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Space ships over Los Angeles.

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Body snatchers controlling our minds.

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ETs making contact.

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These and other alien based scenarios have been the plot

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lines of countless science fiction movies and television

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shows.

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But what if extraterrestrial beings came to Earth

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tomorrow?

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Would they signal the birth of a new age of peace and

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prosperity or trigger a war of the worlds?

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The day that it's announced we're not alone is the day that

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this planet changes forever.

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The very structures of government and the very

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structures of religion will crumble.

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Everybody wants to meet an alien.

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But we have to start small.

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We have to learn how to walk before we can run.

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Millions of people around the world believe we have been

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visited in the past by extraterrestrial beings.

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What if it were true?

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Did ancient aliens really help to shape our history?

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And if so, what might happen when they return?

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MUSIC

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Throughout human history, man has gazed up at the stars in awe and with wonder.

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Our ancient ancestors charted their movements, identified constellations, and marked time

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by creating celestial-based calendars.

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The stars also became the source of countless myths and legends.

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Many of these describe visitors coming down to Earth from somewhere out there.

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Others speak of entire civilizations existing out in the cosmos.

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The ancient Sanskrit writings of India tell us, for example, there are 400,000 human-like

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species scattered throughout the cosmos in different planets, different solar systems,

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even different dimensions.

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But where are these alien beings?

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Did they come to Earth in the past, as the ancient astronaut theory suggests, and then

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leave?

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If so, will they ever come back?

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Today, scientists around the world have stopped waiting around and are taking steps to find

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intelligent extraterrestrial life.

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Real technology finally be able to prove what our ancient ancestors believed thousands

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of years ago.

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In 1960, astronomer and physicist Frank Drake set up an unusual telescope in the hills of

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West Virginia.

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The strange device was made from surplus World War II radar equipment.

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But rather than containing a traditional optical lens, it housed a directional radio antenna.

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A few simple calculations showed that radio telescopes have the power to transmit and

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receive across literally interstellar distances.

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We're talking many light-years.

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So Frank Drake turned a radio telescope on a couple of nearby stars and tuned in to see

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if he could pick up a message from the aliens.

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So this was a sort of crazy thing to do.

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Frank failed to pick up any sounds that day, but the science of radio astronomy was born.

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If we couldn't see aliens in space, maybe we could hear them.

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The things we focused on in the past for searching for extraterrestrial life is really passively

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trying to discover signals on the basis that if they were technologically advanced, they

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would have some form of electricity like we do, and all electricity generates radiation

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and sends out the signals and hopefully we detect it.

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In 1961, Frank Drake and a group of astronomers, physicists and biologists formed a privately

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funded organization called SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

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Their goal was to focus massive radio telescopes towards space and listen.

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Drake estimated the probability that intelligent life existed out in the universe in a formula

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that became known as the Drake equation.

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The Drake equation is like a bridge between scientists and non-scientists because it explains

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what you would want to know to give a number about how common alien life could be.

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There are multiple factors within the Drake equation, like the fraction of stars that

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could have planets and the fraction of those planets that could be habitable and the fraction

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of those that might have the good water and how many could have evolved intelligent life.

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And then one important factor is the lifetime of those civilizations and that is a big unknown.

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We only know of one, that's ourselves, and how long are we going to be around?

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That's to be determined.

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Using his equation, Drake estimated that over 100 million advanced civilizations could exist

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in just the Milky Way galaxy.

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He pretty presupposes that if you've got an alien civilization capable of traveling that's

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developed electronics, they have a fingerprint.

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That fingerprint is a repetitive signal.

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A repetitive signal will tell them that it's not just noise, junk frequencies out there,

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but a real attempt at communicating, maybe not with us, but with each other.

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On August 15, 1977, astronomer Dr. Jerry Eamon was working on a SETI project at Ohio State

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University when he recorded an intermittent signal coming from the direction of the constellation

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Sagittarius.

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The signal lasted 72 seconds before being lost.

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Eamon believed that it was of extraterrestrial origin, but despite repeated searches and

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increasingly larger telescopes, the signal has never again been detected.

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But what if SETI intercepts a transmission from another world?

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What would happen next?

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According to SETI's post-detection protocols, once an extraterrestrial radio signal is

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confirmed, news of the event should be kept secret until the authorities have been notified.

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The government will then decide whether or not to try and make contact.

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I think all bets are off because here is this message.

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It could contain enormously important information that would transform our society and maybe

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destabilize it.

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What is it going to mean for the future of our civilization?

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These are momentous questions.

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Today, SETI continues to scan the vicinity of nearby stars for artificially produced signals

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using several of the world's largest telescopes.

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In the next several years, when it becomes fully operational, SETI's new Allen telescope

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array will allow for the reconnaissance of up to a million stars.

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SETI has to search a huge, huge area.

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They'll tell you that now they have searched the equivalent of like a glass of water compared

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to the entire ocean on Earth.

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They have a long way to go.

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While SETI listens passively to signals from outer space, NASA has attempted to contact

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alien life directly through messages sent aboard its space probes.

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It's a long shot, but there's no reason in my mind not to expect that life evolved elsewhere.

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What's harder to predict or try and understand is how likely is it that it happened close

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enough that there'd be someone we could actually communicate with.

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In 1972, NASA agreed to attach small plaques onto the outside of its twin pioneer space

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probes, the first human-built objects destined to leave our solar system.

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NASA contacted Cornell University professor Dr. Carl Sagan to craft the message.

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Carl Sagan was one of the most active astronomers in the search for life outside our planet.

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He was a very prominent scientist, he was an excellent astronomer, and he really did

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a lot to help us understand how we might contact other life or detect life elsewhere in the

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universe.

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Sagan, along with SETI founder Frank Drake, designed a gold-anodized aluminum plaque measuring

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roughly 6 by 9 inches that contained a collection of symbolic images representing humans and

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Earth.

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The man and the woman were nude, and the gentleman was holding one arm up like this,

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and what was intended to be a sign of greeting.

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A schematic design of the solar system was also shown, with the planned trajectory of

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the pioneer spacecraft marked on it.

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And a diagram of 14 pulsar stars around the sun made a chart that might help someone work

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out where the craft originated.

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We tried to give them an idea of where we're located, and that's an interesting problem

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is to figure out how you would tell someone where you're located in space, because you

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don't know where they're going to find it.

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And it was all in a very stylistic design, but an attempt to hopefully communicate at

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least some of these ideas.

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Five years later, in 1977, Dr. Sagan got a second chance at designing an interstellar

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message when NASA agreed to attach another one to the Voyager space probes.

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This time, Sagan created a record album made of gold-plated copper, along with a series

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of basic instructions in how to make it work.

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Sagan estimated that the metallic disk could survive in space for at least a billion years.

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One of the challenges with technology is trying to figure out one that can do what you want.

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So here you want to encode audio and even some video images, but do it in a way that

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almost any other technologically advanced society could figure out.

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And the advantage of a record player is it's both mechanical and electrical.

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The grooves are obvious, and so they actually put on the cover instructions on how to play

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it.

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The recording included a wide variety of sounds.

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A baby's cry.

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Wind.

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Surf.

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And rain.

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Animal noises.

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As well as classical and cultural music from around the world.

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One interesting song selection was Chuck Berry's rock and roll hit, Johnny Be Good.

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Music is a good choice because almost anything vibrates and makes sound, so I would have

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bet that almost any culture would develop music.

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I believe it's Bach who gets the most time on the record.

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I don't know why they picked that, to be honest, but he is one of the more mathematical composers

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and that may have been one of the reasons because math is a more universal language.

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Sagan also included a wide array of photographs of well-known man-made structures and greetings

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in 55 different languages.

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I think the most important one is the Sumerian language.

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Now why would they include Sumerian on that record?

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Well, according to the ancient alien theory, ancient Sumeria is the first place where we

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made contact with an extraterrestrial entity.

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At this point, we obviously haven't learned anything yet about extraterrestrial life because

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we haven't been contacted back, but I think for our own purposes, anytime you try and

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go and figure out how you want to communicate something, it pushes your boundaries and understanding

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of communication itself.

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We all want to find aliens, whether it's the planetary scientists looking for signs of

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life on another distant planet, whether it's the ancient alien proponents who want to find

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signs of life of aliens who have visited in the past, and whether it's people today who

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want to have experiences with UFOs and aliens that have visited them recently.

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While the search for extraterrestrial beings continues, a new space-based telescope is

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hunting for planets that may contain life.

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Are there other Earths out there?

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And if so, how will we find them?

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On March 6, 2009, NASA launched a Delta II rocket into space.

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On board was a new telescope, named in honor of German astronomer Johann Kepler.

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The space-based telescope was designed specifically to discover the existence of Earth-like planets

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located outside our own solar system.

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The Kepler search is focused on a specific section of the Milky Way, known as Orion's

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Spur.

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Kepler's job is to answer the question, how common are other Earths?

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And to do this, Kepler is looking at one part of the sky for three and a half years.

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Imagine like keeping your eyes open and staring at just one part of the sky.

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And what they're doing is they're looking at stars, and then as a planet goes around

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that star, when the planet gets in front of the star, the starlight dims just a little

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bit from our vantage point because it's being blocked by the planet.

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And so you look for that dimming of those stars, and then that's how you're able to

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detect these planets.

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So far, the Kepler telescope has confirmed the existence of five planets outside our

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own solar system.

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Other officials expect to find several hundred more exoplanets like these before their mission

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is completed.

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Once a planet has been located, scientists must then determine if it might contain water.

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We know from Earth that all life on Earth requires liquid water.

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So that is the approach that we've been taking for looking for life elsewhere in the universe,

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follow the water.

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And so that is the step one.

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On Earth, wherever we find liquid water, we find life, and it's true.

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Life on Earth can exist under an extraordinary range of conditions.

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Some organisms that live in the scalding effluent coming out of the Earth's crust deep beneath

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the ocean, there are other remarkable organisms living in the waste pools of nuclear reactors

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and extreme radiation environments and so on.

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But the one thing that seems to be absolutely necessary for life as we know it is liquid

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water.

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To determine if a planet contains water and possibly life, scientists use special telescopes

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to analyze its atmosphere.

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We look at the light coming from the planet and we split that light up like a rainbow.

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Now if you look at a rainbow in the sky and you look really, really carefully, you will

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see some dark lines.

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You'll see some colors missing from the rainbow.

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And those colors are missing because of absorption by gases in Earth's atmosphere.

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So effectively, we're getting a rainbow from another planet and we're looking for dark

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lines that tell us what kind of gases are in the atmosphere.

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To better understand how life affects its atmosphere, NASA scientists study microbial

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mats at California's Moss Landing Wildlife Area.

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Microbial mats are important to NASA for a whole bunch of reasons.

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The organisms that are in microbial mats have been on Earth just about longer than any other

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kind of organism.

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They make a number of things which we call biomarkers, which are important in our search

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for life on other planets.

