killers have

Murdered over 8,000 americans.

Many of these slayings Remain unsolved.

There are 25 to 50 active serial Killers at any time in the u.S.

Think about this. This is absolutely astounding.

Narrator: Law enforcement agencies

Are increasingly turning to Eyes in the sky

To identify And hunt down these psychopaths.

[ indistinct conversations ]

A revolutionary new method Of tracking down

These cold-blooded killers Is being trialed across the u.S.

It's a form of satellite imagery Called geographical profile.

Narrator: decades of studies Have enabling criminologists

To categorize Serial killer behavior

Into a series of Complex psychological profiles.

Geographical profiling Uses algorithms

To integrate these profiles With satellite data

Obtained from crime scenes

To identify The killer's place of residence.

Vaughn: All humans follow patterns.

Geographical profiling Is the idea

That you can look into these Patterns and understand

Where someone is Or where they'll be.

The end result is a highly Detailed satellite image

Of the killer's hunting ground.

The red spots indicate The most likely area

Where he's operating out of.

Narrator: in recent years, Experts have used geoprofiling

To help identify Numerous murderers.

The technique comes to International attention

Following a case In the late 1990s,

When a geo-profiler suggests A serial killer is responsible

For a series of disappearances In downtown vancouver.

In 2002, police arrest Robert pickton on his pig farm

15 miles out of town

And subsequently charge him With the murder of 27 women.

Geographical profiling has been Demonstrated multiple times

To be useful in identifying Modern serial killers.

It's a method that could also Be applied to serial killers

From earlier time Periods as well.

Narrator: for investigators, Historical murder cases

Are notoriously hard to crack.

Clues disappear And witness memories fade,

Meaning that some 200,000 U.S. Murders from the last

60 years remain unsolved,

But gps data never changes.

That's why some criminologists Believe geoprofiling

Is ideally suited to cold cases.

This is perfect because It models where the offender

Operated out of based On his crime scene locations,

And it needs little else Beyond that.

Narrator: to see whether Geoprofiling can help clear

Unsolved historical murders,

Wesley english wants to test His latest algorithm

On one of the most Notorious cold cases in history.

From space, he's hunting For jack the ripper.

**

Victorian london --

The east end is a noisy,

Bustling labyrinth of Thoroughfares and twisted roads.

It's the place where Upper-class londoners

Come to get their lowlife fun.

[ indistinct conversations ]

But in 1888, A series of terrifying murders

Makes the white chapel district A place of pure terror.

Woman: [ screams ]

**

All the victims except one Were horribly mutilated.

Three of the victims had all Their internal organs

Removed in a very Surgical manner.

Narrator: to this day, No one knows for certain

How many women died At the hand of jack the ripper.

His identity has been The subject of wild speculation.

Over 400 people,

Including aristocrats Linked to the royal family,

Have fallen under suspicion.

Over 100 years of Painstaking research

Has still not revealed Jack the ripper's identity.

Narrator: if his algorithm Is going to work,

English needs to Familiarize himself

With the killer And his hunting ground.

It's important to actually Go on site, though,

To understand The geography of the area,

How easy or difficult it is To traverse from point to point.

It's also important To understand

How the geography of the area

Relates to jack the ripper As a person himself.

Narrator: for a profile based On geographic data,

The ripper case poses A unique challenge.

**

Since 1888, london has changed And a number of the ripper's

Crimes took place on streets That no longer exist.

**

To help capture this historical Data for his algorithm,

English is meeting Ripper expert john bennett.

Even for an area like The east end of london

Which had high rates of crime,

It's the way they were murdered That made it stand out.

Can you tell me what This was like at the time?

A dark, unpleasant place, I have to say, oppressive

And also dangerous.

Narrator: The ripper left few clues

Other than the complex geography Of his appalling crimes.

We are now in mitre square,

Which is the scene of the murder Of catherine eddowes

On the morning Of the 30th of september.

Narrator: english and bennett Visit the location

Of each killing In chronological order,

Familiarizing themselves With the crime scenes

And possible escape routes And logging the data they need

To begin the geoprofile.

All right, I'm gonna take a gps reading

Of this exact spot, then.

