1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,640 Could a small piece of aircraft debris found on a remote desert island finally solve America's 2 00:00:09,640 --> 00:00:12,120 greatest aviation mystery? 3 00:00:12,120 --> 00:00:16,960 Is this part of a familiar heart's airplane? 4 00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:22,840 Why are space agencies like NASA scouring the deepest parts of the ocean for signs of 5 00:00:22,840 --> 00:00:25,520 extraterrestrial life? 6 00:00:25,520 --> 00:00:32,320 We know more about the surface of Mars than we know about our deep seas. 7 00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:39,880 And what could explain the hundreds of mysterious ghost ships washing up on the shores of Japan? 8 00:00:39,880 --> 00:00:46,120 Could the North Koreans be sending spies to Japan in these boats? 9 00:00:46,120 --> 00:00:50,680 The underwater realm is another dimension. 10 00:00:50,680 --> 00:01:00,680 It's a physically hostile place where dreams of promise can sink into darkness. 11 00:01:00,680 --> 00:01:06,400 I'm Jeremy Wade and I'm searching the world to bring you the most iconic and baffling 12 00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:10,880 underwater mysteries known to science. 13 00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:16,960 The vast majority of our ocean is unobserved, unmatched and unexplored. 14 00:01:16,960 --> 00:01:22,000 It's a dangerous frontier that swallows evidence. 15 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:24,640 You have nowhere to run. 16 00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:42,920 Where unknown is normal and understanding is rare. 17 00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:46,760 It's one of history's most perplexing disappearances. 18 00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:53,680 In 1937, aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart vanishes over the Pacific Ocean. 19 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:58,320 There are no traces of what happened to her or her aircraft. 20 00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:04,160 This lack of evidence has opened the door to nearly 100 years of rumor, hearsay and wild 21 00:02:04,160 --> 00:02:06,320 conspiracy theories. 22 00:02:06,320 --> 00:02:13,280 But now can a small piece of aircraft debris found on the beach of a remote tropical island 23 00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:22,080 finally help solve this mystery? 24 00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:29,800 July 1937, Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan are flying over the Pacific Ocean 25 00:02:29,800 --> 00:02:34,760 in their twin-engine Lockheed Electra. 26 00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:42,360 Amelia Earhart is this glamorous, exciting aviatrix who's breaking glass ceilings with 27 00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:48,440 her adventures and her flying. 28 00:02:48,440 --> 00:02:53,240 She had already become the first woman to do a transatlantic flight. 29 00:02:53,240 --> 00:02:59,320 She was on her way to becoming the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. 30 00:02:59,320 --> 00:03:04,760 Earhart is 22,000 miles into this record-breaking journey. 31 00:03:04,760 --> 00:03:12,320 Only one thing stands between her and Glory, the vast Pacific Ocean. 32 00:03:12,320 --> 00:03:14,560 She was doing the hardest bit. 33 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:21,440 A 2,500-mile overwater flight to a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific called Howland 34 00:03:21,440 --> 00:03:22,440 Island. 35 00:03:22,440 --> 00:03:28,800 It's a tiny target for them to reach, but they're going to need to refuel there. 36 00:03:28,800 --> 00:03:34,840 Luckily, Earhart and Noonan have a helping hand. 37 00:03:34,840 --> 00:03:40,200 Anchored off the coast of the island is the Itasca, a US Coast Guard ship equipped with 38 00:03:40,200 --> 00:03:45,480 a radio transmitter to help guide them in. 39 00:03:45,480 --> 00:03:55,200 But as Earhart closes in, things start to unravel. 40 00:03:55,200 --> 00:04:03,040 She was unable to get a berry on the signal sent out by the Coast Guard. 41 00:04:03,040 --> 00:04:05,960 There's a problem with their radio transmissions. 42 00:04:05,960 --> 00:04:15,040 Howland Island wasn't there in front of them when they expected it to be. 43 00:04:15,040 --> 00:04:21,520 Earhart isn't receiving or responding to the messages being sent out by the ship. 44 00:04:21,520 --> 00:04:23,960 Earhart was calling the Itasca. 45 00:04:23,960 --> 00:04:30,480 Itasca was replying, but Earhart was not hearing their replies. 46 00:04:30,480 --> 00:04:38,400 The radio operators can only listen in horror as the drama unfolds, until all contact is 47 00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:45,800 lost. 48 00:04:45,800 --> 00:04:46,800 Where did they go? 49 00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:48,080 What happened to them? 50 00:04:48,080 --> 00:04:51,720 It's one of the greatest mysteries of our time. 51 00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:59,320 When Amelia Earhart was reported as overdue, missing, it was huge news all over the United 52 00:04:59,880 --> 00:05:01,880 States, all over the world. 53 00:05:01,880 --> 00:05:05,400 A massive rescue effort is launched. 