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So there are textural biomarkers, so when you pull up a piece of microbial mat and look

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at the surface, what does that look like?

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One of the things that we're doing with these microbial mats is we're measuring the fluxes

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of methane.

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Methane is a gas that's produced by certain kinds of organisms that use the organic matter

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that's in these mats.

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And when that methane goes into our atmosphere, it can be detected by other missions, such

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as terrestrial planet finders is one of NASA's concept missions for looking for gases that

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are produced by life on exoplanets.

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We can look for the signature of oxygen or water on a planet, and at least that would

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give us an idea of life forms like ourselves, the ones that are carbon based and use oxygen

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and carbon dioxide cycles.

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Our atmosphere is not stable without living organisms.

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It would have evaporated away by now.

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And so if you're looking out in space and you detect around a star a signature of the

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chemicals that we know exist for life, that's very strong evidence that life is there.

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Now it doesn't help you know if it's intelligent life, but it does give you an evidence for

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life.

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With a universe literally full of possibilities, planet hunters focus their surge on an area

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they call a Goldilocks zone.

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The Goldilocks zone for planets is the place where a planet is not too hot, not too cold,

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just the right temperature for life.

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Right now we know of no planets like Earth in a Goldilocks zone.

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One planet comes close is called Glees 581D, but we're not entirely sure if that planet

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is really in the Goldilocks zone or not.

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In recent years it's been recognized that there's more than one Goldilocks zone.

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For example there could be life inside icy planetesimals, these are like small planets

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or large moons.

243
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Moon of Jupiter, Europa is a very good example.

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Europa is liquid beneath an ice cap.

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It's liquid underneath because of tidal heating and friction going on inside the planet, so

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it could be that there is life microbial probably only deep down under the ice on Europa.

247
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It's a very challenging question if there's life elsewhere in our solar system.

248
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You have so many components that have to come together, we have to have an understanding

249
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of the science, we have to ask the right questions.

250
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I wish I had a try quarter that I could just go and like point and would say life or no

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life, right, but we don't have that.

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So we have to be smart and we have to be clever and we have to develop instruments that can

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actually address the questions we're trying to answer.

254
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It's inevitable.

255
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There's so many planets out there, it's inevitable that we'll find one in the Goldilocks zone

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any day.

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00:20:15,800 --> 00:20:22,800
But while the Kepler telescope has only just begun scanning the horizon, NASA is already

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planning the next step in its search for extraterrestrial life, the 2014 launch of the James Webb

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Space Telescope.

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People always ask me, do you expect to find an Earth in your lifetime?

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And I say yes, absolutely.

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When I was a student, there was almost nobody prepared to argue that way.

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The feeling back in the 60s and 70s was that even if there were other Earth-like planets,

264
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life is such an improbable freak event that it would never ever happen anywhere else.

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Now the prevailing view is, yes, the universe is teeming with life.

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We want to meet an alien, but we have to start small.

267
00:21:06,920 --> 00:21:10,080
We have to learn how to walk before we can run.

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The fascinating thing for me is that we're only four and a half billion years old.

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In a universe that's close to 14 billion years old, what would happen with some of these

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Earth-like planets that had a five or ten billion year head start on us?

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Gosh, you can only imagine.

272
00:21:29,800 --> 00:21:35,800
What if humans are not the only intelligent creatures searching for life in the universe?

273
00:21:35,800 --> 00:21:40,520
What if there are beings on other planets conducting a search of their own?

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And what if, in their search, they find us before we find them?

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Some believe they already have.

276
00:21:52,160 --> 00:22:00,280
On October 30th, 1938, radio listeners across the United States sat stunned as a series

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of news bulletins described Martians invading Earth.

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00:22:11,720 --> 00:22:18,040
While the broadcast sounded real, it was a fictional production, directed and narrated

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00:22:18,040 --> 00:22:19,960
by Orson Welles.

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00:22:19,960 --> 00:22:28,280
Incredibly, many of those listening believed it to be true and panicked.

281
00:22:28,280 --> 00:22:33,320
Newspaper reports described families fleeing their homes for the mountains, while others

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00:22:33,320 --> 00:22:39,640
armed themselves with weapons and prepared to fight off the alien invaders.

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00:22:39,640 --> 00:22:45,480
If it was just presented maybe with a brief introduction saying it was not really happening,

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from then on it was played as if it was really happening, well most people who heard that

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thought that it was really happening.

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People became upset.

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Some of those literally headed for the hills.

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They drove places to try to pick up other people, family and friends.

289
00:23:03,880 --> 00:23:06,520
They reported to the Armory for duty.

290
00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:12,480
The response to this fictional alien attack resulted in many people preparing for the

291
00:23:12,480 --> 00:23:13,800
worst.

292
00:23:13,800 --> 00:23:21,160
But if the public's reaction to a radio dramatization resulted in a nationwide wave of terror, what

293
00:23:21,160 --> 00:23:27,520
would happen if they really came?

294
00:23:27,520 --> 00:23:31,960
Los Angeles, California.

295
00:23:31,960 --> 00:23:38,920
In the early months of 1942, the city was on edge.

296
00:23:38,920 --> 00:23:46,000
The recent surprise attack on Pearl Harbor had propelled America into World War II.

297
00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:55,840
And the threat of a Japanese invasion, by sea or by air, kept the military on full alert.

298
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Pearl Harbor was a very recent memory for people.

299
00:23:59,800 --> 00:24:01,520
People were in high alert.

300
00:24:01,520 --> 00:24:04,280
There was a great deal of suspicion.

301
00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:07,520
Japanese Americans were being put in internment camps.

302
00:24:07,520 --> 00:24:13,440
There were German U-boats in the Atlantic, Japanese submarines in the Pacific, and people

303
00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:19,880
were very fearful.

304
00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:25,960
In a well-organized defense operation, Air Raid Wardens and the Coast Guard were monitoring

305
00:24:25,960 --> 00:24:31,240
the Pacific shoreline as never before.

306
00:24:31,240 --> 00:24:33,420
The war had started.

307
00:24:33,420 --> 00:24:37,240
I was a 13-year-old kid.

308
00:24:37,240 --> 00:24:46,840
And this one night, which was February 1942, the sirens started wailing in the middle of

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00:24:46,840 --> 00:24:49,240
the night.

310
00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:50,240
Blackout.

311
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:57,280
And we'd had several blackouts before this.

312
00:24:57,280 --> 00:25:05,400
On February 25, between the hours of 3.12 and 4.15 a.m., the 37th Coast Artillery Brigade

313
00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:12,600
in Los Angeles fired off a barrage of anti-aircraft shells at an unidentified flying object.

314
00:25:12,600 --> 00:25:20,160
Watchers on the roof top of the Columbia Broadcasting Building in the heart of Hollywood could plainly

315
00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:25,680
see the flashes of guns and searchlights sweeping the skies in a white arc along the coastal

316
00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:27,920
area.

317
00:25:27,920 --> 00:25:34,720
I think what woke me up initially was the sound of anti-aircraft guns.

318
00:25:34,720 --> 00:25:38,120
I jumped out of bed and my parents were up.

319
00:25:38,120 --> 00:25:41,360
My father was an Air Raid Warden.

320
00:25:41,360 --> 00:25:47,080
He figured this has to be the real thing.

321
00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:51,320
My mother was telling my brother and I, get under the bed, get under the bed, stay there.

322
00:25:51,320 --> 00:25:54,440
And of course we got out and we peaked.

323
00:25:54,440 --> 00:25:57,120
It was all this firing.

324
00:25:57,120 --> 00:26:01,960
It was almost like a fourth of July.

325
00:26:01,960 --> 00:26:05,920
I started hearing a lot of loud explosions.

326
00:26:05,920 --> 00:26:16,600
My brother and I looked out the bedroom window, saw searchlights, twisted and turned in the

327
00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:21,800
room.

328
00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:27,600
But what was the strange UFO that the searchlights were focused on?

329
00:26:27,600 --> 00:26:29,720
Where had it come from?

330
00:26:29,720 --> 00:26:35,440
Japan or somewhere from out of this world?

331
00:26:35,440 --> 00:26:40,920
Could this incredible photograph, published the next morning in the Los Angeles Times,

332
00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:42,560
provide the proof?

333
00:26:42,560 --> 00:26:47,440
But ancient astronaut theorists have been right all along.

334
00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:51,760
It was practically overhead and I mean overhead.

335
00:26:51,760 --> 00:26:57,920
Retired anthropology professor C. Scott Littleton was nine years old and growing up in Hermosa

336
00:26:57,920 --> 00:27:04,400
Beach when he spotted the strange object hovering right over his house.

337
00:27:04,400 --> 00:27:09,720
We saw what my mother always called a silver bug.

338
00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:15,000
I'd characterize it today as a lozenge, a long oval.

339
00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:18,160
It was something I'll never ever forget.

340
00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:24,520
It was caught in searchlight beams and any aircraft shells were exploding all around

341
00:27:24,520 --> 00:27:29,200
it.

342
00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:38,000
It gradually went like this and then began to lose altitude a little bit as it moved

343
00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:43,440
over what had to have been Redondo Beach.

344
00:27:43,440 --> 00:27:49,120
We lost track of it but the banging continued.

345
00:27:49,120 --> 00:27:56,240
Very quickly afterward I saw, we all saw, a flight of planes following the track of

346
00:27:56,240 --> 00:28:02,920
the object going overhead anywhere from three to five interceptors, clearly piston driven

347
00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:04,880
U.S. planes.

348
00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:10,840
No one has ever admitted that those planes were in the sky.

349
00:28:10,840 --> 00:28:15,160
Our first thought immediately was a Japanese observation plane.

350
00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:22,720
Later, the Japanese records definitively proved there were no Japanese planes over Southern

351
00:28:22,720 --> 00:28:27,120
California, that night or indeed ever.

352
00:28:27,120 --> 00:28:33,880
After ruling out the possibility that a Japanese plane had invaded American airspace, Secretary

353
00:28:33,880 --> 00:28:41,640
of the Navy Frank Knox attributed the incident to war nerves.

354
00:28:41,640 --> 00:28:48,240
But Secretary of War Henry Stimson quickly refuted this explanation, defensively declaring

355
00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:53,800
that an actual aircraft had been the target of the assault.

356
00:28:53,800 --> 00:29:00,080
To this day, no one seems to know just what or who was hovering over Los Angeles that

357
00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:06,720
night.

358
00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:11,400
Some claimed that the Los Angeles air raid was nothing more than an elaborate training

359
00:29:11,400 --> 00:29:17,800
exercise, a show put on by the military to keep citizens on the ready in case of a real

360
00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:19,800
attack.

361
00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:26,120
Others alleged that the unidentified flying object was, in fact, a barrage balloon that

362
00:29:26,120 --> 00:29:28,840
had broken loose from its tether.

363
00:29:28,840 --> 00:29:35,960
But even that explanation doesn't seem credible to those who witnessed the actual event.

