[gentle music]
- Tonight, a group of items so powerful,
they're believed to predict the end of the world.
- This calendar appears to have a start date
and an end date.
- The Blue Star Kachina is perhaps the most revered
and the most feared figure
because it embodies the deity that has the power
to bring about the end of the world.
- From a mysterious cave on a remote island.
- The Cave of the Apocalypse is the place
where Christians worldwide believe
that the Bible's Book of Revelation was written.
- [Dennis] To a pair of strange stones in the Americas.
- Why are they killing people so often?
It's because they believe that if they don't,
the entire universe will come to an end.
- And a book of prophecy so accurate, it's scary.
- It's been estimated that about 2/3 of his predictions
have come true so far.
- These sacred objects have inspired awe
for thousands of years.
Now, the remarkable stories
behind history's most compelling "Holy Marvels."
[dramatic music]
The Bible's Book of Revelation paints a vivid account
of the end of the world,
but the story of how it's written
is even more astonishing.
It begins in a mysterious cave
on a remote island in Greece.
- If you go to Patmos now, it's a lovely Greek island,
an idyllic place for a vacation.
But it wasn't always that way.
2,000 years ago, Patmos was a barren, rocky place.
It's just kind of a windswept wasteland
about 10 miles long by about 6 miles wide.
- [Dennis] But at the end of the 1st century AD,
it becomes significant for another reason.
- There's a small cave marked by some large boulders.
It's just an empty space with undulating stone walls,
nothing noteworthy at first glance.
This area is full of caves,
but this one's special.
In fact, it might be one of the most unique
and important caves in history,
and one of the most sacred.
- [Dennis] It's called the Cave of the Apocalypse.
- The Cave of the Apocalypse is the place
where Christians worldwide believe
that the Bible's Book of Revelation was written.
Now, apocalypse doesn't actually mean the end of the world.
It's a Greek word that means literally an unveiling.
"Apo" means away from, and "kalupsis" is a veil,
so apocalypse gets translated
pretty literally as revelation.
Here in this cave is where God reveals the details
to the book's author, a man named John,
who has come to be known as John of Patmos
or John the Revelator.
- There are indications in the book
that suggest John might have lived in Jerusalem
during Roman occupation,
either as a contemporary of Jesus
or within a few years of Jesus' death.
Therefore, he's among the earliest Christians.
- But in these very young days of this new religion,
Christianity is not the global powerhouse
it eventually becomes.
It's actually labeled an illegal superstition and a crime
by the ruling Roman authorities.
- Rome had a habit
of sending criminals to Patmos, especially Christians.
If they're going to go around preaching illegal beliefs,
might as well send them off to an isolated island
where they can't influence anybody.
- [Dennis] Like John, who's banished to Patmos in 90 AD,
along with fellow disciple Prochorus.
- Prochorus is actually one of Jerusalem's
very first Christian deacons.
On Patmos, he serves as John's companion and scribe.
- John is thought to be quite old at this time,
but he makes it to Patmos.
And not only that, he locates the perfect cave for shelter.
- The cave itself, it's about 21 by 18 feet.
It's a volcanic cave and it was created by a lava bubble
as the island was forming many millennia ago.
- Towards the back of the cave,
there's a little indentation
where you could actually lay down and sleep,
and there's a jutting piece of rock out beyond it
that you could use as a pillow.
And then on the opposite side,
there's a large flat section of rock
that looks uncannily like a desk.
- [Dennis] But the cave's most unique feature
might be its most powerful.
- Along one wall of the cave, there are three thin fissures
and it's been described as a threefold split
in ancient descriptions of the site.
These openings, they're unusual
from a geological standpoint.
- This threefold split might be the entire reason
John chooses the cave from among the many others.
He believes it represents his religion's Holy Trinity.
As an early Christian, he believes in God as one being
who exists in three persons,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
- Not long after settling in the cave,
John describes hearing a booming voice.
