1 00:00:02,250 --> 00:00:06,210 NARRATOR: Astonishing sea creatures defy explanation. 2 00:00:06,300 --> 00:00:08,730 DAVID CHILDRESS: It’s like these creatures were 3 00:00:08,910 --> 00:00:12,420 brought here in their entirety and put into our oceans. 4 00:00:12,510 --> 00:00:15,930 NARRATOR: Ancient cultures worship fish-like gods. 5 00:00:16,110 --> 00:00:18,720 WILLIAM HENRY: This is a common theme that we find around the world. 6 00:00:18,810 --> 00:00:20,790 Humans that had aquatic features. 7 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:24,120 NARRATOR: Underwater life-forms display 8 00:00:24,210 --> 00:00:25,920 mysterious behavior. 9 00:00:26,010 --> 00:00:29,250 TOM ILIFFE: So they’re totally alien forms of life 10 00:00:29,430 --> 00:00:32,760 that have never been found anywhere else on the planet. 11 00:00:32,850 --> 00:00:36,180 NARRATOR: Scientists say we know more about the surface of Mars 12 00:00:36,270 --> 00:00:39,060 than we do about the bottom of our own oceans. 13 00:00:39,240 --> 00:00:43,200 But is it an even more alien environment 14 00:00:43,290 --> 00:00:45,360 than anyone could imagine? 15 00:00:45,450 --> 00:00:47,790 This is a extraterrestrial amino acid, I would say. 16 00:00:47,880 --> 00:00:53,010 Really? This is a revolutionary discovery. 17 00:00:53,190 --> 00:00:55,080 This could just be the opening of the door 18 00:00:55,260 --> 00:00:58,140 into the realization that our oceans 19 00:00:58,230 --> 00:01:00,570 are in fact a great extraterrestrial laboratory. 20 00:01:05,700 --> 00:01:07,680 NARRATOR: There is a doorway 21 00:01:07,770 --> 00:01:10,380 in the universe. 22 00:01:10,470 --> 00:01:14,430 Beyond it is the promise of truth. 23 00:01:14,520 --> 00:01:17,400 It demands we question everything 24 00:01:17,490 --> 00:01:19,740 we have ever been taught. 25 00:01:19,830 --> 00:01:23,160 The evidence is all around us. 26 00:01:23,250 --> 00:01:27,300 The future is right before our eyes. 27 00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:29,730 We are not alone. 28 00:01:29,820 --> 00:01:32,970 We have never been alone. 29 00:01:43,050 --> 00:01:46,560 NARRATOR: November 4, 2006. 30 00:01:46,650 --> 00:01:50,160 A video is anonymously posted on the Internet 31 00:01:50,340 --> 00:01:52,590 that appears to be underwater footage 32 00:01:52,680 --> 00:01:55,920 of a large, shadowy sea creature. 33 00:01:56,100 --> 00:01:58,530 While the footage is low quality, 34 00:01:58,620 --> 00:02:02,580 long arms and legs, or possibly a mermaid-like fin, 35 00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:06,180 can be made out as the creature draws nearer to the camera, 36 00:02:06,360 --> 00:02:10,860 and then the video abruptly ends. 37 00:02:10,950 --> 00:02:16,260 Information posted with the clip claims it shows the Ningen, 38 00:02:16,350 --> 00:02:18,690 a legendary sea creature said to lurk 39 00:02:18,870 --> 00:02:20,850 off the coast of Antarctica. 40 00:02:21,030 --> 00:02:24,450 While some suggest the footage was faked, 41 00:02:24,540 --> 00:02:26,700 other photos and videos of the Ningen 42 00:02:26,790 --> 00:02:29,130 have surfaced in recent years, 43 00:02:29,310 --> 00:02:31,470 and there are those who believe 44 00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:35,340 this disturbingly humanlike sea monster is real. 45 00:02:35,430 --> 00:02:37,770 JASON MARTELL: Now most people, when they saw the images of this Ningen, 46 00:02:37,950 --> 00:02:39,750 quickly dismissed it as a hoax, 47 00:02:39,930 --> 00:02:42,810 but things in the past, too, like the idea of a Kraken... 48 00:02:42,900 --> 00:02:45,510 some large squid... was never even thought possible 49 00:02:45,600 --> 00:02:47,310 until it was discovered. 50 00:02:47,490 --> 00:02:51,360 NARRATOR: History books are filled with sensational encounters 51 00:02:51,450 --> 00:02:53,700 with terrifying sea monsters. 52 00:02:53,790 --> 00:02:56,400 Many of these stories were derided as myth 53 00:02:56,580 --> 00:02:59,730 until evidence was found centuries after 54 00:02:59,820 --> 00:03:03,240 to indicate there was some truth to them. 55 00:03:03,330 --> 00:03:05,220 JONATHAN YOUNG: The sea is a primal force. 56 00:03:05,400 --> 00:03:07,200 It is deep, it is powerful, 57 00:03:07,380 --> 00:03:09,720 it is tempestuous, so it frightens us. 58 00:03:09,900 --> 00:03:14,490 So mariners’ tales of sea serpents, sea monsters go back 59 00:03:14,580 --> 00:03:18,180 to the earliest times of mythology and folklore. 60 00:03:18,360 --> 00:03:21,600 They represent some of our deepest terrors. 61 00:03:24,030 --> 00:03:25,740 NICK POPE: The ocean is a good example 62 00:03:25,830 --> 00:03:27,900 of this fact meets fiction scenario. 63 00:03:27,990 --> 00:03:30,510 You have stories like the Kraken 64 00:03:30,690 --> 00:03:32,850 and these giant sea monsters. 65 00:03:32,940 --> 00:03:36,000 And then the science catches up, so to speak, 66 00:03:36,090 --> 00:03:39,600 and we find that, yes, there are these giant squid down there. 67 00:03:39,780 --> 00:03:42,390 So that begs the question, what else might be down there? 68 00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:44,460 And, frankly, we haven’t got a clue. 69 00:03:46,800 --> 00:03:49,950 HENRY: As we venture deeper and deeper into the ocean, 70 00:03:50,040 --> 00:03:52,560 there’s no telling what we’re gonna find, 71 00:03:52,650 --> 00:03:54,540 but one thing will be certain: 72 00:03:54,720 --> 00:03:57,330 it will be absolutely mind-blowing. 73 00:03:59,670 --> 00:04:02,910 NARRATOR: Could the Ningen and other even more incredible creatures 74 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:04,800 that we have yet to encounter 75 00:04:04,980 --> 00:04:08,220 be hiding out in the depths of Earth’s oceans? 76 00:04:08,310 --> 00:04:13,710 Incredibly, the world that we know and inhabit, above water, 77 00:04:13,890 --> 00:04:17,940 represents only one percent of the planet’s livable space. 78 00:04:18,120 --> 00:04:23,250 99% belongs to the oceans, 79 00:04:23,430 --> 00:04:27,390 and less than ten percent of that space has been explored. 80 00:04:29,730 --> 00:04:32,790 KIRSTEN FISHER: The ocean does represent probably the last real, like, 81 00:04:32,970 --> 00:04:35,490 unexplored area of the Earth. 82 00:04:35,580 --> 00:04:37,290 Uh, the surface of the ocean floor 83 00:04:37,380 --> 00:04:39,360 is largely uncharacterized. 84 00:04:41,790 --> 00:04:43,950 GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: It’s kind of strange when you think about it 85 00:04:44,040 --> 00:04:46,020 because we know more 86 00:04:46,110 --> 00:04:49,800 about the surface of the Moon and the surface of Mars 87 00:04:49,980 --> 00:04:52,050 than we know about the ocean floors. 88 00:04:52,140 --> 00:04:55,560 NARRATOR: Up until 1875, 89 00:04:55,740 --> 00:04:57,900 the mainstream scientific viewpoint 90 00:04:57,990 --> 00:05:00,690 was that living organisms could not exist 91 00:05:00,870 --> 00:05:04,200 more than 1800 feet beneath the surface of the ocean. 92 00:05:04,290 --> 00:05:07,350 But then a scientific expedition 93 00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:10,410 discovered over 4,700 new types of sea life 94 00:05:10,590 --> 00:05:13,020 beneath that depth. 95 00:05:13,110 --> 00:05:15,180 And an even more remarkable discovery 96 00:05:15,360 --> 00:05:18,870 would be made more than 100 years later. 