364
00:29:35,960 --> 00:29:40,840
One place where there were barrage balloons that were anchored above the aircraft plants

365
00:29:40,840 --> 00:29:47,040
in El Segundo, Douglas, North American, it would have to have slipped its tether, floated

366
00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:51,240
north up to the Santa Monica Mountains and then back down this way.

367
00:29:51,240 --> 00:29:55,320
Barrage balloons don't maneuver like that.

368
00:29:55,320 --> 00:30:00,280
Regardless of the controversy, one fact is undisputed.

369
00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:07,240
An estimated 14,000 shells were fired at the strange object, and shrapnel rained from the

370
00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:11,520
sky for over an hour.

371
00:30:11,520 --> 00:30:14,680
But what were the guns aimed at?

372
00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:20,800
Could the Army really have put civilian lives in danger for a drill?

373
00:30:20,800 --> 00:30:22,120
Major panic.

374
00:30:22,120 --> 00:30:27,360
Six people got killed due to car accidents and hit by a falling shrapnel.

375
00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:33,200
A friend of mine said he witnessed a piece of shrapnel go through his neighbor's garage

376
00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:34,200
roof.

377
00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:39,520
So, oh yeah, there were some damage from falling shrapnel.

378
00:30:39,520 --> 00:30:44,200
The next morning, there was something in our backyard my mother told me to go roll up.

379
00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:46,560
It was like a tarp or something.

380
00:30:46,560 --> 00:30:52,480
And when I bent down or kneeled down in the grass, I cut my knee and I have my piece of

381
00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:53,480
shrapnel.

382
00:30:53,480 --> 00:30:56,280
I've kept it all these years.

383
00:30:56,280 --> 00:30:57,280
Here's my shrapnel.

384
00:30:57,280 --> 00:31:03,080
And it's very sharp.

385
00:31:03,080 --> 00:31:10,840
By a process of elimination, the most efficient, and I say this as a scholar, the most efficient

386
00:31:10,840 --> 00:31:18,120
explanation is that it was what we would call today a UFO.

387
00:31:18,120 --> 00:31:23,280
Something not of this world, something that belonged to another technology.

388
00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:30,000
If that's true, then this event was one of the largest mass UFO sightings in history.

389
00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:35,840
Over a million people saw it.

390
00:31:35,840 --> 00:31:41,760
But whether it was a UFO or not, the memories remain vivid for those who saw something in

391
00:31:41,760 --> 00:31:44,160
the sky that night.

392
00:31:44,160 --> 00:31:50,640
So vivid, in fact, that many of them gather each year at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro,

393
00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:55,920
California, to reenact this mysterious event.

394
00:31:55,920 --> 00:31:58,080
The city went crazy.

395
00:31:58,080 --> 00:32:02,000
They thought it was, we were being attacked by Japanese planes.

396
00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:06,880
Some theories said weather balloon, others said, you know, oh, I saw a plane, I know

397
00:32:06,880 --> 00:32:09,960
I saw a plane, and others say no, no such plane.

398
00:32:09,960 --> 00:32:11,600
Back then it was a scary thing.

399
00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:14,160
I think to this day they don't know what they were firing at.

400
00:32:14,160 --> 00:32:18,960
If it was a weather balloon or flying saucers.

401
00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:26,840
But for those who believe they saw an alien craft that night, one important question remains.

402
00:32:26,840 --> 00:32:30,760
What happened to it?

403
00:32:30,760 --> 00:32:39,120
The rumor is that it finally crashed in the water and was recovered by Navy divers.

404
00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:42,920
So maybe it was wounded and it crashed.

405
00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:51,720
And this might explain why the military was so quick to react to Roswell five years later,

406
00:32:51,720 --> 00:32:58,920
because they may already have had at least some inkling of what they would find there.

407
00:32:58,920 --> 00:33:07,520
Space Earth really visited by an alien spacecraft on the morning of February 25, 1942.

408
00:33:07,520 --> 00:33:14,800
And could the global threats posed by World War II have provided a trigger?

409
00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:19,840
Perhaps the idea is not as far fetched as some would think.

410
00:33:19,840 --> 00:33:26,560
Is it possible that alien spacecraft could have been mistaken for enemy fighter planes

411
00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:32,000
in Adolf Hitler's Germany?

412
00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:40,840
In his 1993 book, The Gods of Eden, author William Bramley theorized that extraterrestrials

413
00:33:40,840 --> 00:33:47,760
played a part in nearly every catastrophe in human history and have even used war as

414
00:33:47,760 --> 00:33:54,680
a means to control the growth of the human population.

415
00:33:54,800 --> 00:34:02,680
And while many are skeptical about Bramley's claims, there is one thing on which they agree.

416
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:08,840
That the number of reported UFO sightings always increases during wartime.

417
00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:17,160
In times of war, when vast civilizations are in conflict and in conflict so terrible that

418
00:34:17,160 --> 00:34:22,840
it seems as though the civilizations will wipe themselves out, suddenly out of nowhere,

419
00:34:23,320 --> 00:34:25,920
UFOs appear.

420
00:34:25,920 --> 00:34:32,880
While skeptics and military historians attribute these alleged sightings to war nerves or stress,

421
00:34:32,880 --> 00:34:41,280
those who believe in UFOs find the number of instances hard to dismiss.

422
00:34:41,280 --> 00:34:49,240
When World War II broke out in September of 1939, there were numerous reports of unidentified

423
00:34:49,240 --> 00:34:54,440
flying objects spotted over Hitler's Germany.

424
00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:59,880
Although the term UFO had not yet been coined, the Allies believed the bogies, as they were

425
00:34:59,880 --> 00:35:05,720
then known, were new fighter planes being developed by the Nazis.

426
00:35:05,720 --> 00:35:14,400
But the first combat bomber jets, the German Messerschmitt ME-262, weren't deployed by

427
00:35:14,400 --> 00:35:20,160
the German Air Force until 1943.

428
00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:26,800
It certainly doesn't escape notice just how advanced the Nazi propulsion systems and their

429
00:35:26,800 --> 00:35:30,040
aeronautics technology really was.

430
00:35:30,040 --> 00:35:36,120
They had the first operational jet fighter to see combat.

431
00:35:36,120 --> 00:35:42,800
They were building and test flying aircraft that look incredibly similar to UFOs that

432
00:35:42,800 --> 00:35:46,680
are reported even today.

433
00:35:46,680 --> 00:35:49,960
They had greatly advanced rocket technology.

434
00:35:49,960 --> 00:36:00,760
There have long been rumors about Nazi projects to build aircraft using UFO technology.

435
00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:07,400
At the end of the 19th century, there was Aliezer Crowley, H.G. Wells, Brahms Stoker

436
00:36:07,400 --> 00:36:12,440
who wrote Dracula, and Jules Verne who wrote From Earth to the Moon.

437
00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:15,600
They were in a society called the Golden Dawn.

438
00:36:15,600 --> 00:36:23,440
In that society, they actually believed in the existence not only of UFOs but extraterrestrials.

439
00:36:23,440 --> 00:36:31,640
That culture influenced Hitler in the late 1920s early into the 1930s.

440
00:36:31,640 --> 00:36:37,880
In looking for the origins of the Aryan race, they went all the way to India and the Vedic

441
00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:41,200
texts which talk about UFOs.

442
00:36:41,200 --> 00:36:48,400
So Hitler in his own way was a UFO believer and sought to develop his own version of the

443
00:36:48,400 --> 00:36:55,080
UFO based on the Vedic text to have a dramatic Wundavava, a wonder weapon that would end

444
00:36:55,080 --> 00:36:57,920
the war.

445
00:36:57,920 --> 00:37:04,440
Although the Nazis never developed this so-called wonder weapon, reports of strange flying machines

446
00:37:04,440 --> 00:37:08,960
in German airspace continued throughout the war.

447
00:37:08,960 --> 00:37:13,840
But just what was it that the Allied pilots were reporting?

448
00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:23,520
In the 1940s, as waves of American bombers were literally obliterating German cities,

449
00:37:23,520 --> 00:37:32,880
Dresden, Hamburg, Berlin, in these raids, American fighter pilots saw these balls of

450
00:37:32,880 --> 00:37:35,200
light coming at their planes.

451
00:37:35,200 --> 00:37:40,280
They didn't know what they were, they thought they were German secret weapons at first,

452
00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:43,640
so they called them Foo Fighters.

453
00:37:43,640 --> 00:37:49,200
The word fit in French is fire and these were balls of fire coming out.

454
00:37:49,200 --> 00:37:53,400
So instead of fear fighters, they were Foo Fighters.

455
00:37:53,400 --> 00:37:58,200
They were seen in large numbers over Germany and over Western Europe where they were described

456
00:37:58,200 --> 00:38:02,760
variously as structured craft or simply balls of light.

457
00:38:02,760 --> 00:38:09,000
It was so important at the time that the military began to notice it and they began to investigate

458
00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:10,000
these things.

459
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:12,320
There are hundreds of cases.

460
00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:18,000
None seemed to be very harmful to planes, but they were all over the place.

461
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:23,800
Curiously, when the Foo Fighters appeared, Allied aircraft would sometimes experience

462
00:38:23,800 --> 00:38:26,240
mechanical failure.

463
00:38:26,240 --> 00:38:31,600
And perhaps most mystifying of all was that some pilots reported flying right through

464
00:38:31,720 --> 00:38:40,240
the UFOs as if they had no mass.

465
00:38:40,240 --> 00:38:46,440
It was never discovered what the Foo Fighters were or where they came from, but the theory

466
00:38:46,440 --> 00:38:51,960
that they were some sort of German secret weapon was widely accepted among Allied pilots at

467
00:38:51,960 --> 00:38:53,920
the time.

468
00:38:53,920 --> 00:39:00,920
But could the Third Reich have possessed technology more advanced than even our most modern aircraft?

469
00:39:00,920 --> 00:39:05,600
Some believe what the Nazis had developed was an advanced mechanism that scientists

470
00:39:05,600 --> 00:39:13,100
are still working on today, mercury-powered anti-gravity technology.

471
00:39:13,100 --> 00:39:21,360
This involves mercury being in a closed system, like a glass ball.

472
00:39:21,360 --> 00:39:28,520
Once that mercury becomes spinning in a gyroscopic manner within a closed system, that creates

473
00:39:28,520 --> 00:39:30,000
a lift.

474
00:39:30,000 --> 00:39:34,760
The electrified lift is also a very bright light.

475
00:39:34,760 --> 00:39:39,240
And in fact, many UFOs are described as exactly that.

476
00:39:39,240 --> 00:39:47,240
Towards the end of World War II, the Germans started producing massive amounts of mercury.

477
00:39:47,240 --> 00:39:52,480
And in fact, a number of the U-boats that were later sunk, one was sunk near Singapore,

478
00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:58,160
another in Norway, only a few years ago, they actually found it, and its entire cargo was

479
00:39:58,160 --> 00:39:59,520
mercury.