Narrator: from his studies on Contemporary cases,

English knows that Serial killers often rely

On a mental map of their hunting Ground to evade detection.

Serial killers try to hide Their tracks,

But they can't Escape being human,

And all humans follow patterns,

So geographical profiling Is just looking at lots of data

To try and uncover Those patterns.

Narrator: In the late 19th century,

London's 8,700 policemen Patrol the streets

In fixed patterns at set times.

The ripper is unlikely to have Used escape routes

That he did not know.

Running from the scene Of a crime,

No criminal wants To find himself

Trapped up a blind alley Or wondering where to turn next.

You need to know where The police conducted

Their beats and such like,

So I think local knowledge, Certainly in this case,

Is an important part Of the makeup.

Narrator: Bennett describes how at least

Two of the ripper's victims

Drank at the ten bells pub, Which still exists today.

A crucial part of The software's algorithm

Is that it factors In everyday life patterns

And places the person might Hang out such as a pub.

Given the ten bells' proximity To all the crime scenes,

It's likely that This is the place

That jack the ripper Would go for a drink.

Narrator: geographic profiling Assigns values to pubs

And other landmarks Based on the likelihood

The killer frequented Or used them.

His profile factors in data

Such as the fact That all of the victims

Lived within a couple Hundred yards of each other.

It's not just murder scenes

That your geographical profiler Needs to look at.

They need to look at every place The murderer has been

Or passed through.

Narrator: english believes there May be enough data

For an accurate Geoprofiling result.

Could he be the space-age Detective

Who finally solves The ripper mystery?

**

Coming up, Battle of the big guns

In the land of the bible...

It's big because that barrel Is over 100 feet long.

**

Narrator: ...And the ripper team Closes in on its quarry.

That's quite remarkable, That is.

We may have found Jack the ripper.

**

**

Narrator: Geo-profiler wesley english

And ripper expert john bennett

Are in london's east end Using satellite data

And the latest homicide Investigation software

To identify the most notorious Serial killer in history --

Jack the ripper.

Every location relevant To the murders must be plotted.

Bennett directs English to the spot where,

On september 30, 1888,

Police discover A key piece of evidence.

Woman: ah! Ah! Ah!

Narrator: at 1 a.M., the corpse Of elizabeth stride

Is found in dutfield's yard Off berner street.

[ shouting indistinctly ]

Less than an hour later, A second body,

That of catherine eddowes, Is found in mitre square,

A 15-minute walk away, Her throat sliced open,

A kidney, And the uterus removed,

But this time, The police find a clue.

[ whistle blows ]

It was just over there In that doorway

Where a piece Of evidence was found.

In fact, the only physical Piece of evidence

Found in the entire case.

They found a bloody piece Of cloth

Which apparently came From catherine eddowes' apron.

Police believe it may have been Used to wipe the knife.

Narrator: what english is Interested in is not the cloth

But where it was found, Goulston street,

Back towards an area Swarming with police

Searching for stride's killer.

He was going back Into the stend,

A very risky thing to do.

The only reason why he would be Headed back in that direction

Is if he felt safe.

Maybe he's headed Towards home.

Narrator: English's geoprofiling software

Is like a chess program,

Analyzing the size of the area And its complex street patterns,

Assessing a bewildering Number of possibilities.

**

It also incorporates data From known murder sprees,

Effectively using the power Of artificial intelligence

To understand Criminal behavior.

The pattern of murders Puts the ripper

In a category of killer known To criminologists as a marauder.

Marauders kill in an area They know well,

Whereas commuters travel To a faraway place

To find their victims.

Ted bundy is probably The most famous example

Of a commuting serial killer.

Narrator: english believes He now has enough information

To construct A solid geoprofile.

His algorithm processes data From the primary

And secondary crime Scene locations

Against the profiles of hundreds Of possible ripper suspects.

**

The software quickly Identifies a short list.

Based on The geographic profile

And our assessment That he is a marauder,

We've narrowed it down To seven suspects.

We're gonna enter these Into the profile

And see who is most Likely of those suspects.

Narrator: as the algorithm Crunches more data,

English overlays the results

Onto a map Of london's whitechapel.

All the crimes are here in this Cluster, this concentrated area.