97 00:05:22,020 --> 00:05:25,080 February 1977. 98 00:05:25,170 --> 00:05:29,760 250 miles northeast of the Galápagos Islands. 99 00:05:29,850 --> 00:05:33,270 Scientists make a remarkable discovery 100 00:05:33,360 --> 00:05:36,870 more than 8,000 feet below the surface... 101 00:05:37,050 --> 00:05:41,010 near a hydrothermal vent in the ocean floor 102 00:05:41,100 --> 00:05:45,060 where no life is thought to exist. 103 00:05:45,240 --> 00:05:46,860 To their astonishment, 104 00:05:47,040 --> 00:05:50,190 the area is teeming with creatures unlike anything 105 00:05:50,280 --> 00:05:53,160 ever witnessed on Earth. 106 00:05:53,340 --> 00:05:56,580 ILIFFE: When they first came upon these deep sea vents, 107 00:05:56,670 --> 00:05:59,640 they found giant tube worms, Riftia, 108 00:05:59,820 --> 00:06:02,880 that are amazing size 109 00:06:02,970 --> 00:06:05,220 and beautifully colored, 110 00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:08,730 all sorts of shrimp 111 00:06:08,820 --> 00:06:11,970 and crabs and fish living around these vents. 112 00:06:12,060 --> 00:06:15,840 So they’re totally alien forms of life 113 00:06:15,930 --> 00:06:18,990 that have never been found anywhere else on the planet. 114 00:06:19,170 --> 00:06:22,680 NARRATOR: Central to the underwater ecosystem 115 00:06:22,770 --> 00:06:25,470 is an unusual food source. 116 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:27,990 FISHER: Bacteria exists at these vent sites. 117 00:06:28,170 --> 00:06:30,600 In the absence of light, they do something that’s analogous 118 00:06:30,780 --> 00:06:34,020 to photosynthesis that we call chemosynthesis. 119 00:06:34,110 --> 00:06:36,000 They actually take these sulfur-containing compounds 120 00:06:36,180 --> 00:06:38,790 to generate their energy for their cells, essentially. 121 00:06:38,880 --> 00:06:43,110 NARRATOR: The discovery transforms the field of marine biology. 122 00:06:43,290 --> 00:06:46,800 Considering the fact that these extraordinary creatures 123 00:06:46,890 --> 00:06:50,130 have been found, is it also possible 124 00:06:50,310 --> 00:06:52,920 that so-called sea monsters presumed to be mythological, 125 00:06:53,010 --> 00:06:55,080 such as the Ningen of Antarctica, 126 00:06:55,170 --> 00:06:57,870 could exist as well? 127 00:06:58,050 --> 00:07:00,390 While no physical evidence of the Ningen 128 00:07:00,480 --> 00:07:02,010 has come to light yet, 129 00:07:02,190 --> 00:07:05,160 there is proof of an equally mystifying creature 130 00:07:05,340 --> 00:07:06,960 that lurks in the depths: 131 00:07:07,050 --> 00:07:12,450 Turritopsis dohrnii, or the immortal jellyfish. 132 00:07:12,540 --> 00:07:16,770 The immortal jellyfish, when conditions become adverse, 133 00:07:16,860 --> 00:07:19,830 maybe temperatures become too high, 134 00:07:20,010 --> 00:07:22,440 salinity changes, 135 00:07:22,530 --> 00:07:26,850 these animals revert to a juvenile stage 136 00:07:27,030 --> 00:07:28,830 from the adult stage 137 00:07:29,010 --> 00:07:33,600 and basically start life all over again. 138 00:07:33,690 --> 00:07:37,110 So it basically just keeps r... rewinding its development 139 00:07:37,290 --> 00:07:39,000 over and over again. 140 00:07:39,090 --> 00:07:41,340 In the lab, there are some lines of immortal jellyfish 141 00:07:41,430 --> 00:07:43,050 that haven’t experienced death yet, 142 00:07:43,230 --> 00:07:44,580 um, they’ve just been cycling 143 00:07:44,670 --> 00:07:46,740 through their developmental stages repeatedly. 144 00:07:46,830 --> 00:07:50,340 NARRATOR: A jellyfish that has the potential to live forever? 145 00:07:50,520 --> 00:07:53,850 But how is it possible that a creature could exist on Earth 146 00:07:53,940 --> 00:07:57,720 that is so unlike any other life-form yet discovered, 147 00:07:57,900 --> 00:08:02,040 and that scientists still struggle to explain? 148 00:08:02,130 --> 00:08:05,100 Ancient astronaut theorists suggest there could be 149 00:08:05,280 --> 00:08:09,240 a very simple answer: that the immortal jellyfish, 150 00:08:09,330 --> 00:08:11,760 and perhaps other bizarre creatures of the deep, 151 00:08:11,940 --> 00:08:17,430 are not native to this planet, but arrived here from space. 152 00:08:17,610 --> 00:08:22,290 On August 19, 2014, 153 00:08:22,380 --> 00:08:25,440 Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station 154 00:08:25,620 --> 00:08:27,600 made an incredible discovery. 155 00:08:27,690 --> 00:08:30,300 Clinging to the exterior of the windows 156 00:08:30,390 --> 00:08:33,630 was an organism commonly found underwater: 157 00:08:33,720 --> 00:08:36,960 sea plankton. 158 00:08:37,140 --> 00:08:40,650 CHANDRA WICKRAMASINGHE: Recent findings of sea plankton 159 00:08:40,740 --> 00:08:42,810 on the outside of the space station 160 00:08:42,900 --> 00:08:44,610 is really very interesting. 161 00:08:44,790 --> 00:08:47,760 I, personally, have collaborated with the group 162 00:08:47,940 --> 00:08:50,910 of very distinguished scientists who are involved in this, 163 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:54,150 and we concluded that there’s no way 164 00:08:54,240 --> 00:08:58,920 in which microbes can be lofted to 400 kilometers 165 00:08:59,010 --> 00:09:02,700 from the surface, so they have to come from outside. 166 00:09:04,680 --> 00:09:07,110 NARRATOR: Has Dr. Chandra Wickramasinghe, 167 00:09:07,290 --> 00:09:10,260 along with his colleagues, found irrefutable evidence 168 00:09:10,350 --> 00:09:12,780 of alien life that is able to survive 169 00:09:12,960 --> 00:09:15,120 the extreme conditions of outer space 170 00:09:15,210 --> 00:09:18,270 and potentially travel to Earth? 171 00:09:18,450 --> 00:09:21,960 And could the fact that it was found to be plankton 172 00:09:22,140 --> 00:09:24,750 indicate that life-forms coming from space 173 00:09:24,840 --> 00:09:27,270 are capable of surviving in Earth’s oceans? 174 00:09:29,250 --> 00:09:32,040 TSOUKALOS: Here’s what’s so crazy, we’ve discovered 175 00:09:32,130 --> 00:09:37,170 new creatures and new species in places where, 20 years ago, 176 00:09:37,350 --> 00:09:39,600 it was scientific fact 177 00:09:39,780 --> 00:09:43,740 that no life could exist in those places. 178 00:09:43,920 --> 00:09:45,630 We now have even found fish 179 00:09:45,630 --> 00:09:50,220 at the bottom of the deepest spots of the ocean 180 00:09:50,400 --> 00:09:53,010 where even a submarine could get crushed, 181 00:09:53,190 --> 00:09:56,970 and there’s living fish down there, how is that possible? 182 00:09:57,060 --> 00:09:59,850 It shouldn’t work on Earth, but it does, 183 00:10:00,030 --> 00:10:03,540 so my question is: are some of those creatures 184 00:10:03,630 --> 00:10:06,330 directly imported from somewhere else? 185 00:10:08,310 --> 00:10:10,110 NARRATOR: Immortal jellyfish. 186 00:10:10,200 --> 00:10:12,270 Giant worms. 187 00:10:12,360 --> 00:10:15,150 Possible humanoid sea monsters. 188 00:10:15,330 --> 00:10:18,390 Might the many bizarre creatures found 189 00:10:18,480 --> 00:10:23,700 in Earth’s oceans not be from Earth at all? 190 00:10:23,790 --> 00:10:27,120 And if alien life-forms really do inhabit our seas, 191 00:10:27,210 --> 00:10:29,730 did they arrive here by accident? 192 00:10:29,910 --> 00:10:32,520 Or were they sent here deliberately 193 00:10:32,700 --> 00:10:35,760 as part of an extraterrestrial agenda? 