480
00:39:59,680 --> 00:40:04,080
The few historians have actually written about Foo Fighters, which is still apparently a

481
00:40:04,080 --> 00:40:11,720
secret today, is that they were a kind of mercury plasma ball, and the purpose of the

482
00:40:11,720 --> 00:40:23,120
Foo Fighters was to make a highly pulsed magnetic charge and field around the bombers, which

483
00:40:23,120 --> 00:40:32,280
would then cut out the engines and interfere with the electrical systems in the planes.

484
00:40:32,280 --> 00:40:37,800
Could Foo Fighters really have been based on extraterrestrial technology?

485
00:40:37,800 --> 00:40:42,040
If so, where did the Germans get it?

486
00:40:42,040 --> 00:40:48,920
UFO theorists point to the discovery of a flying saucer that allegedly crashed in the

487
00:40:48,920 --> 00:40:54,280
Black Forest near Freberg, Germany in 1936.

488
00:40:54,280 --> 00:41:01,840
Some believe German scientists repaired the craft to test its energy and propulsion systems,

489
00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:07,240
and through reverse engineering were able to replicate some of these so-called alien

490
00:41:07,240 --> 00:41:08,240
technologies.

491
00:41:08,240 --> 00:41:10,560
Did the Nazis take this craft?

492
00:41:10,560 --> 00:41:13,880
And was there some sort of a pact that happened there?

493
00:41:13,880 --> 00:41:17,680
Did the Nazis, did they retrieve bodies?

494
00:41:17,680 --> 00:41:20,240
It's hard to pin down how much they had.

495
00:41:20,240 --> 00:41:21,740
Was there contact?

496
00:41:21,740 --> 00:41:27,200
There's always been that theory that they had a captured craft and that they were reverse

497
00:41:27,200 --> 00:41:28,320
engineering it.

498
00:41:28,320 --> 00:41:29,800
It's very possible.

499
00:41:29,800 --> 00:41:36,040
They were truly way more advanced than any culture at the time.

500
00:41:36,040 --> 00:41:40,280
Thank God for the American know-how, because we were combating them with our own kind of

501
00:41:40,280 --> 00:41:42,960
knowledge and technology as well.

502
00:41:42,960 --> 00:41:49,640
After World War II, there was an exercise mounted by the Americans called Operation

503
00:41:49,640 --> 00:41:51,840
Paperclip.

504
00:41:51,840 --> 00:41:57,520
The Allies had been confronted with all this amazing technology from Germany.

505
00:41:57,520 --> 00:42:04,960
The jet engines, airplanes, the rocket engine airplanes, all these amazing devices.

506
00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:11,360
To give you an example of some of the material that was collected by Operation Paperclip,

507
00:42:11,360 --> 00:42:18,440
right at the end of the war, Von Braun and his team had begun designing multi-stage rockets

508
00:42:18,440 --> 00:42:22,160
capable of reaching the United States.

509
00:42:22,160 --> 00:42:29,120
They also had plans for a space station, a classic circular sci-fi space station.

510
00:42:29,120 --> 00:42:35,440
And on this, they had a huge sunlight collector and mirror that was designed to focus sunlight

511
00:42:35,440 --> 00:42:38,400
down on the Earth as a kind of death ray.

512
00:42:39,400 --> 00:42:46,800
There were all these wild ideas coming out of that team that turned it into a very valuable

513
00:42:46,800 --> 00:42:49,480
coup for the United States.

514
00:42:49,480 --> 00:43:04,160
Ultimately, it was Von Braun who built the Saturn V rocket that took people to the Moon.

515
00:43:04,160 --> 00:43:10,440
The story of the World War II Foo Fighters, much like that of the Battle of Los Angeles,

516
00:43:10,440 --> 00:43:16,240
has been largely forgotten or dismissed by traditional historians.

517
00:43:16,240 --> 00:43:22,960
But an event that happened just two years after the war at even the skeptics wondering,

518
00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:27,440
what if aliens really did exist?

519
00:43:27,440 --> 00:43:30,840
And could one of their craft have crashed to Earth?

520
00:43:35,160 --> 00:43:43,560
Mainstream archaeologists have long rejected the notion that extraterrestrial beings had

521
00:43:43,560 --> 00:43:49,120
a hand in creating the pyramids of Egypt.

522
00:43:49,120 --> 00:43:54,760
Theologians and religious scholars refute the idea that stories of the Bible or the

523
00:43:54,760 --> 00:44:00,360
Mahabharata could be describing alien encounters.

524
00:44:00,360 --> 00:44:05,720
The governments throughout history have officially denied reports that the Earth has been visited

525
00:44:05,720 --> 00:44:08,800
by flying saucers.

526
00:44:08,800 --> 00:44:15,840
But on July 8, 1947, a UFO sighting was reported that even the United States government had

527
00:44:15,840 --> 00:44:17,480
trouble denying.

528
00:44:17,480 --> 00:44:18,560
Why?

529
00:44:18,560 --> 00:44:25,840
Because this time, the report was issued by the U.S. Army.

530
00:44:25,840 --> 00:44:31,920
I'm walking on the Foster Ranch between Corona and Roswell, New Mexico, not far from what

531
00:44:31,920 --> 00:44:35,360
is called the debris field right over that hill.

532
00:44:35,360 --> 00:44:44,720
And that debris field refers to headlines back in July of 1947 about a disk, one of

533
00:44:44,720 --> 00:44:52,640
those mysterious UFOs actually crashing right out here.

534
00:44:52,640 --> 00:45:02,120
One night in early July, 1947, a major thunderstorm rolled across New Mexico.

535
00:45:02,120 --> 00:45:07,120
The next morning, rancher Mack Brasil went out to check on the damage.

536
00:45:07,120 --> 00:45:10,640
Mack Brasil went out to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be, and he came

537
00:45:10,640 --> 00:45:16,280
across this really extensive area of debris, stuff he had never seen before.

538
00:45:16,280 --> 00:45:19,600
He brought it to the local sheriff's office.

539
00:45:19,600 --> 00:45:25,400
In 1947, Roswell was home to Roswell Army Airfield.

540
00:45:25,400 --> 00:45:27,320
The sheriff called the base.

541
00:45:27,320 --> 00:45:32,400
The base sent Major Jess Marcel, and at that point it basically became a military site

542
00:45:32,400 --> 00:45:35,720
as they gathered up every bit of debris they could find.

543
00:45:35,720 --> 00:45:41,000
In their initial report, Army officials made a vague claim of having started the recovery

544
00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:45,160
of the debris sometime last week.

545
00:45:45,160 --> 00:45:49,400
But why didn't the Army report their findings right away?

546
00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:54,680
And why were they so ambiguous about the timeline?

547
00:45:54,680 --> 00:46:01,560
One of the biggest things we have is the newspaper of July 8, 1947, where Colonel Blanchard issued

548
00:46:01,560 --> 00:46:06,600
an order to Lieutenant Walter Hott, who was a public information officer, saying basically

549
00:46:06,600 --> 00:46:12,120
we have in our possession of flying saucer it's being taken to Fort Worth to hire headquarters.

550
00:46:12,120 --> 00:46:15,360
Roswell was a real turning point for ufology.

551
00:46:15,360 --> 00:46:21,600
I think that was because the military for the first time admitted that they had a crash

552
00:46:21,600 --> 00:46:28,120
disk, and because it was admitted at the time, of course it caused a sensation.

553
00:46:28,120 --> 00:46:36,080
Then July 9, General Ramey issued a press release saying no, it was a weather bling.

554
00:46:36,080 --> 00:46:42,680
And that started the best documented UFO cover up ever.

555
00:46:42,680 --> 00:46:48,360
Army officials referred to the debris as being part of a flying disk.

556
00:46:48,360 --> 00:46:53,280
Internal memos even referenced the crash site as having victims.

557
00:46:53,280 --> 00:46:59,680
So why, less than 24 hours later, did they suddenly decide that what they had retrieved

558
00:46:59,680 --> 00:47:04,200
was nothing more than a weather balloon?

559
00:47:04,200 --> 00:47:09,760
Although Blanchard and Ramey stuck by the revised story, Lieutenant Hott stood by the

560
00:47:09,760 --> 00:47:14,080
contents of his initial report his entire life.

561
00:47:14,080 --> 00:47:20,200
And those who believe him think modern technology may have recently provided the irrefutable

562
00:47:20,200 --> 00:47:24,920
evidence they have been looking for.

563
00:47:24,920 --> 00:47:30,680
When Major Marcel took the debris to Fort Worth, and General Ramey spread it out to give this

564
00:47:30,680 --> 00:47:35,400
press conference that it was a weather balloon, there was a picture taken and in his hand

565
00:47:35,400 --> 00:47:36,920
is a piece of paper.

566
00:47:37,640 --> 00:47:44,040
It's a very little piece of paper, I mean and this has been blown up and it is a memo.

567
00:47:44,040 --> 00:47:49,880
There is a leading researcher in the field who is pulling the words out of this and they

568
00:47:49,880 --> 00:47:58,000
include things like Team at Fort Worth, Forwarded Victims of the Wreck, Pod or Pan.

569
00:47:58,000 --> 00:48:05,760
And so every year that the technology improves, General Ramey may be the one to solve it.

570
00:48:05,760 --> 00:48:13,960
Bob Wood, a researcher in UFOs, had received leaked documents in 1996 and shared them with

571
00:48:13,960 --> 00:48:16,440
me and a few others.

572
00:48:16,440 --> 00:48:24,800
This document called the Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit, with a war department stamp dated July

573
00:48:24,800 --> 00:48:28,960
22nd, 1947.

574
00:48:28,960 --> 00:48:34,800
The most disturbing aspect of this investigation was that there were other bodies found not

575
00:48:34,800 --> 00:48:41,440
far from Landing Zone 1, the Mac Brazill site between Corona and Roswell, that looked

576
00:48:41,440 --> 00:48:47,200
as if they had been dissected as you would a frog.

577
00:48:47,200 --> 00:48:54,200
It does not define were those bodies human, were those bodies non-human.

578
00:48:54,200 --> 00:49:02,720
But suddenly for me, this electric jolt that came into holding that document and reading

579
00:49:02,720 --> 00:49:11,000
at the end of the 90s, what would explain finally that our government knew that extraterrestrial

580
00:49:11,000 --> 00:49:18,080
biological entities from somewhere else in the cosmos was interacting with our planet

581
00:49:18,080 --> 00:49:23,360
for a very long time.

582
00:49:23,360 --> 00:49:29,920
Five years after Roswell, the United States Air Force coined the term Unidentified Flying

583
00:49:29,920 --> 00:49:33,360
Object, or UFO.

584
00:49:33,360 --> 00:49:40,200
In the decades since, thousands of UFOs have been reported, photographed, and videotaped

585
00:49:40,200 --> 00:49:45,360
all over the world.