He's convinced it's the Lord Himself
and this voice is coming
through the three cracks in the rock.
This voice tells John
that he's about to be shown something very important
and he has to write down exactly what he sees.
- One of the first things John sees are four horsemen
riding down to Earth
and each one represents a particular disaster
that will befall humankind.
- The rider on the white horse, an archer, represents conquest.
The rider on the red horse represents war.
The rider on the black horse
represents pestilence and famine.
The rider on the pale horse
is the only horseman that has a name,
and his name is Death,
and hell follows with him.
These horsemen represent the wrath of God.
- There are earthquakes.
All the water on Earth turns to blood.
The sun and moon darken
and the stars begin to fall from the sky.
It's truly a frightening and fantastic vision.
- This story reads like no other part of the Bible.
In no other part of the Bible
are you reading about cosmic wars
between the forces of good and evil,
cataclysmic battles with monsters,
including a bright red seven-headed beast
marked with the number 666.
- [Dennis] In the end,
God sends an angelic army down to Earth
to help save the day.
- This army is led by the Lamb who had been slain,
which is Jesus Christ, the Alpha and Omega,
who wages the final battle, the Battle of Armageddon.
- All of these horrors will finally end
when Satan, in the form of a giant monster,
is captured and bound,
thrown into a lake of fire,
and the wicked are all destroyed.
That is the end of the world as we know it.
- After the final battle and final judgment,
all those who are deemed to be good
can live alongside God Himself.
- [Dennis] Immediately after receiving these visions,
John relays them to his scribe Prochorus
who writes what will become the Book of Revelation.
- The Book of Revelation becomes a foundational text
of the new religion.
Not only is it chosen
from among thousands of early Christian writings
to be one of the books of the canonical Bible,
but it's the capstone,
it's the final word of the Scriptures.
- Within a few hundred years,
the Cave of Patmos becomes a site of pilgrimage
for Christians who really embrace the apocalyptic concept
of the end times.
They believe that God has shown John a true vision
and they want to stand in the same place
where God has spoken.
- In the roughly 2,000 years since Revelation was written,
it's inspired countless works of art, literature,
songs, movies, comic books, television shows,
video games, even.
It's been used to justify wars
and led many Christian groups to think
that the end of the world is truly imminent.
- [Dennis] But one expert claims
that John's story isn't meant to be literal.
- In 2012, Princeton Professor of Religion Elaine Pagels
publishes a bestselling book
appropriately entitled "Revelations."
In it, she proposes an entirely new interpretation
of the Book of Revelation
and what transpired in John's cave.
- [Dennis] According to Pagels,
John's book isn't about the end of the world at all.
It's a code.
- [Dennis] In 2012, Dr. Elaine Pagels
proposes a bold new theory
about the true meaning behind the Book of Revelation.
- According to Dr. Pagels,
despite what everybody's been believing all these years,
the Book of Revelation is not actually about a beast
and a fiery mountain and four horsemen
and all the monsters and everything else that's in it.
- [Dennis] Instead, it's written in code.
- All those elements are a coded message of resistance
aimed at John's fellow early Christians.
- And if Dr. Pagels's theory is correct,
it turns on its head the whole story of the cave
and the voice of God.
It also means that John isn't just a passive vessel
in this process.
He goes in there with his own intention to author a code.
- According to Dr. Pagels,
to understand John's real intentions, you have to
understand the context of his time and his life.
- John was born into a Jewish family,
and like all his fellow Jewish people,
he's facing brutal persecution
from the occupying Roman Empire.
- [Dennis] Following a ruthless five-month siege,
Jerusalem falls to Rome in 70 AD.
- The Romans level Jerusalem
and they destroy the Second Temple,
which is the central place of worship for the Jewish people.
- The destruction of the Second Temple
is a violent, defining, traumatic moment
for the people who lived through it.
- [Dennis] 20 years later, John is exiled to Patmos
where he comes up with a secret way to criticize Rome.