194 00:10:35,850 --> 00:10:40,350 Perhaps further clues can be found by examining an object 195 00:10:40,440 --> 00:10:43,230 that recently crash-landed on Earth 196 00:10:43,320 --> 00:10:46,830 carrying cargo that has the potential to create life. 197 00:10:54,300 --> 00:10:57,720 NARRATOR: December 1974. 198 00:10:57,900 --> 00:11:00,780 Cambridge University Professor of Astronomy, 199 00:11:00,870 --> 00:11:04,560 Dr. Chandra Wickramasinghe, publishes an article 200 00:11:04,650 --> 00:11:09,600 in Nature magazine that sets the scientific community abuzz. 201 00:11:09,690 --> 00:11:12,300 For decades, 202 00:11:12,390 --> 00:11:15,000 the mainstream viewpoint has been that life on Earth 203 00:11:15,090 --> 00:11:19,230 spontaneously arose from a so-called "primordial soup," 204 00:11:19,410 --> 00:11:23,460 or organic compounds in the planet’s primitive oceans. 205 00:11:23,640 --> 00:11:26,250 But scientists are still uncertain 206 00:11:26,340 --> 00:11:29,310 as to just how life would’ve been able to develop 207 00:11:29,400 --> 00:11:31,830 from inanimate matter. 208 00:11:32,010 --> 00:11:35,880 Instead, Dr. Wickramasinghe suggests 209 00:11:35,970 --> 00:11:38,850 that life didn’t start on Earth at all, 210 00:11:39,030 --> 00:11:41,280 but was delivered to our planet 211 00:11:41,370 --> 00:11:44,880 on meteorites and comets. 212 00:11:44,970 --> 00:11:48,300 The concept is known as "panspermia." 213 00:11:48,480 --> 00:11:51,090 Every single textbook on biology 214 00:11:51,180 --> 00:11:55,050 that, uh, we would’ve studied maybe ten, 20 years ago 215 00:11:55,230 --> 00:12:00,180 starts with the story of the primordial soup. 216 00:12:00,270 --> 00:12:03,330 There is no evidence for this at all, 217 00:12:03,510 --> 00:12:06,930 and so the alternative to the primordial soup theory 218 00:12:07,020 --> 00:12:09,990 is that life did not start here on the Earth, 219 00:12:10,170 --> 00:12:11,610 but came from outside. 220 00:12:13,770 --> 00:12:16,470 TSOUKALOS: There are two types of panspermia: 221 00:12:16,560 --> 00:12:20,070 one which is just panspermia, which suggests 222 00:12:20,160 --> 00:12:23,850 that life was carried on the backs of comets 223 00:12:24,030 --> 00:12:25,830 throughout the universe. 224 00:12:25,920 --> 00:12:29,340 So it’s a natural seeding of the planets. 225 00:12:29,430 --> 00:12:31,500 Now, the second term is what’s called 226 00:12:31,590 --> 00:12:36,720 directed panspermia and the definition behind that is 227 00:12:36,810 --> 00:12:39,780 that an intelligent technological species 228 00:12:39,960 --> 00:12:41,940 on a distant planet 229 00:12:42,120 --> 00:12:45,630 deliberately sent out building blocks of life 230 00:12:45,720 --> 00:12:49,950 to particular planets, so the idea is 231 00:12:50,130 --> 00:12:53,280 that Earth, perhaps, a long time ago, 232 00:12:53,370 --> 00:12:56,250 was seeded by extraterrestrials. 233 00:12:58,320 --> 00:13:00,570 NARRATOR: For decades, mainstream scientists 234 00:13:00,660 --> 00:13:04,080 have dismissed the theory of panspermia on the basis 235 00:13:04,170 --> 00:13:08,580 that life could not survive the extreme conditions of space. 236 00:13:08,670 --> 00:13:12,090 But a recent discovery could prove that notion wrong, 237 00:13:12,270 --> 00:13:14,610 and possibly provide physical evidence 238 00:13:14,700 --> 00:13:17,580 that panspermia not only occurred, 239 00:13:17,760 --> 00:13:20,550 but continues to affect life on Earth. 240 00:13:25,410 --> 00:13:28,200 Milton Keynes, England. 241 00:13:28,290 --> 00:13:30,900 March 2019. 242 00:13:30,990 --> 00:13:35,580 Ancient astronaut theorist Giorgio Tsoukalos 243 00:13:35,760 --> 00:13:38,010 travels to The Open University 244 00:13:38,190 --> 00:13:41,250 to meet with planetary scientist Dr. Queenie Chan. 245 00:13:41,340 --> 00:13:43,050 Dr. Chan? 246 00:13:43,230 --> 00:13:44,940 -Giorgio! -Hello. 247 00:13:45,030 --> 00:13:46,380 -Great pleasure to meet you. -Welcome here. 248 00:13:46,560 --> 00:13:47,820 Nice to meet you, too. Welcome. 249 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:49,620 Thank you so much for bringing me here. 250 00:13:49,710 --> 00:13:52,410 NARRATOR: Dr. Chan recently analyzed 251 00:13:52,590 --> 00:13:55,920 two meteorites recovered in 1998 252 00:13:56,010 --> 00:13:58,620 and discovered something incredibly unexpected, 253 00:13:58,800 --> 00:14:03,930 a salt crystal containing liquid water. 254 00:14:04,110 --> 00:14:06,180 Giorgio is eager to find out 255 00:14:06,270 --> 00:14:09,150 what the implications of this discovery could be, 256 00:14:09,240 --> 00:14:12,480 and if it might provide further evidence that life on Earth 257 00:14:12,570 --> 00:14:16,530 was seeded by extraterrestrials. 258 00:14:16,620 --> 00:14:18,600 So here we’ve got a box 259 00:14:18,780 --> 00:14:21,300 full of heavy meteorites. (chuckles) 260 00:14:21,480 --> 00:14:23,010 Oh, wow. 261 00:14:23,100 --> 00:14:26,250 Within a stony meteorite, we’ve got something called 262 00:14:26,430 --> 00:14:29,400 the chondritic meteorite. They are interesting because 263 00:14:29,490 --> 00:14:31,560 they have organic materials in it. 264 00:14:33,810 --> 00:14:35,070 The meteorite that I found 265 00:14:35,250 --> 00:14:38,850 extremely interesting, uh, special, 266 00:14:38,940 --> 00:14:42,270 two meteorites, actually... Zag and Monahans meteorite. 267 00:14:42,360 --> 00:14:45,240 They are both ordinary chondrites, 268 00:14:45,330 --> 00:14:47,580 but they are not ordinary. (chuckles) 269 00:14:49,290 --> 00:14:53,070 They both fell to Earth in 1998. 270 00:14:53,160 --> 00:14:55,590 And what’s more interesting is, 271 00:14:55,770 --> 00:14:58,650 both of these meteorite has salt crystal, 272 00:14:58,740 --> 00:15:02,160 that stunning blue coloration to them. 273 00:15:02,250 --> 00:15:05,940 More interesting is, within this salt crystals, 274 00:15:06,030 --> 00:15:07,380 we found water, 275 00:15:07,470 --> 00:15:10,890 liquid water inclusion within them. 276 00:15:11,070 --> 00:15:12,780 I’m trying to wrap my mind around this. 277 00:15:12,960 --> 00:15:14,310 So you’re telling me 278 00:15:14,400 --> 00:15:16,110 that you found meteorites that actually contain 279 00:15:16,290 --> 00:15:19,260 liquid water in them. What would you say 280 00:15:19,350 --> 00:15:21,150 to someone who would argue that maybe 281 00:15:21,330 --> 00:15:23,400 the water entered the meteorite 282 00:15:23,580 --> 00:15:25,200 -after it fell on Earth? -We were lucky 283 00:15:25,290 --> 00:15:28,260 because they both fell in a dry condition, 284 00:15:28,440 --> 00:15:30,600 and they were retrieved really quickly 285 00:15:30,690 --> 00:15:32,760 once they... we observed the fall. 286 00:15:32,850 --> 00:15:34,920 So it was not contaminated by the rain. 287 00:15:35,100 --> 00:15:36,990 Okay. 288 00:15:37,080 --> 00:15:38,520 Should we have a look at it in the clean lab? 289 00:15:38,610 --> 00:15:40,050 Yes, please, that would be amazing. 290 00:15:42,930 --> 00:15:44,910 NARRATOR: Before they can examine 291 00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:48,960 the meteorite sample, Giorgio and Dr. Chan change 292 00:15:49,050 --> 00:15:51,120 into protective gear that will keep the laboratory sterile. 293 00:15:53,910 --> 00:15:56,880 All right. 