586
00:49:45,360 --> 00:49:51,440
Perhaps one of the biggest, most revolutionary pieces of technology to change our view of

587
00:49:51,440 --> 00:49:58,800
UFOs in flying saucers is the video cam.

588
00:49:58,800 --> 00:50:04,800
You only have to look at what happened in Phoenix, Arizona in March of 1997 when these

589
00:50:04,800 --> 00:50:11,840
huge flying boomerangs went right across Phoenix, right through the whole valley heading south

590
00:50:11,840 --> 00:50:14,040
to the Mexico border.

591
00:50:14,040 --> 00:50:16,000
These were all caught on cameras.

592
00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:18,560
Network news caught these, local news caught these.

593
00:50:18,560 --> 00:50:21,640
You saw these on CNN, you saw these on Larry King.

594
00:50:21,640 --> 00:50:23,600
Oh, there it is, over the left.

595
00:50:23,600 --> 00:50:26,000
And yes, people called them flares.

596
00:50:26,000 --> 00:50:27,360
Of course they did.

597
00:50:27,360 --> 00:50:32,040
But the fact is, when you see something with your own eyes.

598
00:50:32,040 --> 00:50:34,640
Look dude, Pat, you got it?

599
00:50:34,640 --> 00:50:39,040
Even if it's on a video camera, suddenly your perspective changes.

600
00:50:39,040 --> 00:50:40,720
And that middle one is moving quick.

601
00:50:40,720 --> 00:50:44,000
It's only at the beginning, you guys.

602
00:50:44,000 --> 00:50:54,320
So now, according to recent polls, Gallup polls and Roper polls, well over 50% of Americans

603
00:50:54,320 --> 00:50:58,160
believe that flying saucers exist.

604
00:50:58,160 --> 00:51:03,920
And close to 50% believe that the government knows that flying saucers exist and that the

605
00:51:03,920 --> 00:51:08,400
government is hiding that fact.

606
00:51:08,400 --> 00:51:12,680
But why so many UFO sightings after Roswell?

607
00:51:12,680 --> 00:51:14,560
Is it a coincidence?

608
00:51:14,560 --> 00:51:19,840
Or is the world's growing belief in aliens providing cover for those who might previously

609
00:51:19,840 --> 00:51:23,760
have been too afraid of ridicule to come forward?

610
00:51:24,200 --> 00:51:27,240
Perhaps there is another reason.

611
00:51:27,240 --> 00:51:35,040
Perhaps there are more sightings because there is a genuine increase in alien visitations,

612
00:51:35,040 --> 00:51:38,640
ever since the dawn of the space age.

613
00:51:38,640 --> 00:51:44,760
There had been plenty of stories of UFOs and aliens prior to that, a lot of sightings.

614
00:51:44,760 --> 00:51:50,120
They weren't as widely reported, somewhat also because World War II had been going on

615
00:51:50,120 --> 00:51:51,600
prior to that.

616
00:51:51,600 --> 00:51:56,920
But because now we have to crash, and there was more room in the newspaper, so to speak,

617
00:51:56,920 --> 00:51:59,400
I think that really helped the subject take off.

618
00:52:02,040 --> 00:52:09,120
If, as some suggest, aliens from other worlds truly are among us and have done their best

619
00:52:09,120 --> 00:52:15,440
to keep themselves hidden for thousands of years, will they ever reveal their presence?

620
00:52:16,440 --> 00:52:21,600
More importantly, what happens if they do?

621
00:52:21,600 --> 00:52:25,160
And what if it is already happening?

622
00:52:29,160 --> 00:52:37,280
In March 2010, a mysterious pulsating light floated over Cleveland, Ohio for 11 consecutive

623
00:52:37,280 --> 00:52:38,280
nights.

624
00:52:38,280 --> 00:52:42,040
We're having a sighting right now over the lake.

625
00:52:42,040 --> 00:52:45,200
I'm going to say 270 degrees south.

626
00:52:45,200 --> 00:52:47,120
There are two objects.

627
00:52:47,120 --> 00:52:48,880
One is coming up from the left.

628
00:52:48,880 --> 00:52:51,200
These are extremely close to each other.

629
00:52:51,200 --> 00:52:54,240
There's absolutely no way these are planes.

630
00:52:54,240 --> 00:52:57,920
Right now, what's happening is the initial object that came out.

631
00:52:57,920 --> 00:53:01,920
It's sitting there, it's hovering, it's getting extremely bright, it's illuminating different

632
00:53:01,920 --> 00:53:07,080
colors, and this second object appeared from, I'm going to say, the top left of it, and

633
00:53:07,080 --> 00:53:11,400
now it looks like it's moving around it.

634
00:53:11,400 --> 00:53:12,400
Wow!

635
00:53:12,400 --> 00:53:14,400
It's completely just switched spots.

636
00:53:14,400 --> 00:53:17,680
Oh my God, this is beautiful.

637
00:53:17,680 --> 00:53:21,120
It knows we're watching, it knows we're watching.

638
00:53:21,120 --> 00:53:26,680
The Cleveland sighting is one of thousands reported each year, and while many are proved

639
00:53:26,680 --> 00:53:35,640
to be false alarms, others are not so easily discredited.

640
00:53:35,640 --> 00:53:42,520
In 1991, Britain's Ministry of Defence assigned author and journalist Nick Pope to track the

641
00:53:42,520 --> 00:53:48,960
hundreds of sightings reported over England, Scotland, and Wales every year.

642
00:53:48,960 --> 00:53:56,520
The Ministry of Defence has been looking at the UFO issue since the 1950s, and the whole

643
00:53:56,520 --> 00:54:01,640
reason for looking at these UFO sightings is not necessarily because the department

644
00:54:01,640 --> 00:54:04,960
corporately believes in extraterrestrial visitation.

645
00:54:04,960 --> 00:54:10,440
It's more to do with keeping a watch fly on any unusual activity in British airspace.

646
00:54:10,440 --> 00:54:13,760
Clearly, if there's something there that's a little bit out of the ordinary, we want

647
00:54:13,760 --> 00:54:19,480
to know about it.

648
00:54:19,480 --> 00:54:25,360
My beliefs when I was given this job were, I think, what on earth have I let myself in

649
00:54:25,360 --> 00:54:26,360
for here?

650
00:54:26,360 --> 00:54:32,240
I had no particular knowledge or interest in the UFO phenomenon, certainly no belief

651
00:54:32,240 --> 00:54:34,720
in anything unusual.

652
00:54:34,720 --> 00:54:39,760
But the more I looked back through the archive of old files, and the more I began to investigate

653
00:54:39,760 --> 00:54:45,520
the ones that were being reported to me on a daily basis, I began to change my mind and

654
00:54:45,520 --> 00:54:51,280
realise that some of these UFO sightings couldn't be explained in conventional terms.

655
00:54:51,280 --> 00:54:53,960
It's definitely moving.

656
00:54:53,960 --> 00:55:00,280
Many of the most intriguing cases Pope researched involved eyewitness reports from pilots, police

657
00:55:00,280 --> 00:55:13,480
and military officers, while others featured classified radar, video or photographic evidence.

658
00:55:13,480 --> 00:55:19,160
One case that was a particular turning point for me was the so-called Cosford incident.

659
00:55:19,160 --> 00:55:27,280
Now Cosford is a military base in the United Kingdom, and on the particular night in question,

660
00:55:27,280 --> 00:55:33,360
which was 30th of March, 1993, there was a wave of sightings over a period of about six

661
00:55:33,360 --> 00:55:37,160
hours, and there were many police and military witnesses.

662
00:55:37,160 --> 00:55:44,480
And two air force bases, Cosford and Shawbury, were directly over flown by a vast triangular

663
00:55:44,480 --> 00:55:48,880
shaped craft.

664
00:55:48,880 --> 00:55:53,440
Now the meteorological officer at one of these bases described this to me as the size of

665
00:55:53,440 --> 00:56:01,080
a jumbo jet hovering or moving very, very slowly, and then accelerating away to the horizon

666
00:56:01,080 --> 00:56:02,840
at incredible speed.

667
00:56:02,840 --> 00:56:06,200
He said many times faster than a military jet.

668
00:56:06,200 --> 00:56:12,160
And this was a man with eight years experience in the air force.

669
00:56:12,160 --> 00:56:17,760
This sighting was thoroughly investigated not only by private UFO investigators, but

670
00:56:17,760 --> 00:56:24,200
also by the British government, who were unable to explain all of the sightings reported during

671
00:56:24,200 --> 00:56:27,120
this incident.

672
00:56:27,120 --> 00:56:32,880
Another intriguing British UFO sighting took place in December 1980.

673
00:56:32,880 --> 00:56:38,960
U.S. Air Force personnel stationed in Suffolk, England reported seeing a brilliantly illuminated

674
00:56:38,960 --> 00:56:54,800
spaceship that landed in Randallsham Forest on two consecutive nights.

675
00:56:54,800 --> 00:57:01,320
What made this case particularly unusual is that this was not vague lights in the sky.

676
00:57:01,320 --> 00:57:06,920
This was a landed metallic craft that some of the witnesses claimed they got so close

677
00:57:07,040 --> 00:57:09,880
to they could actually touch the side of it.

678
00:57:09,880 --> 00:57:16,960
One witness saw strange symbols on the hull, which he likened to Egyptian hieroglyphs.

679
00:57:16,960 --> 00:57:21,520
He made a sketch of this in his police notebook and took some photos, though he was subsequently

680
00:57:21,520 --> 00:57:23,480
told they didn't come out.

681
00:57:23,480 --> 00:57:31,800
The Ministry of Defence looked at this and the Defence Intelligence staff assessed radiation

682
00:57:31,800 --> 00:57:37,840
readings that had been taken at the landing site as being significantly higher than background.

683
00:57:37,840 --> 00:57:41,160
That's a direct quote from the government's own assessment.

684
00:57:41,160 --> 00:57:48,600
The British government generated a massive file of information about this sighting report.

685
00:57:48,600 --> 00:57:53,000
But at this date it's very unlikely that the actual truth about this sighting will ever

686
00:57:53,000 --> 00:57:59,400
be known.

687
00:57:59,400 --> 00:58:05,000
But in spite of the compelling eyewitness testimony, the Ministry of Defence soon declared the

688
00:58:05,000 --> 00:58:08,360
case closed.

689
00:58:08,360 --> 00:58:14,280
Twenty-two years later, when the government declassified files on the Randallsham incident,

690
00:58:14,280 --> 00:58:17,320
the evidence was inconclusive.

691
00:58:17,320 --> 00:58:22,480
But what stood out was the credibility of the main witnesses, who were trained military

692
00:58:22,480 --> 00:58:23,480
personnel.

693
00:58:23,480 --> 00:58:29,640
Obviously, as a UFO hunter, I've met a lot of people who've encountered UFOs.