54 00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:14,000 But after weeks of searching, Amelia Earhart is officially declared lost at sea. 55 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:21,480 It's concluded she must have crashed into the water somewhere close to Howland Island. 56 00:05:21,480 --> 00:05:27,040 The hunt for her aircraft deep beneath the waves continues to this day. 57 00:05:27,040 --> 00:05:32,000 Many people believe this lost at sea theory, but no trace has ever been found of a crash 58 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:35,200 around Howland Island. 59 00:05:35,200 --> 00:05:44,320 What if Amelia Earhart and her navigator didn't crash at sea at all? 60 00:05:44,320 --> 00:05:51,200 In the days following her disappearance, something happens that supports this possibility. 61 00:05:51,200 --> 00:05:56,680 People were saying that they were receiving signals, radio signals, even after the disappearance 62 00:05:56,760 --> 00:05:58,800 of the airplanes. 63 00:05:58,800 --> 00:06:03,040 These calls go on night after night. 64 00:06:03,040 --> 00:06:10,520 They're hearing Amelia Earhart very clearly saying, SOS, SOS, this is Amelia Earhart. 65 00:06:10,520 --> 00:06:16,160 But after finding no trace of Earhart or her plane, the official search dismisses these 66 00:06:16,160 --> 00:06:22,000 radio messages as false reports or hoaxes. 67 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:25,000 But what if they were real? 68 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:29,640 Will Amelia miraculously survive and make it to dry land? 69 00:06:29,640 --> 00:06:35,680 If so, the question is where? 70 00:06:35,680 --> 00:06:42,720 Our best piece of information about what happened in the final moments, hours of Earhart's 71 00:06:42,720 --> 00:06:46,240 flight are the radio logs. 72 00:06:46,240 --> 00:06:51,960 This real-time record was transcribed by the radio operators aboard the US Coast Guard 73 00:06:51,960 --> 00:06:55,960 vessel and it contains a tantalizing clue. 74 00:06:55,960 --> 00:07:07,520 The last thing they heard or say was, we are on the line 157337, running on the line north 75 00:07:07,520 --> 00:07:09,760 and south. 76 00:07:09,760 --> 00:07:16,200 These numbers refer to a fixed navigation line that runs directly through Howland Island. 77 00:07:16,200 --> 00:07:21,520 Amelia and Noonan were using it to try and get a fix on their location. 78 00:07:21,520 --> 00:07:25,040 So they're running on the line looking for Howland Island, which is what they should 79 00:07:25,040 --> 00:07:27,360 have done. 80 00:07:27,360 --> 00:07:33,400 Crucially around 400 miles to the south on the same line lies another small piece of 81 00:07:33,400 --> 00:07:37,240 land, Gardner Island. 82 00:07:37,240 --> 00:07:42,040 Gardner Island is a very small atoll. 83 00:07:42,040 --> 00:07:44,960 It's got a fringing roof and an internal lagoon. 84 00:07:44,960 --> 00:07:49,640 It's like an elongated triangle. 85 00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:57,720 This uninhabited island was searched back in 1937, but only from the air. 86 00:07:57,720 --> 00:08:03,040 Is it possible the official search missed something? 87 00:08:03,040 --> 00:08:08,560 For over 30 years, Rick Gillespie has been leading a team of multi-disciplined researchers 88 00:08:08,560 --> 00:08:14,760 who think this might be the case. 89 00:08:14,760 --> 00:08:19,960 In the 1990s, they launched a series of ambitious expeditions. 90 00:08:19,960 --> 00:08:27,800 We were the first people to go to that island and look for signs of a familiar heart. 91 00:08:27,800 --> 00:08:34,560 They searched for clues above and below the water, using everything from metal detectors 92 00:08:34,560 --> 00:08:38,920 to state-of-the-art sonar technology. 93 00:08:38,920 --> 00:08:47,240 And they uncover profound evidence, including a 1930s pocket knife and a glass bottle that 94 00:08:47,240 --> 00:08:52,200 used to contain women's antifreckle cream. 95 00:08:52,200 --> 00:08:56,640 What's all this stuff doing there? 96 00:08:56,640 --> 00:09:02,840 But it's not the decisive proof Rick and his team have travelled all this way to find. 97 00:09:02,840 --> 00:09:07,240 Are there any signs of a familiar's aircraft? 98 00:09:07,240 --> 00:09:13,200 Everybody talks about a smoking gun in the air heart mystery has to be the plane. 99 00:09:13,200 --> 00:09:15,360 Everybody wants the plane. 100 00:09:15,360 --> 00:09:20,800 Initially, there are no signs of it on the island or in the shallow reef that surrounds 101 00:09:20,800 --> 00:09:22,880 it. 102 00:09:22,880 --> 00:09:26,160 Then finally, a breakthrough. 103 00:09:26,160 --> 00:09:30,480 And there's this piece of aluminum land right there on the surface. 104 00:09:30,480 --> 00:09:36,040 At that point, you don't know whether it's something important or not. 105 00:09:36,040 --> 00:09:43,160 The thin metal sheet has lines of rivet holes, an unmistakable indication that it came from 106 00:09:43,160 --> 00:09:45,160 an aircraft. 107 00:09:45,160 --> 00:09:49,720 How did it get all the way out here to this uninhabited island? 108 00:09:49,720 --> 00:09:53,320 Are these the remains of Amelia Earhart's airplane? 109 00:09:53,320 --> 00:09:57,360 Is it the proof that she crashed somewhere near or even on this island? 