Narrator: his calculations Factor in something called

The principle of least effort,

The theory that marauders, Like the ripper,

Will not kill too far From their home.

Marauding serial killers Will eventually reach a point

Far away from the house

Where it's unlikely That he'll commit a crime,

So they have that boundary,

But then they also have An inner boundary,

A buffer zone, where it's too Close to their home.

They won't commit a crime Within that buffer zone

For fear of being caught.

Narrator: the computer Translates its computations

Into a heat map.

The darker the red indicating The stronger likelihood

That the killer resided At a particular location.

Incredibly, by far The deepest red patch

Sits directly over the home Of one ripper suspect.

You couldn't get any more Middle than that.

That is absolutely In the hot spot.

We typically see suspects In the red area

And know to focus on them

But to have it fall literally Almost on top of his house?

Who is it?

That's nathan kaminsky.

Narrator: nathan kaminsky.

Polish by birth, Kaminsky was a cobbler.

According to records, it would Seem that any prostitutes

He used gave him More than sexual gratification.

Nathan kaminsky, That's an interesting suspect,

And he lived In black lion yard,

And one of the things we do know From workhouse records

That he was A syphilis patient.

Syphilis, At this time in history,

Means that he probably had a lot Of contact with prostitutes,

And then you take Into account the fact

That neurosyphilis Causes your brain to break down

And make you act Very irrationally.

Narrator: kaminsky, it seems,

Also went by the name Of david cohen

And was known to be a violent Character and a hater of women.

A month after the final murder,

Cohen is admitted To colney hatch insane asylum,

Where he dies 10 months later.

It's been suggested that The two may well

Have been one in the same.

Cohen was an extremely Dangerous, violent man,

And the records In the asylum suggest that.

Narrator: For almost a century and a half,

The identity of jack the ripper, The merciless butcher of women,

Has been a mystery That has fascinated the world.

Has the space-age Finally found him?

That's quite remarkable, That is.

Now we may have found Jack the ripper.

So we can't go back in time And interview nathan kaminsky,

But with this new technology, With more certainty than ever,

We can show that he was most Probably jack the ripper.

**

Narrator: coming up, Clash of the megabeasts...

They're like velociraptors In the ocean.

Narrator: ...And hoods in the heavens,

The low-flying gangsters Invading america.

The volume of traffic Was enormous.

**

Narrator: june 4, 2018 --

Orbiting high above arizona's 100,000 square mile

Sonoran desert,

The worldview-2 satellite Captures this image.

We have this large circular Structure in a godforsaken,

Remote area with one road Leading into it,

No roads going beyond.

This is incredibly strange.

Zooming in, it looks like A big sprinkler.

I don't know that I've seen Anything like this before.

Narrator: intrigued By the weird structure,

Military historian mike pavelec Consults geographical records

And discovers a possible clue.

Based on The coordinates provided,

This satellite photography

Is from the yuma Proving ground in arizona.

It's a military base, A big military base.

It's probably something that The military would like to just,

You know, not have Prying eyes looking at.

Narrator: the yuma proving Ground is one of the largest

Military testing facilities On the planet.

With 2,000 square miles Of restricted airspace,

It's the perfect place To develop top secret

Military hardware.

We know lots of weapons testing Takes place in this area,

And if you zoom in On the center,

It looks like it Could be a gun.

Well, if it is a gun, It's big

Because that barrel Is over 100 feet long.

That would be Absolutely massive.

Narrator: for ex-cia operative Lindsay moran,

The massive structure Bears the signature

Of an infamous weapons designer With links to yuma.

It reminds me both in size And shape of this weird weapon

That was developed By an engineer

Named gerald bull.

Gerald bull is A fascinating character.

He's an engineer who is Closely associated

With the idea Of building a supergun.

Bull was obsessed With developing

A weapon powerful enough To launch a satellite into space

Without needing a rocket To get it there.

Narrator: in 1961, the canadian Artillery expert

Convinces the united states Government

To invest in his Satellite-launching supergun.

Man: here's a model of The martlet space shell.

Let's hope he finishes before They fire the 470-pound missile,

Otherwise he'll be the first man Without pants in outer space.