294 00:15:57,060 --> 00:15:59,400 -And so this is it? -This is it. 295 00:15:59,580 --> 00:16:01,470 -Should we have a look under the microscope? -Yes, please, yes. 296 00:16:04,260 --> 00:16:07,500 Trying to move that in focus now. 297 00:16:07,680 --> 00:16:09,840 There it is. 298 00:16:09,930 --> 00:16:13,620 I’m going to enlarge it on my screen. 299 00:16:13,800 --> 00:16:18,030 This is it. You’re looking at a speck of water in a meteorite. 300 00:16:18,120 --> 00:16:19,650 This is the first time that we’ve found 301 00:16:19,740 --> 00:16:22,530 amino acids with water. 302 00:16:22,710 --> 00:16:24,420 This is extraordinary. 303 00:16:24,600 --> 00:16:27,930 NARRATOR: Amino acids? 304 00:16:28,020 --> 00:16:31,530 These organic compounds are the building blocks of life, 305 00:16:31,620 --> 00:16:33,420 so finding them within liquid water 306 00:16:33,600 --> 00:16:36,840 on a meteorite is extraordinary. 307 00:16:36,930 --> 00:16:41,610 Could alien proteins like these have started life on Earth? 308 00:16:44,040 --> 00:16:45,750 One of the exciting things about the discovery 309 00:16:45,840 --> 00:16:48,630 of the blue salt crystals in the asteroids that crashed to Earth 310 00:16:48,810 --> 00:16:51,600 is really the amino acids. 311 00:16:51,690 --> 00:16:53,940 Amino acids are the building block of protein, 312 00:16:54,120 --> 00:16:57,810 and so it really shows that Earth isn’t the only place 313 00:16:57,900 --> 00:17:01,950 where the right chemistry exists for which you can get life. 314 00:17:02,130 --> 00:17:06,720 MICHIO KAKU: The panspermia theory cannot be dismissed, 315 00:17:06,810 --> 00:17:10,680 and one reason is as follows: in the early Earth, we were hit 316 00:17:10,770 --> 00:17:12,480 by meteors and asteroids, 317 00:17:12,660 --> 00:17:16,260 so our oceans probably boiled off many times in the past, 318 00:17:16,350 --> 00:17:19,320 making life impossible. 319 00:17:19,410 --> 00:17:22,650 But then when the solar system became quiet 320 00:17:22,830 --> 00:17:25,800 and we had oceans... boom... life gets off the ground. 321 00:17:25,890 --> 00:17:29,760 NARRATOR: Scientists are finding more and more evidence 322 00:17:29,850 --> 00:17:31,830 that shows organic material arrived here 323 00:17:32,010 --> 00:17:34,890 from other worlds billions of years ago, 324 00:17:34,980 --> 00:17:38,490 and some believe that process continues to this day. 325 00:17:38,670 --> 00:17:39,840 What is this? 326 00:17:40,020 --> 00:17:42,000 -This is a NanoSIMS. -Okay. 327 00:17:42,090 --> 00:17:44,970 It’s capable of doing isotopic analysis. 328 00:17:45,060 --> 00:17:46,680 NARRATOR: In another laboratory, 329 00:17:46,770 --> 00:17:49,470 Dr. Chan shows Giorgio the machine that analyzed 330 00:17:49,560 --> 00:17:53,520 the meteorite samples on a nanometer scale. 331 00:17:53,700 --> 00:17:56,760 The results are then displayed on a computer screen, 332 00:17:56,940 --> 00:17:59,010 showing a comparison between amino acids 333 00:17:59,100 --> 00:18:02,700 found on Earth and those that arrived here from space. 334 00:18:02,790 --> 00:18:06,210 This is very interesting, because, uh, first of all, 335 00:18:06,300 --> 00:18:08,010 we’re seeing a bunch of amino acids 336 00:18:08,100 --> 00:18:11,520 that are common in-in terrestrial life, 337 00:18:11,700 --> 00:18:13,860 and over here, we’ve got other extraterrestrial 338 00:18:14,040 --> 00:18:15,750 -amino acid inside. -Really? 339 00:18:15,840 --> 00:18:19,170 This is a revolutionary discovery. 340 00:18:19,260 --> 00:18:24,210 I immediately go to the idea of panspermia... that life 341 00:18:24,300 --> 00:18:28,620 has been brought throughout the entire galaxy by means 342 00:18:28,800 --> 00:18:31,950 with which we can’t even fathom how it was done. 343 00:18:32,040 --> 00:18:33,840 The building blocks of protein 344 00:18:34,020 --> 00:18:36,990 that we know to be necessary for life, these very 345 00:18:37,080 --> 00:18:39,780 building blocks, the same amino acids that we found on Earth, 346 00:18:39,870 --> 00:18:42,480 is ubiquitous in the, in the universe. 347 00:18:42,660 --> 00:18:44,910 It’s everywhere. It’s found on-on asteroid. 348 00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:46,800 It’s found on-on comets, too. 349 00:18:46,980 --> 00:18:49,770 So, in your estimation, what is the likelihood 350 00:18:49,860 --> 00:18:53,820 of life having begun elsewhere? 351 00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:56,340 We’ve got so many different galaxies 352 00:18:56,430 --> 00:18:57,960 and there are so many Earth-like planets, 353 00:18:58,140 --> 00:19:02,100 and, uh, we-we could have water elsewhere. 354 00:19:02,190 --> 00:19:04,440 We-we know that amino acids, the building blocks of life, 355 00:19:04,530 --> 00:19:05,790 are ubiquitous, 356 00:19:05,970 --> 00:19:09,390 um, so I think it-it’s totally possible. 357 00:19:11,010 --> 00:19:15,240 Thank you so much for sharing this information with me. 358 00:19:15,330 --> 00:19:17,130 I think this has been one of the most enlightening 359 00:19:17,310 --> 00:19:18,570 conversations that I’ve ever had. 360 00:19:18,750 --> 00:19:20,730 -So thank you for your time. -Thank you very much. 361 00:19:20,910 --> 00:19:22,350 -Yup. Good to have you here. -Thank you. All right. 362 00:19:25,770 --> 00:19:27,930 NARRATOR: Are the seeds of life being sent to Earth 363 00:19:28,020 --> 00:19:30,990 inside meteorites and possibly developing 364 00:19:31,170 --> 00:19:33,510 new alien species in the deepest parts 365 00:19:33,600 --> 00:19:34,860 of our oceans? 366 00:19:35,040 --> 00:19:36,930 And if so, 367 00:19:37,020 --> 00:19:39,270 to what end? 368 00:19:39,450 --> 00:19:41,700 Perhaps further clues can be found 369 00:19:41,880 --> 00:19:45,660 by examining one of the most mysterious and intelligent 370 00:19:45,750 --> 00:19:47,280 creatures in the sea: 371 00:19:47,370 --> 00:19:49,260 the octopus. 372 00:19:55,650 --> 00:19:58,350 NARRATOR: March 2018. 373 00:19:58,440 --> 00:20:02,670 A scientific paper sparks a sensation in the press. 374 00:20:02,850 --> 00:20:05,730 In it, a team of 33 scientists, 375 00:20:05,820 --> 00:20:08,700 including Dr. Chandra Wickramasinghe, 376 00:20:08,880 --> 00:20:13,740 claim that octopuses possess extraterrestrial DNA. 377 00:20:13,830 --> 00:20:18,420 What we find in the octopus genome is just almost uncanny. 378 00:20:21,030 --> 00:20:25,620 It has something like 50,000 genes. 379 00:20:25,800 --> 00:20:27,780 Compare that with the human, 380 00:20:27,870 --> 00:20:30,840 which has something like 25,000 genes. 381 00:20:31,020 --> 00:20:33,270 So the octopus, in many ways, 382 00:20:33,360 --> 00:20:37,050 appears to be more complex than the human. 383 00:20:37,230 --> 00:20:39,750 Now how did this complexity manifest itself? 384 00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:41,820 There’s ample evidence to suggest 385 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:43,710 that it came from outside. 386 00:20:43,800 --> 00:20:46,680 CHILDRESS: As scientists study octopi, 387 00:20:46,770 --> 00:20:50,100 they’re amazed at what they’re finding, and they’re not seeing 388 00:20:50,280 --> 00:20:53,970 a connection to some ancestor of the octopi. 389 00:20:54,060 --> 00:20:57,750 It’s like these creatures were brought here, in their entirety, 390 00:20:57,840 --> 00:20:59,730 and put into our oceans. 391 00:20:59,820 --> 00:21:04,140 FISHER: The octopus is a really fascinating organism. 