694
00:58:29,640 --> 00:58:35,720
Just flying on a plane, for example, you're on a plane and suddenly the pilot comes out

695
00:58:35,720 --> 00:58:36,720
of the cockpit.

696
00:58:36,720 --> 00:58:39,400
This has happened on five separate occasions.

697
00:58:39,400 --> 00:58:42,480
And he'll say to me, I saw a UFO over Phoenix.

698
00:58:42,480 --> 00:58:44,720
I saw a UFO over Texas.

699
00:58:44,720 --> 00:58:46,560
Half my crew saw a UFO.

700
00:58:46,560 --> 00:58:49,120
And you'll say to the pilot, well, do you report it?

701
00:58:49,120 --> 00:58:54,440
And they say, when the flight controller says at the airport, do you want to report a UFO

702
00:58:54,440 --> 00:58:58,960
sighting and then burst out laughing, what you say is no.

703
00:58:58,960 --> 00:59:02,840
There are UFO sightings every single day.

704
00:59:02,840 --> 00:59:08,040
Real people with real sightings of real UFOs.

705
00:59:08,040 --> 00:59:13,160
It is very prevalent as more and more people talk about it.

706
00:59:13,160 --> 00:59:15,520
Something is going on.

707
00:59:15,520 --> 00:59:21,040
In terms of the government response to all this, certainly in Britain, the Ministry

708
00:59:21,040 --> 00:59:28,160
of Defence policy for many years has been to try and downplay this subject.

709
00:59:28,160 --> 00:59:33,400
Not really in any great sinister attempt to cover up the truth about UFOs, whatever that

710
00:59:33,400 --> 00:59:34,400
might be.

711
00:59:34,400 --> 00:59:35,680
But more out of embarrassment.

712
00:59:35,680 --> 00:59:37,120
There are things in our airspace.

713
00:59:37,120 --> 00:59:38,280
We don't know what they are.

714
00:59:38,280 --> 00:59:41,840
And that's not a good place for the government and the military to be.

715
00:59:41,840 --> 00:59:50,080
On December 1st, 2009, the British Ministry of Defence quietly terminated its UFO project,

716
00:59:50,080 --> 00:59:55,200
citing that there had been no credible evidence that UFOs posed a potential threat to the

717
00:59:55,200 --> 00:59:59,600
United Kingdom.

718
00:59:59,600 --> 01:00:05,440
There are a number of aspects of this decision that were particularly controversial.

719
01:00:05,440 --> 01:00:10,960
Firstly, UFO sightings are at a 10-year high in the United Kingdom.

720
01:00:10,960 --> 01:00:16,320
So it seemed the most inopportune moment to pull the plug on 50 years of research and

721
01:00:16,320 --> 01:00:19,160
investigation into the UFO mystery.

722
01:00:19,160 --> 01:00:24,600
The other point that made this particularly controversial was the way in which the decision

723
01:00:24,600 --> 01:00:25,600
was announced.

724
01:00:25,600 --> 01:00:30,920
There was no proactive statement issued on this.

725
01:00:30,920 --> 01:00:36,600
It simply said the department will not respond to any inquiries on this subject and will

726
01:00:36,600 --> 01:00:42,840
no longer investigate sightings.

727
01:00:42,840 --> 01:00:47,560
One hurdle confronting those in favour of fully disclosing classified information related

728
01:00:47,560 --> 01:00:55,280
to UFOs is the fact that most mainstream scientists believe that the study of alien phenomena is

729
01:00:55,280 --> 01:00:59,120
little more than just fringe science.

730
01:00:59,120 --> 01:01:06,600
It is this fear of dismissal or ridicule that keeps many scientists hidden in the shadows.

731
01:01:06,600 --> 01:01:14,640
Our best scientists who communicate with one another around the world have rules of protocol

732
01:01:14,640 --> 01:01:20,520
which include they cannot appear to be religious.

733
01:01:20,520 --> 01:01:24,200
They cannot believe in flying saucers and they certainly shouldn't hang around with

734
01:01:24,200 --> 01:01:29,320
anybody who believes in flying saucers.

735
01:01:29,320 --> 01:01:34,800
But it's all done, you might say, behind closed doors because nobody really wants to draw

736
01:01:34,800 --> 01:01:37,600
attention to it.

737
01:01:37,600 --> 01:01:43,680
They understand that there's a penalty associated with this kind of research and so consequently

738
01:01:43,680 --> 01:01:46,880
it's done invisibly.

739
01:01:46,880 --> 01:01:52,680
To be located and stopped by worries about peer reviews and so forth to me is wrong.

740
01:01:52,680 --> 01:01:55,720
We can speculate whether there is life outside this plant.

741
01:01:55,720 --> 01:02:00,760
We can speculate whether there's been a contact with other civilizations.

742
01:02:00,760 --> 01:02:02,280
Why not?

743
01:02:02,280 --> 01:02:07,680
But as more scientists openly embrace the probability that there is intelligent life

744
01:02:07,680 --> 01:02:13,840
existing elsewhere in the universe, will the belief that alien beings are visiting us

745
01:02:13,840 --> 01:02:20,120
also become more accepted?

746
01:02:20,120 --> 01:02:27,000
What might be the reaction today if extraterrestrials were to actually arrive on Earth and make

747
01:02:27,000 --> 01:02:31,120
themselves known to us?

748
01:02:31,120 --> 01:02:36,160
Countless science fiction books and films tend to portray aliens coming either to warn

749
01:02:36,160 --> 01:02:39,520
us or destroy us.

750
01:02:39,520 --> 01:02:43,760
Since the 1960s, people have been thinking about, well, what do we do?

751
01:02:43,760 --> 01:02:46,480
Do we have a day-to-earth stood still scenario?

752
01:02:46,480 --> 01:02:51,560
If aliens come, do they warn us that our planet's facing disaster?

753
01:02:51,560 --> 01:02:56,040
Do they attack us the way the Martians did in War of the Worlds?

754
01:02:56,040 --> 01:03:00,520
Well, the answer is more complicated than it seems.

755
01:03:00,520 --> 01:03:10,080
It's not just somebody landing and saying, take me to your leader.

756
01:03:10,080 --> 01:03:15,600
The general consensus today is that if extraterrestrials were to show up tomorrow, they'd be hostile

757
01:03:15,600 --> 01:03:23,360
and they would want to enslave us and battle us and destroy us and all this crazy stuff.

758
01:03:23,360 --> 01:03:30,120
In my opinion, that won't be the case because any civilization that's mastered to travel

759
01:03:30,120 --> 01:03:40,520
interstellar space would be benevolent to a lesser advanced society technologically speaking.

760
01:03:40,520 --> 01:03:46,320
Our statistic shows that if we make contact with extraterrestrial civilization, we are

761
01:03:46,320 --> 01:03:47,920
the new kids on the block.

762
01:03:47,920 --> 01:03:53,440
We're the ones who are at the back of the queue when it comes to intelligence.

763
01:03:53,440 --> 01:03:55,840
So they'll be teaching us stuff.

764
01:03:55,840 --> 01:03:59,960
We won't have a great deal to teach them.

765
01:03:59,960 --> 01:04:04,680
There are a wide range of benefits that can be derived from accepting that we have neighbors

766
01:04:04,680 --> 01:04:06,540
in the galaxy that are visiting us.

767
01:04:06,540 --> 01:04:10,980
There are reports of medical treatments that have been performed for the benefit of several

768
01:04:10,980 --> 01:04:12,820
people who have had contact.

769
01:04:12,820 --> 01:04:15,540
There are advanced energy technologies.

770
01:04:15,540 --> 01:04:19,260
Reports are that some of these have been reverse engineered already and are used in military

771
01:04:19,260 --> 01:04:21,180
craft.

772
01:04:21,180 --> 01:04:25,160
There are communications technologies.

773
01:04:25,160 --> 01:04:30,860
So really any area of life that we have could be beneficially impacted by acknowledging

774
01:04:30,860 --> 01:04:36,020
that there are these other people out there, that they have information, knowledge that

775
01:04:36,020 --> 01:04:38,140
we can share with us that would benefit us.

776
01:04:38,140 --> 01:04:41,540
It's going to depend on how the discovery comes about.

777
01:04:41,540 --> 01:04:46,300
If in fact it's a distant radio broadcast, we might expect one thing.

778
01:04:46,300 --> 01:04:52,420
If in fact there's some type of visitation that fits in with beliefs about UFOs, that

779
01:04:52,420 --> 01:04:53,420
might be something else.

780
01:04:53,420 --> 01:05:04,340
But on the whole, I think people are much more prepared for, should we say, contact.

781
01:05:04,340 --> 01:05:08,900
Many who believe contact with extraterrestrials is inevitable.

782
01:05:08,900 --> 01:05:11,860
Suggest governments need to prepare themselves.

783
01:05:11,860 --> 01:05:16,340
It's a field of study known as exopolitics.

784
01:05:16,340 --> 01:05:21,540
Exopolitics poses the question, what should our response be to that situation at a societal

785
01:05:21,540 --> 01:05:22,980
level?

786
01:05:22,980 --> 01:05:27,220
Not necessarily at a governmental level, but actually individuals.

787
01:05:27,220 --> 01:05:31,380
How can we reach out with a hand of friendship?

788
01:05:31,380 --> 01:05:35,900
This has really been a grassroots movement of people concerned about this issue and want

789
01:05:35,900 --> 01:05:41,820
disclosure on the UFO subject and also want to help organize people locally to get the

790
01:05:41,820 --> 01:05:46,620
information out to their governments and make a this big change happen.

791
01:05:46,620 --> 01:05:55,980
But if we reach out in friendship, what guarantee do we have that it will be returned in kind?

792
01:05:55,980 --> 01:06:02,700
Many scientists, including famed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, believe alien beings

793
01:06:02,700 --> 01:06:09,460
could pose a threat and suggest we do everything possible to prevent contact.

794
01:06:09,460 --> 01:06:15,180
If extraterrestrials or aliens were aggressive or warlike and they came here, is it a case

795
01:06:15,180 --> 01:06:18,100
where resistance is futile?

796
01:06:18,100 --> 01:06:20,940
How do you wipe out life on planet Earth?

797
01:06:20,940 --> 01:06:21,940
That's easy.

798
01:06:21,940 --> 01:06:23,780
A plague.

799
01:06:23,780 --> 01:06:25,500
Simple.

800
01:06:25,500 --> 01:06:32,220
No UFOs, no zorching beams from the sky, no explosions, no Empire State Building collapsing,

801
01:06:32,220 --> 01:06:33,340
none of that.

802
01:06:33,340 --> 01:06:34,500
We can do that.

803
01:06:34,500 --> 01:06:38,020
Why can't aliens do that?

804
01:06:38,020 --> 01:06:44,620
To think that we would be able to come up with some type of a defense mechanism or have

805
01:06:44,620 --> 01:06:51,980
defenses against interstellar traveling society is ludicrous.