110 00:10:06,840 --> 00:10:12,280 When a team of researchers scour a remote Pacific island for signs of the long lost 111 00:10:12,280 --> 00:10:17,120 aviator Amelia Earhart, they find a vital clue. 112 00:10:17,120 --> 00:10:22,920 A small piece of aluminum with telltale signs that it came from an aircraft. 113 00:10:22,920 --> 00:10:28,520 Raising the possibility that Earhart crash landed on the deserted island and lived out 114 00:10:28,520 --> 00:10:31,600 her days as a castaway. 115 00:10:31,600 --> 00:10:34,600 Could this possibly be the case? 116 00:10:35,320 --> 00:10:42,000 Could this possibly be part of Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra? 117 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:48,600 Rick's team begin the laborious task of comparing the rivet patterns on the aluminum with aircraft 118 00:10:48,600 --> 00:10:50,600 from the same period. 119 00:10:50,600 --> 00:10:57,480 We cannot forget that World War II is virtually contemporary with Amelia Earhart. 120 00:10:57,480 --> 00:11:03,400 Wreckage from World War II planes litters the Pacific Ocean. 121 00:11:03,400 --> 00:11:07,160 Does the aluminum sheet match with a Lockheed Electra? 122 00:11:07,160 --> 00:11:09,680 The pattern doesn't quite fit. 123 00:11:09,680 --> 00:11:13,760 It's like close but no cigar and it's got to be perfect. 124 00:11:13,760 --> 00:11:17,840 But it doesn't appear to match with any other aircraft either. 125 00:11:17,840 --> 00:11:18,840 We were stuck. 126 00:11:18,840 --> 00:11:23,480 We said we don't know where this thing came from. 127 00:11:23,480 --> 00:11:25,840 It's a devastating blow. 128 00:11:25,840 --> 00:11:30,840 What this piece of metal is and where it came from remain unclear. 129 00:11:34,400 --> 00:11:39,400 Could the answer be hiding in plain sight? 130 00:11:39,400 --> 00:11:45,400 Footage from Amelia's record-breaking journey shows one easily overlooked anomaly. 131 00:11:45,400 --> 00:11:50,400 You can see that there was a repair done to the plane where there's a piece of sheet metal 132 00:11:50,400 --> 00:11:55,400 that was added that you don't see in earlier legs of their trip. 133 00:11:55,400 --> 00:12:01,400 Earhart's plane had a small navigation window in the back right-hand side of the fuselage. 134 00:12:03,400 --> 00:12:08,400 But in later pictures, it's not there. 135 00:12:08,400 --> 00:12:13,400 They took that window out and covered the hole with a plain aluminum patch. 136 00:12:13,400 --> 00:12:19,400 This reignites interest in the aluminum sheet found on Gardner Island. 137 00:12:19,400 --> 00:12:26,400 A custom repair job might explain why the rivet markings don't match with the Lockheed Electra 138 00:12:26,400 --> 00:12:28,400 or any other aircraft. 139 00:12:28,400 --> 00:12:34,400 Rick and his team put this theory to the test by checking the size and shape of the window patch. 140 00:12:34,400 --> 00:12:40,400 It's almost like solving a puzzle and trying to figure out where the puzzle pieces fit. 141 00:12:40,400 --> 00:12:47,400 They find that the size of the patch and that of a mystery piece of aluminum are a perfect match. 142 00:12:50,400 --> 00:12:55,400 It's the biggest breakthrough yet, but not conclusive proof. 143 00:12:55,400 --> 00:13:02,400 For that, direct evidence is needed that ties this small piece of aluminum to Amelia's aircraft. 144 00:13:02,400 --> 00:13:10,400 Now we can use new technologies to help us gather more evidence and hopefully help us solve this mystery. 145 00:13:10,400 --> 00:13:20,400 In 2021, Penn State University offered to analyze the piece of aluminum using their own nuclear reactor. 146 00:13:20,400 --> 00:13:28,400 The team are using a neutron activation analysis to understand the construction of the metal. 147 00:13:28,400 --> 00:13:37,400 By showering it with radioactive neutrons, they may reveal subatomic clues hidden on the surface of the aluminum. 148 00:13:37,400 --> 00:13:44,400 Things like tiny traces of paint or indentations, for example, from serial marks. 149 00:13:44,400 --> 00:13:49,400 Things like that which you just wouldn't be able to see with the naked eye. 150 00:13:49,400 --> 00:13:53,400 We've gotten some preliminary reports from Penn State. 151 00:13:53,400 --> 00:14:01,400 The researchers, Daniel Beck and Allison Portanova, spot hidden inscriptions etched into the metal. 152 00:14:01,400 --> 00:14:09,400 Their system showed what appear to be three letters on the surface of the sheet. 153 00:14:09,400 --> 00:14:13,400 This new discovery could be a game changer. 154 00:14:13,400 --> 00:14:21,400 If these are tool marks or even better yet a serial number, this could be a direct link to Earhart's aircraft. 155 00:14:26,400 --> 00:14:37,400 For now, what the letters mean remains unknown, but the scientists at Penn State have plans to apply new, more refined filters to their neutron imaging equipment. 156 00:14:37,400 --> 00:14:45,400 With better resolution and more analysis, Rick and his team may be able to prove where this piece of aluminum came from, 157 00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:52,400 and the answer could finally solve one of the most puzzling aviation mysteries of all time. 158 00:14:52,400 --> 00:15:08,400 Over the past decade, hundreds of abandoned boats have washed up on the shores of Japan, 159 00:15:08,400 --> 00:15:13,400 from small wooden rowing boats to larger steel vessels. 