- So to reach his fellow Christians
and to persuade them to stay united,
John gets to work crafting a series of coded messages
hidden inside a fantastical, over-the-top, dramatic story
that he hopes will spread like wildfire.
- [Hugo] One of the most enduring images from Revelation
is the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
According to Dr. Pagels, this is not just a random number,
but a specific reference to the year 69 AD,
which is known to historians
as the year of the four emperors.
- Following the death of Nero in 68 AD,
there was a period of chaos
as different men tried to step up onto the imperial throne.
Four emperors followed in very quick succession.
Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian.
And they bring to the Jewish people
what the Four Horsemen bring in Revelation.
- War, famine, and other forms of death.
This seems like a fairly straightforward connection
to the real world.
- [Dennis] But what is the seven-headed red dragon
believed to represent?
- Rome was famously built on seven hills,
and in fact there had been seven emperors
since the time of the first emperor, Augustus,
to the time of the writing of Revelation.
- And on another obvious note, red is the imperial color
worn and carried by Roman soldiers.
- [Dennis] Then there's the number of the beast
given as 666.
- John specifically says that this number represents a name.
So there is a Jewish art or form called gematria,
what we might call numerology.
And gematria would replace numbers with letters,
and each letter would have a particular code,
a particular value,
and if you add up the value of all those letters,
you would find out what name is represented by the number.
- In this case, 666 could be a coded reference
to Rome's Emperor Nero.
When you break it down,
the Hebrew letters of Nero's name
basically translate to Neron Caesar.
Interpreted numerically, that's 50, 200, 6, 50
100, 60, and again 200.
Add those up and you have 666.
- So, according to Dr. Pagels,
the first half of the Book of Revelation,
John is writing in code about Rome.
- [Dennis] The rest of the book
is meant to inspire followers to stay loyal
at a time of despair.
- John proceeds to describe the destruction of Rome
in every conceivable way.
God's army's return, exact their revenge,
throw the beast into a lake of fire,
and a new Jerusalem springs up,
one completely free of any Roman occupation.
- Essentially, Dr. Pagels's theory
is that John is in the cave
remembering the Roman oppression he experienced firsthand,
then encoding it in a message of resistance.
He's telling the remaining few Christians,
"Jesus was right, keep believing,
Rome will fall and it's going to happen soon."
- And guess what?
If it was indeed a code to resist and endure,
it absolutely works.
- The Book of Revelation is critically important
because it's a message of hope
and assurance and encouragement
in a time of conflict and persecution.
- It inspires people,
and thanks to that and a few other books like it,
the new Christian religion survives.
It keeps on going.
In fact, it continues to grow.
- Within just a few hundred years
of John's time in the cave,
Rome goes from persecuting Christians to embracing them.
Christianity becomes the official religion of the Empire
around the year 380
and eventually the largest religion in the world.
- [Dennis] Nearly 1,500 years
after the Book of Revelation is written,
it inspires another famous author
to publish his own prediction about the end of the world.
- Michel de Nostredame, better known as Nostradamus,
is undoubtedly the most famous
and prolific prophet in history.
- It's been estimated that about 2/3 of his predictions
have come true so far.
Nostradamus is credited with foretelling events
like the Great Fire of London,
the rise of Hitler,
the atom bombing of Japan.
The list goes on and on.
- His best known predictions come from his masterwork.
It's a book simply called "The Prophecies."
The first edition comes out in 1555
and over the next few years,
subsequent editions are released with added material.
- [Dennis] In his book,
Nostradamus writes about the end of the world only once
in a private letter that serves as the preface.
- Nostradamus writes a letter to his son Cesar
that's basically a dire warning of what he calls
the universal conflagration,
AKA, the end of the world.
He writes that the sword of death is approaching
and goes on to describe world-ending catastrophes
like pestilence and, quote,
"war more horrible than there ever has been."
He ends with the ominous line,
"The Lord shall say:
Therefore I shall crush and destroy and show no mercy."