806
01:06:51,980 --> 01:06:59,380
Whether they came as friend or foe, if extraterrestrials did land somewhere in the United States,

807
01:06:59,380 --> 01:07:04,780
it's possible the aliens would be greeted by government or military personnel, wearing

808
01:07:04,780 --> 01:07:12,500
hazmat suits and testing for harmful pathogens and radiation.

809
01:07:12,500 --> 01:07:20,140
Many conspiracy theorists suspect the government's next step would be to cover up the visitation.

810
01:07:20,140 --> 01:07:27,460
They cite as evidence a reputed sighting that took place over Washington, D.C. in 1952.

811
01:07:27,460 --> 01:07:35,700
In full view of the entire world, a squadron of formation of UFOs buzzed Washington and

812
01:07:35,700 --> 01:07:40,020
fought our own F-93 jet fighters.

813
01:07:40,020 --> 01:07:45,700
General Samford willingly and deliberately, maybe on instructions from Harry Truman, who

814
01:07:45,700 --> 01:07:49,340
was president, lied to the American people.

815
01:07:49,340 --> 01:07:53,620
We have received and analyzed between one and two thousand reports.

816
01:07:53,620 --> 01:07:59,820
Of this great mass of reports, we have been able adequately to explain the great book

817
01:07:59,820 --> 01:08:01,180
of them.

818
01:08:01,180 --> 01:08:08,580
His own Captain Rupelt in his own book on flying saucers says, Samford was lying.

819
01:08:08,580 --> 01:08:15,500
We have the letter from the Air Force to Dean Condon saying, deep six UFOs.

820
01:08:15,500 --> 01:08:20,260
So have UFOs come to planet Earth in full view, have manifested themselves, have shown

821
01:08:20,260 --> 01:08:21,260
themselves?

822
01:08:21,260 --> 01:08:22,900
Yes.

823
01:08:22,900 --> 01:08:24,420
Did we see it?

824
01:08:24,420 --> 01:08:25,580
Yes.

825
01:08:25,580 --> 01:08:27,700
Was there a protocol for handling it?

826
01:08:27,700 --> 01:08:28,700
Yes.

827
01:08:28,700 --> 01:08:32,620
That protocol was called deny.

828
01:08:32,620 --> 01:08:38,900
But if an alien visitation proved undeniable, who might be chosen to then speak to those

829
01:08:38,900 --> 01:08:41,740
inside the spacecraft?

830
01:08:41,740 --> 01:08:46,820
Who could best represent all the nations and interests of Earth?

831
01:08:46,820 --> 01:08:51,860
If aliens do land on Earth, I think we should send our best world leaders who are the most

832
01:08:51,860 --> 01:08:57,260
open-minded and reasonable, but who also have the ability to defend themselves against those

833
01:08:57,260 --> 01:08:59,940
aliens.

834
01:08:59,940 --> 01:09:03,780
In my opinion, that's one of the reasons we have a United Nations.

835
01:09:03,780 --> 01:09:07,380
Yes, it prevents wars and delivers food.

836
01:09:07,380 --> 01:09:14,060
But on the other hand, just imagine the Security Council itself convening to deal with aliens

837
01:09:14,060 --> 01:09:17,060
an image on a big screen at the United Nations.

838
01:09:17,060 --> 01:09:22,620
The answer is I think it all happened back in the 1940s, and that was one of the reasons

839
01:09:22,620 --> 01:09:29,100
that Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt pushed so hard for the formation of a United Nations

840
01:09:29,100 --> 01:09:32,180
to replace the League of Nations.

841
01:09:32,180 --> 01:09:35,180
Somebody had to confront the aliens.

842
01:09:35,180 --> 01:09:42,060
The notion that our leaders, elected or otherwise, should speak on behalf, I don't necessarily

843
01:09:42,060 --> 01:09:44,780
think that makes sense.

844
01:09:44,780 --> 01:09:49,940
There are a lot of people who might have better ideas than the people who are in government.

845
01:09:49,940 --> 01:09:57,940
I'd like to see a profoundly democratic with a small d, unauthoritarian interaction with

846
01:09:57,940 --> 01:09:59,420
aliens.

847
01:09:59,700 --> 01:10:06,340
Currently, there are no known official protocols in place for an alien visitation.

848
01:10:06,340 --> 01:10:11,740
But there are those who think that contact with extraterrestrials is imminent, and that

849
01:10:11,740 --> 01:10:15,220
our world leaders must plan for the event now.

850
01:10:15,220 --> 01:10:16,780
We're not alone in the universe.

851
01:10:16,780 --> 01:10:23,620
We have friends and relatives out there in the galaxies.

852
01:10:23,620 --> 01:10:28,900
And we need to take on this task one way or the other of just getting the job done and

853
01:10:28,900 --> 01:10:33,860
getting to the point where we're considering the practical details of interacting with

854
01:10:33,860 --> 01:10:36,940
these friends and neighbors out there.

855
01:10:36,940 --> 01:10:39,540
Who is responsible for that relationship?

856
01:10:39,540 --> 01:10:42,060
Well, the State Department isn't.

857
01:10:42,060 --> 01:10:43,460
The United Nations isn't.

858
01:10:43,460 --> 01:10:45,500
And I think this is a very big problem.

859
01:10:45,500 --> 01:10:51,300
So there needs to be a diplomatic effort to make contact with these interstellar civilizations

860
01:10:51,300 --> 01:10:57,420
in such a way that it puts wiser people in charge of that.

861
01:10:57,420 --> 01:11:03,820
Even if you don't corporately believe in extraterrestrials, if you think the possibility of alien

862
01:11:03,820 --> 01:11:10,340
visitation is vanishingly small, the consequences, if it does happen, are immense and therefore

863
01:11:10,340 --> 01:11:14,300
it's prudent to have something in place to deal with it.

864
01:11:14,300 --> 01:11:15,660
Personally, I think it would be very, very exciting.

865
01:11:15,660 --> 01:11:20,340
I mean, it would be just like the first time, you know, the explorers came from Europe to

866
01:11:20,340 --> 01:11:23,140
the Americas and discovered a whole new culture and they had to interact.

867
01:11:23,140 --> 01:11:25,940
Hopefully it won't work out as some of the bad things that occurred then.

868
01:11:25,980 --> 01:11:30,660
But it would be a more positive experience and maybe we've learned from that and we can go forward.

869
01:11:30,660 --> 01:11:37,540
What would happen after any potential extraterrestrial contact is open to much speculation.

870
01:11:37,540 --> 01:11:40,300
But most people concede one thing.

871
01:11:40,300 --> 01:11:45,300
The world, as we know it, would change dramatically.

872
01:11:45,300 --> 01:11:51,460
The result would be that the fundamentalist orthodox belief systems of every organized

873
01:11:51,460 --> 01:11:54,980
religion on Earth would collapse.

874
01:11:55,020 --> 01:12:01,540
I mean that it would really bring in the question, the origins of the human race, the genesis

875
01:12:01,540 --> 01:12:04,420
stories and a whole lot of other issues.

876
01:12:04,420 --> 01:12:12,980
The very structures of government and the very structures of religion will crumble.

877
01:12:12,980 --> 01:12:22,220
But in 2008, a stunning announcement was made from a very surprising source, proof to some

878
01:12:22,220 --> 01:12:27,340
that miracles, like aliens, do indeed exist.

879
01:12:31,300 --> 01:12:34,580
The Vatican, Rome.

880
01:12:34,580 --> 01:12:39,060
This walled enclave has been the center of power for the Catholic Church since the fifth

881
01:12:39,060 --> 01:12:41,460
century.

882
01:12:41,460 --> 01:12:47,580
It's not only the Pope's residence, but a place of homage for one billion Catholics

883
01:12:47,580 --> 01:12:54,820
and represents nearly 2,000 years of Christian teaching and tradition.

884
01:12:54,820 --> 01:13:08,260
But in 2008, the Vatican made an announcement that some say might threaten its own existence.

885
01:13:08,260 --> 01:13:15,900
The chief astronomer of the Vatican Observatory, Father Gabriel Funes, acknowledged the possibility

886
01:13:15,900 --> 01:13:20,100
alien life exists on other planets.

887
01:13:20,100 --> 01:13:26,300
They basically said that belief in planetary life outside of Earth does not negate one's

888
01:13:26,300 --> 01:13:27,820
belief in God.

889
01:13:27,820 --> 01:13:31,740
Now, 500 years ago, if the Vatican would have said that, they would have burned everybody

890
01:13:31,740 --> 01:13:33,740
on the stake.

891
01:13:35,740 --> 01:13:41,060
The present Pope Benedict, of course, has a very scientific bent, and he respects intellectual

892
01:13:41,060 --> 01:13:44,260
life in a way that is quite extraordinary.

893
01:13:44,620 --> 01:13:48,980
He seemed quite open to entertain the idea, what if there is life in other planets?

894
01:13:48,980 --> 01:13:52,820
It's certainly an interesting question for a Christian to approach scientifically and

895
01:13:52,820 --> 01:14:03,260
challenges your belief of how much of this you attribute to God.

896
01:14:03,260 --> 01:14:07,500
Many wondered about the Church's motives and timing.

897
01:14:08,500 --> 01:14:15,460
Why, after centuries of belief in man as God's supreme creation and the only intelligent

898
01:14:15,460 --> 01:14:21,540
life in the universe, did the Vatican make an announcement that could turn Christianity

899
01:14:21,540 --> 01:14:23,380
on its head?

900
01:14:23,380 --> 01:14:28,980
Did they know something the rest of us did not?

901
01:14:28,980 --> 01:14:38,340
This is something that is completely new in the history of the Church, that the extraterrestrial

902
01:14:38,340 --> 01:14:44,780
question is not only addressed, but at the same time, it's okay.

903
01:14:44,780 --> 01:14:55,700
I mean, that is a major change in opinion, a major change in the status quo.

904
01:14:55,700 --> 01:14:58,900
And I ask, why?

905
01:14:59,820 --> 01:15:02,820
Why would it have huge ramifications?

906
01:15:02,820 --> 01:15:04,820
Of course.

907
01:15:04,820 --> 01:15:06,820
Does it change anything?

908
01:15:06,820 --> 01:15:08,820
Of course.

909
01:15:08,820 --> 01:15:12,820
But at the same time, would that change religion or belief in God?

910
01:15:12,820 --> 01:15:14,820
Not really.

911
01:15:14,820 --> 01:15:18,820
Some people say, well, Catholic Church must know something.

912
01:15:18,820 --> 01:15:21,820
Maybe they're trying to get ahead of the game here.

913
01:15:21,820 --> 01:15:27,820
On the other hand, it may just be that they're being very clever and simply trying to cover

914
01:15:28,740 --> 01:15:35,740
all the bases in case there is some great announcement or discovery about alien life.