160 00:15:13,400 --> 00:15:19,400 Where they come from and what happened to their crews is the subject of global speculation, 161 00:15:19,400 --> 00:15:27,400 but can breakthrough satellite technology finally help solve the mystery of Japan's ghost ships. 162 00:15:31,400 --> 00:15:40,400 Since 2017, the number of abandoned boats arriving on Japanese shores has increased to unprecedented levels. 163 00:15:40,400 --> 00:15:44,400 There are sometimes hundreds every year washing ashore. 164 00:15:45,400 --> 00:15:49,400 Where are these boats coming from? What has happened to their crew? 165 00:15:50,400 --> 00:15:58,400 Tragically, they aren't always empty. Some of these broken vessels contain the bodies of those who were sailing them. 166 00:16:00,400 --> 00:16:08,400 These corpses are occasionally found in a strange condition. Some are even missing their heads. 167 00:16:08,400 --> 00:16:11,400 Heads missing? Ooh. 168 00:16:12,400 --> 00:16:22,400 Ships are turning up on the western coast of Japan, full of corpses. What's going on here? 169 00:16:26,400 --> 00:16:32,400 The first step in unraveling this mystery is finding out where these boats are coming from. 170 00:16:33,400 --> 00:16:39,400 The local police launch an investigation. The results are perplexing. 171 00:16:39,400 --> 00:16:44,400 The Japanese authorities have identified that the vessels come from North Korea because of the artifacts within them. 172 00:16:44,400 --> 00:16:53,400 It's a breakthrough that only partially solves the puzzle. North Korea lies over 600 miles away. 173 00:16:54,400 --> 00:17:00,400 How are these boats ending up in Japanese waters? 174 00:17:03,400 --> 00:17:12,400 For many Japanese citizens, large numbers of mystery ships arriving from North Korea causes fear and paranoia. 175 00:17:13,400 --> 00:17:22,400 The context here is that relations between Japan and North Korea are very strained because of years and years of North Korean ballistic missile tests. 176 00:17:23,400 --> 00:17:27,400 In 2017, these missile tests ceased. 177 00:17:28,400 --> 00:17:35,400 Their end coincided with the dramatic increase of abandoned boats finding their way to Japan. 178 00:17:35,400 --> 00:17:48,400 But some people are convinced this is no coincidence and that instead of sending rockets towards Japan, the North Koreans are now sending ships full of spies. 179 00:17:53,400 --> 00:18:08,400 As hundreds of abandoned boats wash up along the western shores of Japan, many local residents suspect foul play. 180 00:18:08,400 --> 00:18:16,400 One new theory suggests these ghost ships actually belong to an unlikely group of people, North Korean spies. 181 00:18:17,400 --> 00:18:27,400 It's a suspicion born from years of distrust between the two nations and a long history of North Korean espionage on Japanese soil. 182 00:18:27,400 --> 00:18:33,400 Over recent decades, the North Korean state has abducted people from Japanese coastlines. 183 00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:41,400 No one knows how many citizens have been taken, but the authorities believe it could number in the hundreds. 184 00:18:41,400 --> 00:18:47,400 Are these so-called ghost ships simply a new tactic in this dirty war? 185 00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:52,400 Could the North Koreans now be sending spies to Japan in these boats? 186 00:18:54,400 --> 00:19:00,400 To find out, I'm talking to Professor Araki, an expert in North Korean politics. 187 00:19:01,400 --> 00:19:05,400 Have you investigated any of these ghost ships yourself? 188 00:19:11,400 --> 00:19:16,400 Have you found anything to support the idea they are being used by spies? 189 00:19:26,400 --> 00:19:28,400 Do you think this hat belonged to a spy? 190 00:19:41,400 --> 00:19:49,400 There are some groups that take fish from the North Korean army. 191 00:19:49,400 --> 00:20:00,400 They are being taken to Japan by the Japanese government. 192 00:20:02,400 --> 00:20:09,400 Professor Araki's theory is supported by the fishing equipment often found on board these abandoned vessels. 193 00:20:10,400 --> 00:20:14,400 It also partially solves another unexplained detail. 194 00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:20,400 Why some of these ghost ships still contain the decomposing corpses of their crew. 195 00:20:21,400 --> 00:20:28,400 So we know where these vessels are coming from and who owned them, but we still don't understand what's happening to them. 196 00:20:30,400 --> 00:20:36,400 Accidents at sea can and do happen, but why so many North Korean fishermen have been lost at sea defies explanation? 197 00:20:39,400 --> 00:20:45,400 The Sea of Japan is one of the most fiercely contested bodies of water in the world. 198 00:20:46,400 --> 00:20:56,400 The location of international boundaries is disputed and Japan, Russia, China and both South and North Korea all compete for the same fish. 199 00:20:58,400 --> 00:21:06,400 To get an edge in this highly competitive piece of water, some of these countries have been accused of deploying so-called dark fleets. 200 00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:12,400 They are fishing vessels that are doing their best to stay off the radar. 201 00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:21,400 These flotillas can comprise hundreds of ships and they often fish illegally in other countries' waters. 