392 00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:07,200 The octopus’s brain, instead of just being centered 393 00:21:07,290 --> 00:21:11,070 in its head like ours, is actually distributed. 394 00:21:11,160 --> 00:21:13,680 And there are these brains in their arms, 395 00:21:13,770 --> 00:21:15,570 as well as the essential brain in their head. 396 00:21:15,750 --> 00:21:19,080 ILIFFE: An octopus can certainly 397 00:21:19,170 --> 00:21:21,420 manipulate its environment. 398 00:21:21,600 --> 00:21:23,400 It builds its own homes 399 00:21:23,490 --> 00:21:27,450 by piling rocks and shells on top of it. 400 00:21:29,880 --> 00:21:33,930 FISHER: Octopuses are very adept at camouflaging themselves 401 00:21:34,110 --> 00:21:37,170 by changing their color to that of their surroundings. 402 00:21:37,260 --> 00:21:38,250 Really, really quickly, I mean, almost... 403 00:21:38,430 --> 00:21:40,050 it looks instantaneous to us. 404 00:21:40,140 --> 00:21:43,020 It can also manipulate its body into different shapes 405 00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:45,630 to imitate other animals. 406 00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:50,580 NARRATOR: Some scientists have speculated 407 00:21:50,760 --> 00:21:52,020 that in the absence of humans, 408 00:21:52,110 --> 00:21:54,540 the animal best suited to evolve 409 00:21:54,630 --> 00:21:56,880 into the dominant species on the planet 410 00:21:57,060 --> 00:22:00,390 is not another primate, but the octopus. 411 00:22:00,480 --> 00:22:03,360 And there is one ability in particular 412 00:22:03,540 --> 00:22:07,770 that suggests the octopus could one day rule the Earth: 413 00:22:07,950 --> 00:22:12,000 it can edit its own genetic code. 414 00:22:12,090 --> 00:22:16,680 ILIFFE: DNA, the double helix, is like a zipper. 415 00:22:16,770 --> 00:22:20,190 The zipper can be unzipped, 416 00:22:20,370 --> 00:22:23,790 and then another molecule is created, 417 00:22:23,880 --> 00:22:26,490 called RNA. 418 00:22:26,670 --> 00:22:30,540 RNA, it transfers the information 419 00:22:30,630 --> 00:22:33,690 from DNA to proteins. 420 00:22:35,310 --> 00:22:39,090 So the octopus have the amazing ability 421 00:22:39,270 --> 00:22:45,210 to edit their RNA, thus, they can make new proteins. 422 00:22:45,300 --> 00:22:48,900 NARRATOR: Although this ability isn’t fully understood, 423 00:22:48,990 --> 00:22:52,950 it suggests that the octopus can rapidly adapt to its environment 424 00:22:53,040 --> 00:22:55,650 far faster than other creatures. 425 00:22:55,740 --> 00:22:58,170 FISHER: What RNA editing does is essentially 426 00:22:58,350 --> 00:22:59,790 mediated by changes in the environment, 427 00:22:59,880 --> 00:23:01,860 usually temperature, for example. 428 00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:05,820 NARRATOR: Camouflaging skin? 429 00:23:05,910 --> 00:23:08,700 Tool use? 430 00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:12,390 The ability to edit its own genetic code? 431 00:23:12,480 --> 00:23:15,720 Is it possible that this extraordinary creature, 432 00:23:15,810 --> 00:23:20,130 with three hearts and nine brains, is not from Earth? 433 00:23:20,310 --> 00:23:24,090 Perhaps evidence can be found by examining mythological accounts 434 00:23:24,180 --> 00:23:27,240 from across the ancient world. 435 00:23:27,420 --> 00:23:31,740 Numerous cultures told stories of humanlike beings 436 00:23:31,830 --> 00:23:33,900 coming out of the ocean, 437 00:23:33,990 --> 00:23:37,410 and worshiped gods that resembled sea creatures. 438 00:23:37,500 --> 00:23:40,920 Interestingly, a great many of these aquatic deities 439 00:23:41,010 --> 00:23:43,440 resemble the octopus. 440 00:23:43,620 --> 00:23:46,140 All the way round the world, there are traditions 441 00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:49,920 to do with a creator god in the form of an octopus. 442 00:23:50,010 --> 00:23:54,600 For instance, in ancient Crete, there are numerous 443 00:23:54,780 --> 00:23:58,470 images and paintings of an octopus 444 00:23:58,560 --> 00:24:01,980 with bizarre, large eyes. 445 00:24:03,690 --> 00:24:07,020 In Ecuador, at a place called Manta, 446 00:24:07,200 --> 00:24:12,960 were these bas-relief carvings of this bizarre octopus deity. 447 00:24:13,050 --> 00:24:17,730 We have to ask ourselves, is it possible that the ancients 448 00:24:17,910 --> 00:24:23,130 were aware that the octopus is truly alien to this planet? 449 00:24:23,310 --> 00:24:27,360 NARRATOR: Is it possible that the octopus is related 450 00:24:27,540 --> 00:24:30,150 to a race of extraterrestrials that visited Earth 451 00:24:30,240 --> 00:24:32,220 thousands of years ago? 452 00:24:32,310 --> 00:24:35,460 Or did our ancestors encounter intelligent creatures 453 00:24:35,640 --> 00:24:38,880 that were the result of alien experimentation? 454 00:24:38,970 --> 00:24:42,120 Ancient astronaut theory proposes 455 00:24:42,210 --> 00:24:44,730 that in the distant past, the human race 456 00:24:44,820 --> 00:24:48,420 was genetically modified by otherworldly beings. 457 00:24:48,510 --> 00:24:53,100 If true, could they have altered other creatures as well? 458 00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:55,170 HENRY: In the ancient record in mythology, 459 00:24:55,260 --> 00:24:58,950 we find a very intriguing story, and that is, 460 00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:00,840 the gods experimented 461 00:25:01,020 --> 00:25:03,180 when they were coming up with the human form. 462 00:25:03,270 --> 00:25:06,780 They experimented with various types of creatures: 463 00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:10,380 half human, half dog hybrids, 464 00:25:10,470 --> 00:25:12,900 half human, half horse hybrids, 465 00:25:13,080 --> 00:25:16,050 humans that had aquatic features. 466 00:25:16,230 --> 00:25:19,380 They seemed to be experimenting and looking 467 00:25:19,560 --> 00:25:24,780 for just the right fit for conditions of life on Earth. 468 00:25:24,870 --> 00:25:27,750 We think that stopped, but that may not be true. 469 00:25:29,190 --> 00:25:31,710 NARRATOR: Are extraterrestrials 470 00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:35,130 continuing to introduce new life-forms to planet Earth, 471 00:25:35,220 --> 00:25:38,730 and perhaps altering existing life-forms to this day? 472 00:25:38,910 --> 00:25:41,430 Ancient astronaut theorists suggest 473 00:25:41,520 --> 00:25:43,590 that, just like we are conducting research 474 00:25:43,680 --> 00:25:45,390 on other planets, 475 00:25:45,570 --> 00:25:48,540 otherworldly beings may be using our oceans 476 00:25:48,630 --> 00:25:52,050 as their own research laboratory. 477 00:25:58,530 --> 00:26:02,850 NARRATOR: St. George’s, Bermuda, 1978. 478 00:26:03,030 --> 00:26:06,540 Dr. Tom ILIFFE, a research scientist 479 00:26:06,630 --> 00:26:09,150 at the Bermuda Biological Station, 480 00:26:09,330 --> 00:26:13,740 begins to explore the dozens of underwater caves in the area. 481 00:26:13,830 --> 00:26:17,250 Many of his colleagues tell him that he is wasting his time, 482 00:26:17,430 --> 00:26:19,320 that no meaningful life can survive 483 00:26:19,410 --> 00:26:22,830 in the dense saltwater environments of these caves... 484 00:26:22,920 --> 00:26:27,150 caves where the sunlight does not reach. 