**

[ explosion ]

Narrator: Six years after testing begins,

The escalating cost Of the vietnam war

Forces the military to abandon The project

Before it's completed.

Bull searches for alternative Backers for his weapon.

As bull begins to look For other sources of funding,

He is ultimately Brought into contact

With saddam hussein in iraq,

And he forms a cozy relationship

That ends up being a little bit Too cozy with saddam.

Narrator: the murderous dictator Offers bull $25 million

To assemble the world's Biggest cannon.

**

It's a hugely ambitious idea,

But if it can be made to work, It's a game changer.

**

Narrator: Nicknamed the babylon gun,

Declassified files reveal

It's 500-foot, 1,500-ton barrel Is so big and heavy,

It would have to be mounted on A hillside to fire accurately.

Bull maintains the gun is part Of the new iraqi space program,

Yet it's 620-mile range Also puts enemy states israel

And iran well within Striking distance.

When bull begins to work For saddam hussein,

The iranians and the israelis Are suddenly turned against him

Because it looks like he is About to share a technology

With the iraqi military

That it can then use to attack Tel aviv or tehran,

And for that reason, Gerald bull had to go.

Narrator: in 1990, assassins, Rumored to be from mossad,

Kill gerald bull outside His brussels apartment.

Those five gunshots Brought the babylon gun project

To an abrupt end.

Martin morgan discovers That during the 1960s,

The u.S. Military conducts tests

On one of bull's superguns At yuma.

Maybe the u.S. Government Has decided

To resurrect the babylon gun,

And maybe that's What we're seeing.

Narrator: yet when ken joyce

Uses digitalglobe Securewatch technology

To analyze the image,

He discovers another possible Clue to the object's purpose.

As I look at this site, Things get even weirder.

What I see is this large shadow On the ground

To the northwest of the circle,

And then just to The east of the shadow,

I see what I believe Is casting the shadow,

And it looks to be A small blimp.

Narrator: the discovery baffles Investigators.

Why would you have something So random

Out in the middle Of nowhere like this?

There has to be Some plausible reason.

**

Moran: we're only 50 miles From the mexican border here,

So there could be a link.

Maybe it's tracking something.

Narrator: experts consider if The mystery blimp

And object in the image

Are connected to The aerial transportation

Of drug shipments Across this border.

Munoz: the cartels in mexico Have fleets of small planes.

It's kind of one way they bring Their drugs into the country.

Before he was captured, Infamous kingpin el chapo

Had more planes than even The mexican national airlines.

Narrator: in the 1980s, Joaquín "El chapo" guzmán,

Rumored to be responsible For up to 3,000 murders,

Founds the sinaloa cartel,

Mexico's largest Criminal organization.

Police reports suggest The feared drug lord

Operates a fleet Of 600 small aircraft

To transport his narcotics Across the u.S. Border.

And the volume of traffic Was enormous.

So all these light aircraft Come in low,

The idea being to fly close to The terrain and avoid detection,

And so the customs And border patrol, cbp,

Came up with what became Known as the tars program,

Which is tethered aerostate Radar program.

Narrator: Along the southern border,

The tars program Uses six blimps,

Hovering at 10,000 feet, To detect unauthorized planes.

Each is tethered To a ground-based structure,

Like the ones seen In the satellite image.

U.S. Border patrol uses These blimps

To basically monitor traffic

Going back and forth Across the border.

Narrator: advanced radar In the belly of each balloon

Can spot any low-flying object Over eight feet long

Within a 200-mile range.

They're really an impressive Piece of equipment.

Narrator: Over the past four decades,

Tars has helped cut the number Of illegal flights

Crossing the border From 8,500 per year

To fewer than 10,

An almost impenetrable Line of defense

Against aerial drug runners, Captured from space.

It's impressive to think that Something that looks so mundane

In the middle of the desert Could actually be crucial

In the war Against drug traffickers.

**

Narrator: coming up,

Megabeast mass death In south america...

We're talking about something That is potentially 1,000 times

More poisonous than cyanide.

Narrator: ...And a zulu lord of war.

He basically issues an ultimatum To every tribe he encounters --

Join me or die.