202 00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:27,400 They don't want to be detected by authorities or anybody that's monitoring them. 203 00:21:27,400 --> 00:21:37,400 Now, state-of-the-art satellite technology is helping researchers find these clandestine fishing fleets. 204 00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:45,400 So the fleets that were invisible and very, very hard to track now become trackable. 205 00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:53,400 Pictures beamed from space reveal huge numbers of Chinese fishing vessels operating in Korean waters. 206 00:21:54,400 --> 00:22:02,400 These illegal fleets are capable of decimating fish stocks and displacing North Korean fishermen. 207 00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:13,400 What we think is happening are these North Korean vessels are going further and further out into the sea to try and make their quotas, to try and catch the amount of fish they need. 208 00:22:14,400 --> 00:22:19,400 Most of these fishing vessels are not properly equipped for these sorts of long-distance voyages. 209 00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:24,400 They don't have anything to send out an SOS if they get into trouble. 210 00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:29,400 That crew, once they are beyond sight of land, are completely on their own. 211 00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:40,400 Equipment failure and dangerous seas may go some way towards explaining Japan's ghost ships. 212 00:22:41,400 --> 00:22:44,400 But one strange question remains unanswered. 213 00:22:44,400 --> 00:22:49,400 Why are some of the corpses found on board missing their heads? 214 00:22:50,400 --> 00:22:53,400 Around the world, fishing conflict is increasingly common. 215 00:22:56,400 --> 00:23:00,400 Have the international disputes on the Sea of Japan turned violent? 216 00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:03,400 Or is there a less sinister possibility? 217 00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:07,400 Could there be a natural explanation for this phenomenon? 218 00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:14,400 It's thought many of these ghost ships spend months at sea before reaching the Japanese coast. 219 00:23:15,400 --> 00:23:19,400 Some people have suggested that these heads were removed through natural decomposition processes. 220 00:23:23,400 --> 00:23:28,400 The tale of Japan's ghost ships is something straight out of a horror movie. 221 00:23:29,400 --> 00:23:36,400 But satellite technology has revealed that this real life story may in fact be about our over-exploiting history. 222 00:23:37,400 --> 00:23:39,400 The exploitation of the oceans. 223 00:23:40,400 --> 00:23:48,400 And by exposing and clamping down on illegal fishing, we may be in sight of bringing this gruesome phenomenon to an end. 224 00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:04,400 In 2019, a swimmer off the coast of Israel spots something unusual on the seabed. 225 00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:14,400 Beneath him is a strange stone tablet covered in what look like ancient hieroglyphs from the time of the Egyptian pharaohs. 226 00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:20,400 Can an ongoing investigation help reveal what this bizarre artifact is? 227 00:24:21,400 --> 00:24:26,400 Is it genuine? And if so, how did it find its way to the bottom of the sea? 228 00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:34,400 After his incredible underwater discovery, Rafi Bahlul alerts Israel's antiquities authorities, 229 00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:38,400 who dispatch a team to inspect and recover the artifact. 230 00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:46,400 The preservation is amazing. When you look at it, it almost looks as if it was made recently. 231 00:24:47,400 --> 00:24:51,400 Like perhaps it could be a fake, but in fact it's just very, very well preserved. 232 00:24:51,400 --> 00:24:58,400 If genuine, it's a wonder how this tablet has survived in such good condition, but that's not the only mystery. 233 00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:03,400 It is covered in what is unmistakably ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. 234 00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:12,400 Deciphering these markings may help reveal more about this strange stone and perhaps even its age. 235 00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:22,400 Only a handful of characters are carved into the rock, giving Israel's leading scholars very little to go on to decode this puzzle. 236 00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:32,400 Amazingly, they are able to use the style of the hieroglyphs to date the tablet to a specific era. 237 00:25:33,400 --> 00:25:39,400 The iconography and the inscription that was made on that slab was done over three years ago. 238 00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:46,400 It dates from the new kingdom, the golden age of ancient Egypt, when this once mighty empire was at its zenith. 239 00:25:47,400 --> 00:25:52,400 The markings on this stone refer to an ancient Egyptian goddess called Seshat. 240 00:25:54,400 --> 00:25:57,400 Seshat is the goddess of wisdom and knowledge. 241 00:25:58,400 --> 00:26:02,400 A lesser known deity seemed less frequently in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. 