485 00:26:27,330 --> 00:26:29,310 But to his astonishment, 486 00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:33,270 he finds the caves teeming with life. 487 00:26:33,450 --> 00:26:36,870 The blue holes are the underwater caves in the Bahamas. 488 00:26:37,050 --> 00:26:41,010 So they’re called blue holes because they’re vertical shafts. 489 00:26:41,100 --> 00:26:46,140 When you look at them, the water is a deep, dark blue in color, 490 00:26:46,230 --> 00:26:48,300 crystal clear water. 491 00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:51,090 There have been a number of people who have said, 492 00:26:51,180 --> 00:26:53,700 "There’s nothing interesting there, 493 00:26:53,790 --> 00:26:57,930 don’t even bother to look," but I took that as a challenge. 494 00:26:58,110 --> 00:27:03,240 I went ahead and tried to find out for myself what was there, 495 00:27:03,330 --> 00:27:06,480 and amazingly, there’s just over 496 00:27:06,660 --> 00:27:10,620 350 new species of animals 497 00:27:10,710 --> 00:27:12,960 that I have found in my career. 498 00:27:13,140 --> 00:27:16,020 We know of more animals in these caves 499 00:27:16,110 --> 00:27:18,270 than any other place in the world. 500 00:27:18,360 --> 00:27:22,050 NARRATOR: Not only has Dr. ILIFFE discovered an amazing amount 501 00:27:22,230 --> 00:27:25,650 of life within the extreme environment of the blue holes, 502 00:27:25,740 --> 00:27:27,450 but the life-forms he has found 503 00:27:27,630 --> 00:27:31,680 are unlike any other creatures on Earth. 504 00:27:31,860 --> 00:27:35,550 There have been discovered an enormous variety 505 00:27:35,640 --> 00:27:41,040 of higher groups of animals in these underwater caves. 506 00:27:41,220 --> 00:27:43,830 One of the most interesting animals we worked on 507 00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:47,520 represents a new class of crustacea. 508 00:27:47,700 --> 00:27:51,120 It’s called the remipedes, and they’re unusual 509 00:27:51,300 --> 00:27:53,460 because they are the only crustacean 510 00:27:53,550 --> 00:27:56,970 with venom-injecting fangs. 511 00:27:57,150 --> 00:28:00,480 So they swim up to prey, maybe a small shrimp, 512 00:28:00,660 --> 00:28:04,080 and stick their fangs into it, 513 00:28:04,170 --> 00:28:08,310 inject it with hydrolytic enzymes that paralyzes 514 00:28:08,400 --> 00:28:12,270 and begins digesting the shrimp externally, 515 00:28:12,450 --> 00:28:15,690 and then literally have the ability to suck the juices out 516 00:28:15,780 --> 00:28:18,750 of their prey. 517 00:28:18,930 --> 00:28:22,260 If I were going to build a science fiction monster, 518 00:28:22,350 --> 00:28:24,960 I’d build it around a remipede. 519 00:28:25,050 --> 00:28:28,740 NARRATOR: While scientists are fascinated by the incredible abilities 520 00:28:28,830 --> 00:28:32,340 of the octopus that they still don’t fully understand, 521 00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:34,860 it is only one of literally thousands 522 00:28:35,040 --> 00:28:39,630 of extraordinary sea creatures that similarly defy explanation. 523 00:28:39,720 --> 00:28:43,860 And one of them, discovered in 2013, 524 00:28:43,950 --> 00:28:48,180 is the octopus’s colossal cousin, the giant squid. 525 00:28:52,230 --> 00:28:54,480 Once thought to be a mythological creature, 526 00:28:54,660 --> 00:28:58,620 the giant squid can grow to over 40 feet in length, 527 00:28:58,710 --> 00:29:00,960 weigh up to 600 pounds 528 00:29:01,140 --> 00:29:04,290 and boasts the animal kingdom’s largest eyes... 529 00:29:04,380 --> 00:29:06,180 eyes capable of accommodating 530 00:29:06,360 --> 00:29:08,790 the lack of sunlight in the deep. 531 00:29:08,880 --> 00:29:11,130 So Architeuthis dux, or the giant squid, 532 00:29:11,310 --> 00:29:14,550 is a really interesting creature in that it’s experiencing, 533 00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:18,150 like, deep-sea gigantism, so it can get really, really large, 534 00:29:18,330 --> 00:29:20,760 in the deep-sea environment. 535 00:29:20,850 --> 00:29:23,190 The giant squid’s tentacles are covered with suction cups 536 00:29:23,370 --> 00:29:26,430 that have little teeth, and so that allows it 537 00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:30,840 to grab its prey in the dark and pull it to them. 538 00:29:34,530 --> 00:29:37,950 NARRATOR: Perhaps the strangest of all the sea creatures found 539 00:29:38,130 --> 00:29:41,460 in the past 20 years is the ctenophore, 540 00:29:41,550 --> 00:29:43,890 or comb jelly. 541 00:29:44,070 --> 00:29:46,950 It has two neurosystems, 542 00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:50,010 heals from any wound in under three hours with no scarring, 543 00:29:50,190 --> 00:29:54,150 and can even regenerate its own brain. 544 00:29:54,330 --> 00:29:56,850 Comb jellies are such a mystery to scientists, 545 00:29:56,940 --> 00:29:59,910 they have been dubbed "aliens of the sea." 546 00:30:00,090 --> 00:30:04,140 But as bizarre as all these creatures are, 547 00:30:04,320 --> 00:30:06,840 could there be even more incredible life-forms 548 00:30:06,930 --> 00:30:10,170 we have yet to discover? 549 00:30:10,260 --> 00:30:14,220 Exploration of the deep ocean is very difficult and dangerous. 550 00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:18,810 In some respects, a space mission is easier. 551 00:30:18,900 --> 00:30:21,420 The pressures crush 552 00:30:21,510 --> 00:30:25,110 most conventional submarines and submersibles. 553 00:30:25,200 --> 00:30:27,450 There are only a handful of missions that have gone, 554 00:30:27,630 --> 00:30:31,320 say, to the very bottom of the deep parts of the ocean, 555 00:30:31,500 --> 00:30:33,390 like the Mariana Trench. 556 00:30:35,460 --> 00:30:39,060 The deepest part of these oceans are about seven miles deep, 557 00:30:39,150 --> 00:30:41,310 and you need special bathyspheres or submarines 558 00:30:41,400 --> 00:30:42,840 to go that deep. 559 00:30:43,020 --> 00:30:46,620 And when researchers do make these journeys, 560 00:30:46,710 --> 00:30:49,230 they’re amazed to find that there’s actually life 561 00:30:49,320 --> 00:30:53,280 at these extreme depths, something they didn’t expect. 562 00:30:53,370 --> 00:30:55,800 So now we have to wonder, 563 00:30:55,980 --> 00:30:59,760 is it possible that, at these extreme depths in our oceans, 564 00:30:59,850 --> 00:31:02,820 there are extraterrestrials and bases? 565 00:31:02,910 --> 00:31:05,430 It’s an incredible thought. 566 00:31:05,610 --> 00:31:09,030 NARRATOR: Could it be that humanity’s inability 567 00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:13,350 to fully explore Earth’s oceans has prevented the discovery 568 00:31:13,530 --> 00:31:18,210 of a profound and potentially disturbing reality: 569 00:31:18,390 --> 00:31:21,000 that alien creatures from other worlds 570 00:31:21,090 --> 00:31:23,880 not only can and do exist, 571 00:31:23,970 --> 00:31:27,300 but they are most likely thriving in our oceans? 572 00:31:27,390 --> 00:31:31,530 Not only do many ancient astronaut theorists say yes, 573 00:31:31,710 --> 00:31:34,230 they also suggest that not all alien life-forms 574 00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:38,010 are of the silent, swimming variety. 