915
01:15:35,740 --> 01:15:41,740
Because make no mistake about it, if it is announced that alien life has been discovered,

916
01:15:41,740 --> 01:15:48,740
people are going to look to their religious leaders for some sort of guidance about this,

917
01:15:48,740 --> 01:15:55,740
whether it's Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus.

918
01:15:56,660 --> 01:16:03,660
If extraterrestrial life was found, then the Church would react, presumably, as it

919
01:16:03,660 --> 01:16:08,660
does with any data, see what there is.

920
01:16:10,660 --> 01:16:16,660
I don't think there would be any conflict in the way that we look on our humanity.

921
01:16:16,660 --> 01:16:23,660
What we would find is that God creates intelligent life in a variety of ways.

922
01:16:24,580 --> 01:16:31,580
And I think what we would learn from that is we can't restrict God to any one mode of

923
01:16:31,580 --> 01:16:33,580
making intelligent life.

924
01:16:33,580 --> 01:16:39,580
The idea that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe has been debated by religious

925
01:16:39,580 --> 01:16:44,580
leaders, historians and scientists.

926
01:16:44,580 --> 01:16:50,580
But not everyone agrees how its proof would affect human spirituality or the many religious

927
01:16:50,580 --> 01:16:52,580
institutions.

928
01:16:52,580 --> 01:16:57,580
What would happen to our interpretation of the book of Genesis?

929
01:16:57,580 --> 01:17:02,580
Well, the book of Genesis looks at the universe from the point of view of Earth.

930
01:17:02,580 --> 01:17:06,580
We look at the sun, we look at the moon, we look at the stars.

931
01:17:06,580 --> 01:17:13,580
So, to realize that the Earth is just one small pale blue dot in this immense universe,

932
01:17:14,580 --> 01:17:18,580
but I think it would only expand our interpretation of Genesis.

933
01:17:18,580 --> 01:17:23,580
I don't think it would change it in any fundamental way.

934
01:17:23,580 --> 01:17:27,580
It's an interesting question for Christianity in general, since Christianity would teach

935
01:17:27,580 --> 01:17:32,580
that salvation comes through Jesus, who is apparently an earthling.

936
01:17:32,580 --> 01:17:35,580
What do you do if there are people on Mars?

937
01:17:35,580 --> 01:17:38,580
Are they saved, according to our viewpoint?

938
01:17:38,580 --> 01:17:41,580
I don't know.

939
01:17:41,580 --> 01:17:46,580
Christians have always had this problem that if there are aliens out there, are they not

940
01:17:46,580 --> 01:17:47,580
saved?

941
01:17:47,580 --> 01:17:51,580
It's not a problem for Jews, certainly not a problem for Buddhists or Hindus.

942
01:17:51,580 --> 01:17:56,580
But Christians are in a particular fix for a very simple reason, that Christianity alone

943
01:17:56,580 --> 01:18:01,580
among the world's religions has an incarnation of what they mean by that is that God became

944
01:18:01,580 --> 01:18:06,580
incarnate in the form of Jesus Christ in order to be the Savior.

945
01:18:06,580 --> 01:18:12,580
When you talk to Christians, they sort of say, oh, well, there isn't a problem really

946
01:18:12,580 --> 01:18:18,580
because we have accommodated Galileo, we've accommodated Darwin, why can't we accommodate E.T.?

947
01:18:18,580 --> 01:18:20,580
Well, I think there's a big difference.

948
01:18:22,580 --> 01:18:29,580
I think science and religion have more in common than perhaps the popular perception suggests.

949
01:18:31,580 --> 01:18:36,580
On one hand, we have science, which deals with reason and fact.

950
01:18:36,580 --> 01:18:40,580
On the other hand, we have religion, which deals with faith.

951
01:18:42,580 --> 01:18:49,580
Science is an evolving proposition, and what we know today will almost certainly be reformed

952
01:18:49,580 --> 01:18:53,580
and maybe even replaced at some point in the future.

953
01:18:53,580 --> 01:19:00,580
So to think that science somehow provides the truth in contrast to religion, I think is a mistake.

954
01:19:00,580 --> 01:19:07,580
While scientists and religious leaders may still ponder the notion of aliens visiting Earth,

955
01:19:07,580 --> 01:19:14,580
ancient astronaut theorists claim that the evidence exists in plain sight around the world.

956
01:19:14,580 --> 01:19:21,580
But if this theory was accepted, would we have to change our beliefs about our knowledge,

957
01:19:21,580 --> 01:19:26,580
our history, and the very beginnings of human civilization?

958
01:19:27,580 --> 01:19:45,580
For thousands of years, humans have recorded events that seem to suggest otherworldly beings came down from the skies to visit Earth.

959
01:19:46,580 --> 01:19:56,580
These ancient visitations represent the foundations of those who believe Earth was visited in the past by advanced beings from other planets.

960
01:19:56,580 --> 01:20:02,580
These sightings are also said to explain many mysteries surrounding our past.

961
01:20:03,580 --> 01:20:09,580
The most important was religion. The gods have descended to our ancestors time.

962
01:20:09,580 --> 01:20:12,580
Now it enters into the holy books, into mythology.

963
01:20:12,580 --> 01:20:19,580
Now later, people try, reasoned people, try to understand this, they make out religions of it.

964
01:20:19,580 --> 01:20:25,580
But the core is extraterrestrials have come here. That was the beginning of all the big religions.

965
01:20:28,580 --> 01:20:34,580
There are two main components why we are who we are today as a species.

966
01:20:34,580 --> 01:20:41,580
One, someone tampered with our genetic makeup, and two, technology.

967
01:20:41,580 --> 01:20:52,580
Because all of a sudden, we were doing and building things that we would still have difficulties recreating today.

968
01:20:53,580 --> 01:21:09,580
And the ancient texts are very clear that many of our achievements in the past happened due to a direct intervention of extraterrestrials that arrived from the skies.

969
01:21:11,580 --> 01:21:20,580
Ancient astronaut theorists also cite as evidence the amazing similarities between isolated cultures all over the planet.

970
01:21:21,580 --> 01:21:28,580
Why did different civilizations build immense megalithic structures to honor other worldly beings?

971
01:21:29,580 --> 01:21:34,580
Why do so many ancient texts seem to reference men flying in the sky?

972
01:21:37,580 --> 01:21:49,580
And why do the ancient Egyptians, Hopi Indians, and the Dogon tribe of North Africa all believe their ancestors came from what we know as the constellation Sirius?

973
01:21:49,580 --> 01:22:06,580
If the extraterrestrials wanted to leave behind a message of where they came from, then it would serve them very well to build those structures with a reference to their location of origin.

974
01:22:06,580 --> 01:22:18,580
So if we have connections to the Sirius star system, well, it would lend us to believe that here we have a reference of where they might come from.

975
01:22:20,580 --> 01:22:26,580
The question of extraterrestrial life is as old as civilization itself.

976
01:22:27,580 --> 01:22:40,580
Ancient astronaut theorists, as well as many noted scientists, point to the immense size of the universe and concede that other beings must exist somewhere else besides Earth.

977
01:22:41,580 --> 01:22:50,580
But the question remains, did aliens visit us in the past? And is it happening again?

978
01:22:52,580 --> 01:23:00,580
The way we look at history is very fragile. Any discovery which is made somewhere can change the way we look at bone history.

979
01:23:00,580 --> 01:23:10,580
I think if we were to identify that an alien presence has been here on Earth in the past, I think there are two very important questions.

980
01:23:10,580 --> 01:23:18,580
Did it just come by and visit and then disappear? Or did it actually come, stay and contribute to civilization?

981
01:23:19,580 --> 01:23:35,580
I think the second one is far more important because it shows as far more it actually rewrites mankind's identity rather than just whether or not some extraterrestrial being came here on a holiday and then left without really leaving something behind.

982
01:23:36,580 --> 01:23:48,580
In all of the ancient texts, there is one thing that is very clear and that is that these gods one day will return.

983
01:23:51,580 --> 01:24:02,580
But short of an alien spacecraft landing on the White House lawn, ancient astronaut theorists know there will always be skeptics.

984
01:24:02,580 --> 01:24:08,580
People are always looking for an ultimate proof of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligent beings.

985
01:24:08,580 --> 01:24:22,580
But I think a more useful and honest question is how much and what kind of evidence would be enough for you to believe that they're out there, that they've been visiting us.

986
01:24:23,580 --> 01:24:35,580
I believe through the experiences that shamans have been documenting and reporting for tens of thousands of years that we are in contact with entities and beings that are not of this Earth.

987
01:24:35,580 --> 01:24:40,580
Precisely what those entities and beings are remains to be established.

988
01:24:41,580 --> 01:24:49,580
There is evidence that indicates that it's possible that humans were visited by extraterrestrials in the distant past.

989
01:24:49,580 --> 01:25:01,580
And if we are too quick to discard that possibility, then we might be shutting ourselves out from something that might be really fascinating and might take us to a next level that we can't even imagine.

990
01:25:02,580 --> 01:25:14,580
It's very possible that those extraterrestrials who've allegedly been coming here for thousands of years, I mean they are us. They look like us.

991
01:25:14,580 --> 01:25:24,580
And in fact that's part again of the Bible in that the God or the gods created us in their image.

992
01:25:25,580 --> 01:25:38,580
I mean we are to be like them. We are to look like them. We are to have the technology they have. We're to go into space just like they did.

993
01:25:40,580 --> 01:25:47,580
I think there is life, simple life, bacterial life, microbial life on other planets. I think we're going to find that.

994
01:25:48,580 --> 01:26:03,580
And who knows, maybe one day we'll find some other planet that's capable of sustaining life that has evolved people over a long period of time that are also looking up at the stars wondering, is there anybody else out there? Are we the only ones?

995
01:26:03,580 --> 01:26:26,580
We are a species of explorers, so ultimately we will come across some other type of intelligence and when that happens, if that society technologically speaking is primitive, we'll become ancient astronauts with that culture.

996
01:26:27,580 --> 01:26:49,580
Human history has become too much a matter of dogma, taught by professionals in ivory towers as though it's all fact. Actually much of human history is up for grabs. The further back you go, the more that the history that's taught in the schools and universities begins to look like some kind of fairy story.

997
01:26:50,580 --> 01:27:11,580
We have logic, we have intuition, we have our senses and to limit ourselves through the scientific route is a mistake. We can send people on the moon, we can plan journeys to Mars, we can make cell phones, but we haven't explained the fundamental questions that we should be dealing with.

998
01:27:12,580 --> 01:27:24,580
Where do we come from? What are we supposed to do here? And where are we going? We really have not come with the answers and we know no better than the ancients that we're trying to explain.

999
01:27:24,580 --> 01:27:48,580
Exploring the ancient astronaut theory is the ultimate quest to find out where did we come from, how did it all begin and most importantly who are we and the ancient astronaut theory has the capability of answering all those questions.

1000
01:27:54,580 --> 01:27:57,580
you