242 00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:07,400 She's usually only mentioned in very important temples that were built by pharaohs. 243 00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:12,400 So her appearance on a tablet found underwater is very mysterious. 244 00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:22,400 This vital clue suggests that the stone tablet is a small piece of an ancient Egyptian temple. 245 00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:29,400 Could the rest of the temple be a part of the ancient Egyptian temple? 246 00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:34,400 Could the rest of it still be here in the same patch of seabed? 247 00:26:35,400 --> 00:26:38,400 Is it a remnant of a lost city, of a lost settlement? 248 00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:42,400 Is it an Egyptian version of Atlantis? 249 00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:47,400 A strange stone tablet is found on the sea floor, close to the coast of Israel. 250 00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:54,400 And some people think its discovery might point to a lost settlement, hidden beneath the water. 251 00:26:55,400 --> 00:27:01,400 Could it be that here in the sea, the stone tablet is found on the sea floor, close to the coast of Israel? 252 00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:08,400 And some people think its discovery might point to a lost settlement, hidden beneath the water. 253 00:27:08,400 --> 00:27:13,400 Could it be that here we have a newly found ancient Egyptian temple or even a city on the seabed? 254 00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:23,400 It's a tantalizing possibility. 255 00:27:24,400 --> 00:27:33,400 But the hopes of finding an Egyptian Atlantis are quickly dashed by one critical anomaly, located at the bottom of the stone tablet. 256 00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:37,400 It has a hole cut or shaped into its side. 257 00:27:38,400 --> 00:27:43,400 This circular feature is a giveaway sign of the stone tablet's true purpose. 258 00:27:45,400 --> 00:27:51,400 What we have is an almost square rectangular stone with a large hole cut through it. 259 00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:56,400 In the Bronze Age, all anchors looked exactly like this. 260 00:27:57,400 --> 00:28:02,400 It's a revelation that helps explain why this stone tablet was found underwater. 261 00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:06,400 But something still doesn't make sense. 262 00:28:08,400 --> 00:28:13,400 Most other ancient Egyptian anchors are plain and simple in design. 263 00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:18,400 The mystery here is actually the quality of the tablet itself. 264 00:28:19,400 --> 00:28:22,400 The hieroglyphs are beautifully carved. 265 00:28:22,400 --> 00:28:24,400 They're very, very detailed and very clear. 266 00:28:25,400 --> 00:28:29,400 They must have been carved by a highly skilled stone mason. 267 00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:34,400 They say to us that this is something very special indeed. 268 00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:43,400 You might want to ask the question, well, if it's this beautiful inscription, why do something so mundane with it? 269 00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:48,400 Could the answer lie in ancient Egypt's world? 270 00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:55,400 Could the answer lie in ancient Egypt's reputation as a seafaring powerhouse? 271 00:28:56,400 --> 00:28:59,400 Ancient Egypt is one of the first maritime cultures in world history. 272 00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:11,400 Then, as now, ships are great symbols of wealth and power, so often Egyptian pharaohs like building really grandiose vessels to display the monumentalism of their reign. 273 00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:20,400 Is this stone anchor from a mega-yacht of the ancient world, perhaps even one belonging to a mighty pharaoh? 274 00:29:21,400 --> 00:29:26,400 It's an exciting theory, but not one that everybody is ready to accept. 275 00:29:27,400 --> 00:29:33,400 So if you look closely at this stone, it's very clear that some of the words are cut off in half. 276 00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:40,400 Israel's antiquities experts also notice this subtle detail, and more. 277 00:29:43,400 --> 00:29:50,400 At the bottom of the stone, the face of the goddess appears to have been purposely chiseled away. 278 00:29:51,400 --> 00:29:54,400 What could explain this unusual damage? 279 00:29:55,400 --> 00:30:07,400 This is a common thing that we see where certain iconography that has meaning or has some kind of religious or spiritual power might be removed, usually by people who don't believe in the same thing. 280 00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:12,400 Unfortunately, this was all too common in ancient Egypt. 281 00:30:13,400 --> 00:30:19,400 When one deity became less popular or for political reasons, people would go around defacing images of them. 282 00:30:20,400 --> 00:30:26,400 If this stone tablet is originally from a temple, how did it end up in the sea? 283 00:30:28,400 --> 00:30:38,400 This was clearly an architectural element from a building that was ripped off the building and cut up to be reused as a stone anchor. 