575 00:31:38,190 --> 00:31:41,700 They believe that the sea is vast enough and deep enough 576 00:31:41,790 --> 00:31:45,300 to hide entire colonies of extraterrestrials, 577 00:31:45,480 --> 00:31:47,910 and some with technological capabilities 578 00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:51,330 far surpassing our own. 579 00:31:58,170 --> 00:32:00,690 NARRATOR: Malibu, California. 580 00:32:00,870 --> 00:32:03,480 2014. 581 00:32:03,570 --> 00:32:06,900 Satellite imagery reveals a curious formation 582 00:32:06,990 --> 00:32:11,670 on the seabed six miles off the coast. 583 00:32:11,760 --> 00:32:15,090 The satellite photos show what seems to be, uh, 584 00:32:15,180 --> 00:32:18,780 an oval, flat-topped structure 585 00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:23,100 that’s got legs coming down that are holding it up. 586 00:32:23,190 --> 00:32:27,150 It’s about 2,000 feet underwater. 587 00:32:27,330 --> 00:32:31,020 In some ways, this would look a little bit like an oil platform. 588 00:32:34,170 --> 00:32:37,050 NARRATOR: In the very same area as the underwater structure, 589 00:32:37,230 --> 00:32:39,750 locals have reported seeing strange lights 590 00:32:39,840 --> 00:32:41,640 emerging from the ocean. 591 00:32:41,820 --> 00:32:45,870 BILL BIRNES: There is this very strange 911 call 592 00:32:46,050 --> 00:32:48,840 from an observer near Point Dume off Malibu, 593 00:32:48,930 --> 00:32:51,000 saying he saw a light coming out of the water, 594 00:32:51,180 --> 00:32:53,250 and calling it in to the sheriff’s station. 595 00:32:53,340 --> 00:32:57,030 In Point Dume, and the whole area around there, 596 00:32:57,120 --> 00:33:01,260 USOs are phenomenally common. 597 00:33:01,350 --> 00:33:03,960 A USO is an 598 00:33:04,140 --> 00:33:06,750 unidentified submersible object. 599 00:33:08,370 --> 00:33:11,160 Is there an alien base 600 00:33:11,250 --> 00:33:13,230 in a very deep trench 601 00:33:13,410 --> 00:33:16,110 off the coast of Malibu, and that’s why 602 00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:20,340 there are so many sightings of USOs off that coast? 603 00:33:20,430 --> 00:33:24,210 NARRATOR: An underwater alien base? 604 00:33:24,390 --> 00:33:28,620 Could such an incredible notion be true? 605 00:33:28,710 --> 00:33:31,410 And if so, is this just one 606 00:33:31,590 --> 00:33:33,750 of many extraterrestrial installations 607 00:33:33,840 --> 00:33:37,260 hidden deep beneath Earth’s oceans? 608 00:33:37,350 --> 00:33:40,680 Ancient astronaut theorists say yes, 609 00:33:40,770 --> 00:33:44,460 and point to stories from all over the world of USOs. 610 00:33:47,070 --> 00:33:50,310 NOORY: Witnesses have seen UFOs 611 00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:52,650 busting out from the ocean floor 612 00:33:52,740 --> 00:33:55,170 and just taking right off into the atmosphere 613 00:33:55,260 --> 00:33:58,410 and gone, into space. 614 00:33:58,590 --> 00:34:02,280 BIRNES: You see them off the coast of California. 615 00:34:02,460 --> 00:34:04,260 You see them a lot in the Gulf of Mexico. 616 00:34:04,350 --> 00:34:07,680 Spend some time on the Florida Gulf Coast, 617 00:34:07,770 --> 00:34:09,660 you will see a USO. 618 00:34:11,370 --> 00:34:14,250 NOORY: Sailors have seen lights 619 00:34:14,430 --> 00:34:17,310 following their ships underwater. 620 00:34:17,310 --> 00:34:19,290 They’re not submarines, 621 00:34:19,470 --> 00:34:21,180 they’re something else, something’s going on. 622 00:34:23,160 --> 00:34:26,940 COLLINS: Absolutely anything could be hiding down there. 623 00:34:27,030 --> 00:34:30,270 If aliens were trying to direct 624 00:34:30,360 --> 00:34:31,980 seeds of life, 625 00:34:32,070 --> 00:34:35,040 the most obvious place that they would hide them 626 00:34:35,220 --> 00:34:38,190 is within the oceans themself. 627 00:34:38,370 --> 00:34:41,970 And the depths of them could hide vehicles, 628 00:34:42,060 --> 00:34:44,490 could even hide bases. 629 00:34:44,580 --> 00:34:46,290 Uh, for hundreds, if not thousands of years, 630 00:34:46,380 --> 00:34:48,720 we would not be aware of their presence. 631 00:34:50,160 --> 00:34:52,500 NARRATOR: Alien craft, 632 00:34:52,590 --> 00:34:55,470 hidden in our oceans for thousands of years? 633 00:34:55,650 --> 00:34:57,810 While many dismiss the idea 634 00:34:57,900 --> 00:35:00,330 as little more than science fiction, 635 00:35:00,510 --> 00:35:03,210 ancient astronaut theorists point to a recent innovation 636 00:35:03,300 --> 00:35:05,550 in marine warfare. 637 00:35:05,640 --> 00:35:09,690 In May 2017, the United Kingdom announced 638 00:35:09,780 --> 00:35:13,830 its newest submarine program, the Astute class. 639 00:35:14,010 --> 00:35:16,890 These nuclear attack subs can carry a crew 640 00:35:16,980 --> 00:35:21,660 of almost 100 sailors, descend more than 1,000 feet, 641 00:35:21,750 --> 00:35:26,160 and remain submerged for up to 25 years. 642 00:35:26,250 --> 00:35:28,050 The only reason they need to surface 643 00:35:28,230 --> 00:35:30,570 is to take on food and supplies. 644 00:35:30,750 --> 00:35:33,450 But experts contend that the ocean 645 00:35:33,630 --> 00:35:35,790 is so rich in resources 646 00:35:35,880 --> 00:35:39,390 that advances in technology may soon enable submarines 647 00:35:39,480 --> 00:35:43,170 to harvest all of the materials they need underwater. 648 00:35:43,350 --> 00:35:46,860 The oceans have everything that the crew of a ship 649 00:35:46,950 --> 00:35:48,750 would need to survive. 650 00:35:48,840 --> 00:35:51,990 It’s got plants and animals 651 00:35:52,170 --> 00:35:54,690 that can be harvested for food. 652 00:35:54,780 --> 00:35:58,200 There’s minerals and salt that can be taken from the water. 653 00:35:58,290 --> 00:36:01,440 You can actually desalinate the water 654 00:36:01,620 --> 00:36:04,320 to make clean drinking water. 655 00:36:04,410 --> 00:36:08,550 You can even separate the hydrogen 656 00:36:08,730 --> 00:36:11,160 from the oxygen in the water 657 00:36:11,250 --> 00:36:12,870 to create fuel 658 00:36:12,960 --> 00:36:15,300 and-and air to breathe. 659 00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:18,630 Everything that is necessary for life 660 00:36:18,720 --> 00:36:21,420 can be found in the oceans, 661 00:36:21,510 --> 00:36:23,850 and it may be that if extraterrestrials 662 00:36:24,030 --> 00:36:27,000 are in our oceans, they’re not just hiding there, 663 00:36:27,180 --> 00:36:29,700 this may be their preferred environment. 664 00:36:29,790 --> 00:36:32,580 NARRATOR: Is it possible that extraterrestrials 665 00:36:32,670 --> 00:36:34,920 are not just hiding beneath the sea, 666 00:36:35,100 --> 00:36:38,700 but view our oceans as their preferred territory? 667 00:36:38,790 --> 00:36:41,850 Some scientists suggest 668 00:36:42,030 --> 00:36:45,360 that aquatic creatures are better-suited than humans 669 00:36:45,450 --> 00:36:47,340 for space travel. 670 00:36:48,510 --> 00:36:50,400 DENNIN: Because of the fact 671 00:36:50,580 --> 00:36:52,920 that we’re terrestrial and we walk on the ground, 672 00:36:53,100 --> 00:36:56,160 as humans, we’re very tied to our 2-D motions... 673 00:36:56,250 --> 00:36:59,130 that is moving only left, right and forward and back. 674 00:37:00,300 --> 00:37:01,740 Creatures that grow up 675 00:37:01,920 --> 00:37:04,440 in a fundamentally aquatic environment 676 00:37:04,530 --> 00:37:07,770 are much more used to all of the 3-D motion that comes 677 00:37:07,860 --> 00:37:09,750 with being able to move up and down, 678 00:37:09,930 --> 00:37:13,080 as well as forward and backward and left and right in the ocean. 