**

**

Narrator: march 2016 --

25 miles southeast Of johannesburg in south africa,

Aerial archaeologists Take to the skies,

Deploying cutting-edge Lidar technology

To scan the landscape.

Millions of laser beams Penetrate the foliage

To create an image Of what lies hidden below.

Stripping away the vegetation

That was blocking our view,

We can see that What we have here

Are the remains Of an actual city.

It looks fairly substantial.

There's a number of structures That are quite evident.

We're not talking a few. We're talking hundreds.

Narrator: yet despite its size, There is no mention

Of this ancient settlement In any early recorded history.

When archaeologists Begin to excavate,

They find evidence That someone or something

Forced the people here To flee their homes.

The floors are scattered With remnants of pottery.

People just don't get up

And leave All these things behind

If they're leaving In an orderly fashion.

Narrator: the artifacts Date the ghost town

To the early 19th century.

This was a time when man Wrestled beast

For control Of the african savanna.

Experts consider if this could Offer a clue to the mass exodus.

Humans are on the dinner menu

For many of the animals That live in africa.

But nothing strikes fear in The heart of people

Like the lion.

[ roaring ]

Narrator: Over the last 50 years,

Lions have slaughtered Over 12,000 people in africa.

An example of the terror

These apex predators Unleashed on settlements

During the 19th century Comes from kenya.

There are dozens of accounts of Lions eating humans in africa,

But there are none more famous Or infamous

Than the tsavo man-eaters.

Narrator: in 1898, two lions Repeatedly attack a camp of men

Building a railway line between Mombasa and lake victoria.

**

It became common for these Workers to find the grisly

Remains of their colleagues in The bushes just beyond the camp.

These lions were so efficient And so deadly that people began

To think that They weren't real lions at all,

But they were Supernatural beings.

Narrator: The terrified workers named them

The ghost and the darkness.

Every night, they go to sleep.

They don't know if they're Gonna wake up

In the jaws of a giant lion.

[ roars ]

Narrator: according to The camp's british commander,

The two beasts attack,

Kill, and feed on over 130 people in just nine months.

**

If two lions could terrorize

A camp of hundreds of men,

Then it's possible That a whole pride

Could stalk this entire town.

Narrator: but others disagree.

It's possible lions can scare, Say, a small village,

But we're talking About a town here.

Thousands of people lived here, So I don't think it's possible

That lions could have scared That many people away.

**

Narrator: Consulting historical texts,

Archaeologist karen bellinger

Discovers the date of the city's Abandonment coincides

With a period of countrywide Unrest called mfecane,

Meaning the crushing.

Tribes dispersed, abandoning Their villages and their crops,

Just trying To escape the violence.

Narrator: the brutal conquest is Led by south africa's

Most infamous warrior, Shaka zulu.

**

Shaka zulu is this Really remarkable leader.

He's almost mythical In his stature,

But he actually was A real man of the zulu tribe.

He was born illegitimately, And so he and his mother

Were kind of ousted From the zulu tribe.

Narrator: driven by revenge, Young shaka trains

As a warrior With his adopted people,

Rising to prominence as a great But ruthless military leader.

He pioneered a new spear For close-up combat,

And he would force his soldiers To run across sharp thorns

To toughen their feet.

Narrator: The story goes that after

Assassinating his half-brother,

He seizes control of the zulu Tribe that once rejected him,

But this is just the beginning

Of shaka zulu's Fearsome ambition.

His goal was to rule the people Of south africa,

To rule the native population And to expand his empire.

And he basically issues An ultimatum

To every tribe he encounters --

Join me or die.

Narrator: Shaka's merciless army conquers

All who refuse to submit.

Terrified rivals scatter,

And the mighty zulu kingdom Is born.

He caused so much chaos

That those who were Not assimilated or killed fled,

Creating a mass Migration crisis.

Narrator: for a man hell-bent On conquering

All the people Of his known world,

A settlement of thousands, Such as the one in the image,

Would've been a prime target.

This town may have Been abandoned because,

One day, they literally saw The zulus coming on the horizon.

It's extremely likely that this City fell victim to shaka zulu,

And the people either were Killed or fled for their lives.

**

Narrator: coming up, close Encounters in the antarctic...