284 00:30:39,400 --> 00:30:47,400 This appears to be some form of ancient recycling where a sailor needed an anchor and found this abandoned stone and then created an anchor out of it. 285 00:30:50,400 --> 00:30:58,400 The story of this strange stone tablet appears to be solved, but one detail remains unanswered. 286 00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:03,400 The one piece that's missing from this discussion is actually about the ship that the anchor came from. 287 00:31:04,400 --> 00:31:16,400 The identity of this vessel is unknown, but archaeologists suspect it may have sunk in a storm, explaining how this anchor finally came to rest on the seabed. 288 00:31:17,400 --> 00:31:25,400 This stone tablet remains an unparalleled discovery, one of the best preserved ancient Egyptian anchors ever found. 289 00:31:26,400 --> 00:31:34,400 And researchers are planning to return to the site where the anchor was found, hoping to unearth more treasures from the same shipwreck. 290 00:31:35,400 --> 00:31:44,400 New findings may finally reveal where the anchor came from and who it belonged to, thereby solving the last pieces of this puzzle. 291 00:31:46,400 --> 00:31:59,400 Are we alone in the universe? It's one of life's greatest mysteries. 292 00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:06,400 With recent advancements in space exploration, we've never been closer to knowing. 293 00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:23,400 To find out where to look for extraterrestrial life and what it might look like, astronomers are now turning their telescopes around and pointing them not at the stars, but down into the depths of the unexplored oceans. 294 00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:37,400 2013, an ROV operating in the Indian Ocean near a drilling site records something strange. 295 00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:44,400 What am I looking at here? Is it an animal? 296 00:32:46,400 --> 00:32:50,400 It morphs shape in front of their eyes. 297 00:32:54,400 --> 00:32:59,400 Before putting on a dazzling light display. 298 00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:09,400 It's only once the footage gets back to the surface that this creature is identified as a potentially rare, shape-shifting tenor four. 299 00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:20,400 This alien-looking life form is known to science, but what other strange creatures could remain undiscovered in our vast underwater world? 300 00:33:21,400 --> 00:33:31,400 70% of the surface of Earth is covered in ocean, yet 80% is unexplored, unobserved and unmapped. 301 00:33:34,400 --> 00:33:41,400 The underwater realm includes some of the world's most extreme environments. 302 00:33:43,400 --> 00:33:46,400 And it's filled with bizarre creatures. 303 00:33:46,400 --> 00:34:04,400 If we can find life, even the smallest, simplest examples of it, in unexpected places on our planet, this does raise the notion that we could perhaps find it in other places within our solar system. 304 00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:20,400 2017, a survey team drills holes to the seabed through 3,000 feet of Antarctic ice sheet. 305 00:34:21,400 --> 00:34:27,400 It's a very, very extreme situation, both in terms of temperature and lack of light. 306 00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:38,400 These pitch-black, sub-zero waters are one of the most hostile environments imaginable and an unlikely place to find signs of life. 307 00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:49,400 The scientists are here to collect mud samples from the seafloor, but they are stunned by what they find, hidden away beneath the ice. 308 00:34:50,400 --> 00:34:58,400 They spot 22 unidentified organisms, unknown to science, clinging to the side of a rock. 309 00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:04,400 Somehow, in the darkness, organisms manage to survive. 310 00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:09,400 How is this possible? What are these unknown creatures? 311 00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:28,400 When researchers drill holes beneath the thick Antarctic ice, they find something no one can explain. 312 00:35:29,400 --> 00:35:41,400 What researchers see underneath the Antarctic ice sheet are living creatures that are kilometers inside the edge of the shelf. 313 00:35:42,400 --> 00:35:50,400 These mysterious life forms appear to be unidentified types of sea stalks and sponges. 314 00:35:51,400 --> 00:35:54,400 Scientists do not expect to see animals in this environment. 315 00:35:56,400 --> 00:36:03,400 People are most familiar with photosynthesis, where organisms on planet Earth get their energy from the sun. 316 00:36:04,400 --> 00:36:07,400 That would be your plants, your algae, your phytoplankton. 317 00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:16,400 Finding life here is so strange because unlike most other food chains, no light penetrates this far beneath the ice sheet. 318 00:36:18,400 --> 00:36:26,400 Right now, scientists can only speculate how these creatures survive, but they think they might have evolved a unique way of gathering energy. 