679 00:37:13,170 --> 00:37:16,410 Our musculoskeletal system needs the impact of gravity, um, 680 00:37:16,500 --> 00:37:19,200 to remain healthy, and so, I think, 681 00:37:19,290 --> 00:37:21,540 just the weightlessness is one of the biggest challenges 682 00:37:21,720 --> 00:37:24,240 to humans living in space conditions. 683 00:37:24,330 --> 00:37:26,400 So you can imagine that something adapted 684 00:37:26,580 --> 00:37:29,010 to an aqueous environment could 685 00:37:29,100 --> 00:37:31,170 potentially do better in a low-gravity environment. 686 00:37:33,060 --> 00:37:35,040 NARRATOR: Considering the advantages 687 00:37:35,130 --> 00:37:39,180 that aquatic life-forms have over terrestrial life-forms, 688 00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:41,070 and the fact that more than 90% 689 00:37:41,250 --> 00:37:44,670 of Earth’s oceans remain unexamined... 690 00:37:44,760 --> 00:37:47,190 is it possible that there are creatures 691 00:37:47,370 --> 00:37:48,720 lurking beneath the water 692 00:37:48,810 --> 00:37:52,410 that are more sophisticated than humans? 693 00:37:52,500 --> 00:37:55,020 If so, could they have been sent here on meteors 694 00:37:55,200 --> 00:37:56,460 from distant planets? 695 00:37:58,620 --> 00:38:01,050 And does our inability to explore the extreme depths 696 00:38:01,230 --> 00:38:04,380 of their world mean that it is only a matter of time 697 00:38:04,470 --> 00:38:06,990 before they emerge from the sea 698 00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:09,690 to take over ours? 699 00:38:15,090 --> 00:38:16,890 NARRATOR: St. Paul, Minnesota. 700 00:38:17,070 --> 00:38:20,040 2008. 701 00:38:20,130 --> 00:38:23,910 Arnold Landé, a retired heart and lung surgeon, 702 00:38:24,090 --> 00:38:27,510 announces he has patented a revolutionary type of scuba suit 703 00:38:27,600 --> 00:38:31,470 that will allow humans to breathe liquid air. 704 00:38:31,560 --> 00:38:34,170 Key to his invention is a special solution 705 00:38:34,350 --> 00:38:36,780 of highly oxygenated perfluorocarbons, 706 00:38:36,870 --> 00:38:38,490 a type of liquid 707 00:38:38,670 --> 00:38:41,910 that can dissolve enormous quantities of gas. 708 00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:45,780 And while the technology is still in development, 709 00:38:45,870 --> 00:38:49,290 if Landé succeeds, humans will be able to dive 710 00:38:49,470 --> 00:38:52,350 to more extreme depths than ever before. 711 00:38:52,530 --> 00:38:56,220 In these dark recesses of Earth’s oceans, 712 00:38:56,400 --> 00:38:59,010 could we discover that humans share the Earth 713 00:38:59,100 --> 00:39:02,520 with much more intelligent and sophisticated life-forms 714 00:39:02,610 --> 00:39:05,220 than anything found on land? 715 00:39:05,400 --> 00:39:09,540 Frankly, we have no idea what might be down there. 716 00:39:09,630 --> 00:39:12,150 Exploration has been very limited. 717 00:39:12,240 --> 00:39:14,670 There are vast parts of the ocean 718 00:39:14,850 --> 00:39:18,090 about which we know absolutely nothing. 719 00:39:18,180 --> 00:39:20,970 As humans, we tend to believe that we have dominion 720 00:39:21,060 --> 00:39:25,110 over the Earth, but in the vast oceans beneath us, 721 00:39:25,200 --> 00:39:28,710 there could be all kinds of advanced civilizations. 722 00:39:28,890 --> 00:39:32,040 Even ones that have been here for much longer 723 00:39:32,130 --> 00:39:34,110 than we’ve been on this planet. 724 00:39:34,290 --> 00:39:37,350 And they’ve come here from other solar systems 725 00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:39,690 and then came to our planet 726 00:39:39,870 --> 00:39:42,930 where they’re now living underwater. 727 00:39:43,020 --> 00:39:45,000 And it seems incredible to us, 728 00:39:45,090 --> 00:39:47,610 but we may be seeing their ships, 729 00:39:47,790 --> 00:39:50,760 these USOs coming out of the water, 730 00:39:50,850 --> 00:39:54,810 and there may be some highly advanced civilization 731 00:39:54,990 --> 00:39:59,040 that’s in these vast oceans that we have yet to explore. 732 00:39:59,220 --> 00:40:01,110 Anything could be down there. 733 00:40:01,200 --> 00:40:04,440 TSOUKALOS: Some people have proposed 734 00:40:04,530 --> 00:40:09,120 that the Earth served as some gigantic Petri dish. 735 00:40:09,300 --> 00:40:12,720 And so you have to wonder what else can emerge on Earth 736 00:40:12,900 --> 00:40:14,520 that we don’t even know about? 737 00:40:16,500 --> 00:40:18,210 HENRY: Could there be more sophisticated life-forms 738 00:40:18,300 --> 00:40:20,370 than us, not just on distant planets, 739 00:40:20,460 --> 00:40:22,980 but right here in our own oceans? 740 00:40:23,160 --> 00:40:26,130 Not aliens, but earthlings? 741 00:40:26,310 --> 00:40:29,460 NARRATOR: If extraterrestrials seeded the Earth 742 00:40:29,550 --> 00:40:31,800 and continue to use it as a genetic laboratory, 743 00:40:31,980 --> 00:40:34,410 as ancient astronaut theorists suggest, 744 00:40:34,500 --> 00:40:36,930 could further deep-sea exploration 745 00:40:37,110 --> 00:40:40,710 discover a species more advanced than humans? 746 00:40:40,800 --> 00:40:43,950 Perhaps creatures resembling the amphibious gods 747 00:40:44,130 --> 00:40:46,740 depicted by our ancestors? 748 00:40:46,830 --> 00:40:49,620 And will we only have true dominion over the Earth 749 00:40:49,800 --> 00:40:52,320 once we are able to fully explore 750 00:40:52,410 --> 00:40:55,650 and inhabit these depths as well? 751 00:40:55,830 --> 00:40:58,170 Some ancient astronaut theorists believe 752 00:40:58,350 --> 00:41:02,580 the creatures of the deep may already have plans for humanity. 753 00:41:02,670 --> 00:41:04,920 Are there extraterrestrials in fact in our oceans 754 00:41:05,100 --> 00:41:08,880 that are experimenting with different types of beings? 755 00:41:08,970 --> 00:41:12,120 And are they looking ultimately to upgrade humanity 756 00:41:12,300 --> 00:41:14,190 with some of these discoveries? 757 00:41:14,280 --> 00:41:16,170 Is that what’s in our future, 758 00:41:16,350 --> 00:41:18,510 that there could be extraterrestrial beings 759 00:41:18,600 --> 00:41:20,310 that will come out of Earth’s ocean 760 00:41:20,490 --> 00:41:22,920 that will deliver some kind of revelation that says, 761 00:41:23,010 --> 00:41:25,350 "Hey guys, this isn’t all there is. 762 00:41:25,530 --> 00:41:29,940 You can, in fact, transform yourself into this," 763 00:41:30,030 --> 00:41:32,550 and that will be the future evolution of humanity. 764 00:41:32,730 --> 00:41:35,520 NARRATOR: Instead of looking for alien civilizations 765 00:41:35,610 --> 00:41:37,770 beyond our solar system, 766 00:41:37,950 --> 00:41:41,730 might we find them in the darkest depths of our oceans? 767 00:41:44,070 --> 00:41:46,050 Is it possible that there is already a species 768 00:41:46,140 --> 00:41:48,030 more advanced than humans 769 00:41:48,210 --> 00:41:51,360 hiding out in places we can’t reach 770 00:41:51,450 --> 00:41:55,770 that have been there for thousands of years? 771 00:41:55,950 --> 00:41:58,740 Perhaps we will make alien contact 772 00:41:58,830 --> 00:42:01,710 not when they come down from the sky 773 00:42:01,800 --> 00:42:04,500 but when they reemerge from the sea.