If it didn't come from below, Did it come from above?

Narrator: ...And the giant Slayer from the deep.

It causes paralysis, Then you die.

**

**

Narrator: june 23, 2015 --

An observation plane flies

Over the atlantic coastline Of patagonia, chile,

100,000 square miles Of pristine wilderness.

As it passes above A remote inlet,

A camera captures a series Of white anomalies

On the shore below.

There are these large objects Lying all across it.

It's hard to tell Exactly what they are.

Narrator: When the crew flies lower,

They discover a scene Of true horror.

[ whirring ]

Hundreds of whale corpses Litter the secluded shoreline.

**

This is a lot of whales.

337, that's unthinkable.

This is an unprecedented Biological catastrophe.

Narrator: experts are stunned.

This is one of the largest mass Whale deaths

In recorded history.

Something very big had To have happened

To affect this many whales At the same time.

Narrator: Marine biologist rob nelson

Studies the footage to identify

Which species has died On these shores.

These are sei whales.

You can tell because Of the dark gray

And the irregular white Markings on them.

They get over 50 feet in length.

Narrator: Weighing in at up to 28 tons,

Equivalent to four african Bull elephants,

The sei whale is a true Heavyweight of the seas.

Nelson considers what type Of predator

Could take down These colossal beasts.

There's only one marine mammal

Which will actively hunt And kill a large whale,

And that's the orca Or killer whale.

Narrator: Orcas are only around a third

Of the size of sei whales,

But their brains Are much bigger.

When size is not on your side, Then you have to strategize.

They're like velociraptors In the ocean.

**

They'll target a mother whale With a newborn calf,

And they will separate the child Away from the mother whale.

They're vicious.

Narrator: In pods of up to 40 strong,

Orcas attack larger whales

By taking turns ramming

And biting their chosen victim,

Then they launch from the water Onto their prey,

Blocking their blowhole, Weakening and exhausting them.

They are fantastic hunters.

They basically work like A pack of wolves in the sea.

Narrator: Yet when science journalist

Haley chamberlain Studies the image,

She contests The killer whale theory.

A pod of orcas working together, They can do big things,

But the sheer number of whales That have been stranded here,

That's really unlikely.

**

Narrator: Investigators examine cases

Of other weird whale mass deaths

And discover a common factor --

War games.

There's no doubt that Military operations

Can and do cause some strains.

Narrator: nelson reveals that In july of 2011,

British naval planes engaging In bombing practice

Over a small island In cape wrath, scotland,

Miss their targets.

Three wayward 1,000-pound bombs

Splash down in the middle Of the ocean

And detonate on the seafloor.

[ wailing ]

You can only imagine What effect an explosion

Like that would have On an animal like a whale.

Super sensitive, It's using sonar to listen

And hear its environment.

It'd be like getting hit In the head with a baseball bat.

[ wailing ]

Narrator: Deafened and confused,

39 pilot whales beach Themselves on the shore.

The event has eerie parallels With the one in patagonia.

**

We know along the southern Coast of chile,

It's a great place to hide.

Potentially covert operations Could happen down there

Without anybody knowing.

With all of these whales That have been found dead

On this beach, It's quite possible

That it could be the result Of underwater military testing.

Narrator: when biologists reach The isolated coves

To study the whales up close,

They find no evidence Of the internal damage

Associated With military testing.

**

But stomach Samples yield a clue,

The presence of microorganisms Known to cause

A toxic algal bloom Called red tide.

Toxic blooms take place when The conditions in the ocean

Are just right to allow Particular species

Of algae To start proliferating.

Narrator: red tides Typically form in summer,

Fueled by the sunlight They need to create energy.

The problem is these algae Produce toxins that can kill.

**

Narrator: when shellfish feed On the algae,

They accumulate deadly Neurotoxins in their tissues,

And a toxic time bomb Enters the food chain.

The result is something called Paralytic shellfish poisoning.

**

Narrator: a single shellfish Contaminated by red tide

Can be fatal to humans Within two hours.

Sei whales can consume Around 2,000 pounds

Of these aquatic Invertebrates every day.

Investigators have found Their giant-killer.

Scientists call it Cumulative toxicity.