319 00:36:27,400 --> 00:36:38,400 We call it chemosynthesis, the ability for organisms to get energy from chemicals that they're surrounded with as opposed to getting energy directly from the sun. 320 00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:53,400 If life can survive on Earth in even the coldest and darkest environments, could it also survive in places even more extreme? 321 00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:59,400 The bottom of the ocean is a very mysterious place, about which we know very little. 322 00:37:01,400 --> 00:37:12,400 Its deepest parts are well over six miles beneath the surface. In this hostile environment, it's not just the lack of light that makes it so hard for life forms to survive. 323 00:37:13,400 --> 00:37:19,400 They have to be able to cope with the high pressure because of all of that water weight coming from above. 324 00:37:20,400 --> 00:37:23,400 It's a place that even scientists struggle to reach. 325 00:37:24,400 --> 00:37:30,400 At these depths, the pressure is the equivalent of putting one ton of weight on the tip of your finger. 326 00:37:32,400 --> 00:37:36,400 It takes specialized, reinforced submersibles to explore. 327 00:37:37,400 --> 00:37:43,400 But the few people brave enough to venture this deep have reported weird and wonderful encounters. 328 00:37:44,400 --> 00:37:51,400 Life in the deep ocean takes on forms that sometimes are even beyond our imaginations. 329 00:37:53,400 --> 00:37:59,400 And incredibly, it's not just in the water where we are making groundbreaking discoveries. 330 00:38:00,400 --> 00:38:10,400 In 2020, scientists examined core samples taken from hundreds of feet below the sea floor in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean. 331 00:38:13,400 --> 00:38:23,400 What emerges stuns them and biologists around the world and could reshape our understanding of life. 332 00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:43,400 When a team of scientists drill down deep beneath the floor of the Pacific Ocean, they find something they never expected. Life. 333 00:38:43,400 --> 00:38:53,400 The core samples that emerge contain colonies of bacteria somehow thriving in ancient volcanic rock below the seabed. 334 00:38:55,400 --> 00:39:01,400 We're talking about rock that could be anywhere from 10 million to 100 million years old. 335 00:39:02,400 --> 00:39:09,400 Stranger yet, the bacteria were found more than 400 feet beneath the sea floor. 336 00:39:10,400 --> 00:39:15,400 Leaving the puzzle of how they got here and how they survive. 337 00:39:16,400 --> 00:39:24,400 When these rocks formed and then cooled on the seabed, microcracks appeared which were later infilled by clay minerals. 338 00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:34,400 Trapped deep underground, it's speculated that the bacteria extract energy from chemicals in the surrounding clay. 339 00:39:35,400 --> 00:39:41,400 Their discovery could have radical implications for our search for extraterrestrial life. 340 00:39:42,400 --> 00:39:51,400 The key thing here is that conditions in the deep ocean beds are quite similar to some of the conditions on Mars. 341 00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:55,400 All evidence suggests Mars was once a water world. 342 00:39:56,400 --> 00:40:04,400 And though it lost its vast oceans billions of years ago, it could still have similar types of rock below its surface. 343 00:40:05,400 --> 00:40:19,400 If life can manage to survive within rocks that are 10 to 100 million years old in the deepest parts of the ocean, then certainly they should be able to handle the conditions that we see on many other planets. 344 00:40:20,400 --> 00:40:27,400 The discovery of these incredibly hardy bacteria could also add weight to an even more radical theory. 345 00:40:28,400 --> 00:40:31,400 Could life survive in the vacuum of outer space? 346 00:40:33,400 --> 00:40:44,400 Some scientists speculate that simple life could be incubated on asteroids and other space debris in a similar way to the bacteria found beneath the Pacific Ocean. 347 00:40:45,400 --> 00:40:49,400 We know that life first emerged on Earth at least 3.5 billion years ago, 348 00:40:50,400 --> 00:40:57,400 but the exact mechanisms and nature behind the emergence of the first Earth life forms remains mysterious. 349 00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:10,400 The conventional theory is that life emerged deep in our oceans around hydrothermal vents which spewed minerals and heat into the surrounding water. 350 00:41:11,400 --> 00:41:15,400 But there are alternative and more controversial theories. 351 00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:19,400 There's one theory called panspermia. 352 00:41:20,400 --> 00:41:26,400 That's the idea that life could potentially travel from one planetary body to the next. 353 00:41:27,400 --> 00:41:31,400 The idea of panspermia doesn't have a lot of evidence right now. 354 00:41:32,400 --> 00:41:41,400 However, some believe that this might actually be a reasonable explanation on how life began here on Earth. 355 00:41:44,400 --> 00:41:52,400 Discoveries being made in the deep corners of our oceans are radically changing our understanding of where and how life can survive. 356 00:41:53,400 --> 00:41:59,400 And these insights are helping scientists continue their search for life elsewhere in the cosmos. 357 00:42:01,400 --> 00:42:07,400 And may soon even lead us to the discovery of alien life on other worlds.