It means that if you ingest Enough of something toxic,

At a certain point, It will kill you.

Even something as big as a whale Can eat enough

Where eventually it will die.

Narrator: in 2010,

Excavations unearth The remains of 40 whales killed

By the same toxin on The chilean coast

Nine million years ago.

The red tide, it appears,

Is a serial killer Throughout history.

What worries me is that red tide Is not an isolated event.

These mass deaths are going To keep happening.

**

Narrator: coming up, a visitor From another galaxy.

It's a really odd shape.

It's long and thin kind of Like a cigar.

What is this?

**

**

Narrator: april 21, 2010 --

400 miles Above the south atlantic ocean,

The geoeye-1 detects An unexplained object

In the middle of A vast field of snow.

There's something out of place Right in the middle there

That doesn't look Like it belongs.

It's long and thin. It's a really odd shape.

Man, this is so confusing. What is this?

Narrator: for rob nelson, The object's shape

And remote location Offers a clue.

Anybody That's watched the movies

Has seen nuclear-powered Submarines

Popping up in the ice.

It very well could be A submarine

That we're looking at here.

Narrator: according to Intelligence reports,

Seven nations operate around 45 of these subsea assassins.

**

Sea ice is a great place To hide a submarine.

No one can see you from above,

And they certainly can't attack You through the ice.

Occasionally, They need to come to the surface

To launch a missile Or to communicate,

And they can Break through the ice sheet

Using their immense size And power.

Narrator: submarines can punch Through 10 feet of ice

But doing so while Carrying nuclear material

Takes enormous skill And bravery.

You have to basically control

A billion-dollar Nuclear-powered machine

[ speaks indistinctly ] One-six-zero feet.

...And crash it through several Feet of thick, solid ice.

If something is gonna go wrong,

It would go very, very wrong.

Narrator: A single miscalculation

Could mean instant death.

These particular subs use

A whole combination Of high-tech instruments

To find weak points in the ice.

When it's time to surface,

They discharge The ballast tanks,

Giving the vessel Greater buoyancy

And smashing through the ice.

**

Man: whoo-hoo!

Narrator: yet when investigator Jason major examines the image,

He notices something Isn't right.

Submarines don't actively Cut a path across ice.

Whatever this is has A trail behind it,

So it can't possibly be a sub.

This looks to be like Some sort of large object

Has skidded to a halt.

Narrator: this leads the space Journalist to consider

If the object has another Otherworldly origin.

If it didn't come from below, Did it come from above?

**

Narrator: Major reveals that in 2017,

Astronomers detect A similarly shaped object

Traveling through space At 54 miles per second.

The object that astronomers Discovered was named 'oumuamua,

And it's kind of shaped Like a large missile.

Narrator: all celestial objects In our solar system

Are gravitationally-bound By the sun,

Yet the mystery object is not.

This can mean only one thing.

It has journeyed From another galaxy,

The first time such an object Has been detected.

This object is so unusual That some researchers thought

That it was important enough To aim radio telescopes at it

To see if they could pick up Any kind of radio transmission.

Narrator: as it passes the sun, 'oumuamua speeds up.

Scientists speculate the object Is wrapped in an organic coat

And uses starlight To propel itself through space

Like a kind of solar sail.

This could suggest it's Controlled by intelligent life.

**

Astrophysicists think that If there were

Interstellar visitors,

That maybe they would come in A craft shaped like a cigar.

Narrator: before investigators Can complete their analysis,

The intergalactic Object vanishes.

The satellite image suggests That 'oumuamua was not alone.

Could our mysterious ice object Be some smaller space visitor

That's traveled perhaps Thousands of light-years

Through space And crash-landed here?

Narrator: Meteorologist randy cerveny

Disagrees and believes a clue

To the mystery lies In the surrounding landscape.

The most plausible explanation Is that this is a chunk of ice

That broke off of an area that Is much higher up in elevation.

It would have been like A toboggan going down a mountain

Until it finally slowed up And stopped.

Narrator: without independent Verification, we may never know

Where the weird Cigar-shaped object came from.

There's no way to be sure Until we actually go there,

And being antarctica, it's A very hard place to get to,

So it might be a mystery Forever.

**