- The letter doesn't specify when this will all transpire,
but in this preface he does mention
that the prophecies in his book
extend from the year 1555 to the year 3797,
so it's safe to assume
that's the year he believes the world will end.
- Like Nostradamus, there's another prophecy
that lands in the spotlight,
and this one fuels worldwide panic.
- Remember the year 2012? I do.
It seemed like the whole world went crazy.
There were books, there were movies,
there were documentaries,
all claiming that this was going to be the year
that the world ended.
- [Dennis] And it all starts with an artifact
from the ancient ruins of Quirigua in Eastern Guatemala.
- There is archeological evidence
that the Maya people lived at Quirigua from at least 350 BC.
In the city's heyday at 750 AD,
there would've been up to 2,000 residents there.
This was a small but important center
in the Eastern Mesoamerican world.
- Quirigua is discovered in 1798
by the owners of the property where the ruins stand.
The first European to see Quirigua
is English architect Frederick Catherwood in 1840.
After that visit, there have been regular excavations
and studies there ever since.
- [Dennis] While not much evidence remains,
there is a series of large, intricately carved stone slabs
known as stelae.
- Stelae were erected by rulers to convey royal history,
make political statements, celebrate victories,
and they are massive, the tallest rising to 35 feet.
They're also covered with pictures as well as Maya script,
which is a hieroglyphic type of writing
that they used for 2,000 years
all the way up to the Spanish conquests
in the 16th and 17th centuries.
- [Dennis] But there's one in particular
many believe predicts the end of the world.
- Stela C is a 12-foot-high pillar of red sandstone
featuring a hieroglyphic inscription
showing the Maya creation story,
and it includes an intricate calendar entry,
a set of dates from what's known
as the Maya Long Count Calendar.
- The Maya have an expert knowledge of math,
engineering and astronomy,
which allows them to develop
one of the most accurate calendars ever devised
by an ancient society.
- [Dennis] It's not just the accuracy
that gets people's attention.
- What's particularly interesting about this calendar
is that it appears to have a start date and an end date.
Across five blocks of carving,
Stela C lists the actual date
when Maya believed the current world was created.
The five squares each depict
an individual measurement of time.
Within those, dots represent 1, lines represent 5,
an image of a shell or a flower represent 0.
So, on Stela C we can see
that the date of the world's creation is 13 baktuns,
0 katuns, 0 tuns, 0 uinals, and 0 kins.
- So how does that correspond to our own calendar?
Well, if you add up the numbers,
the Maya are saying that their world began
on what would be August 4th, 3114 BC.
For context, that suggests that Maya civilization
predates the oldest known Egyptian pyramid
by about 500 years.
- [Dennis] But what about the date
for the end of the world?
- [Sami] According to the calculations on this calendar,
it would be December 21st, 2012.
- [Dennis] While the calendar reveals
when the world is going to end,
it doesn't include how,
so researchers start to speculate.
- In 1966, Michael Coe publishes a book called "The Maya."
In his book,
Coe says that at the end of the Long Count Calendar,
our present universe may be annihilated.
- Once word of the Maya prophecy spreads,
people start floating various end of day scenarios
that range from the plausible,
like the world could end from nuclear war
or a massive solar flare event,
to the outlandish,
like a reversal of the magnetic poles
or Earth colliding with a mythical planet called Nibiru.
- [Dennis] As December 21st, 2012 approaches,
a media frenzy erupts.
- There's polling that shows
that up to 10% of the population across 21 countries
believe that the end of the world is imminent.
NASA even launches a public outreach website
to help calm everybody's nerves.
The agency receives tens of thousands
of inquiries from people.
Some even ask if they should kill themselves
or their kids, God forbid.
People are freaking out
because nobody knows what to expect,
but they're convinced it's gonna be bad.
- Thankfully, when December 22nd dawns,
the hubbub settles down pretty quickly
and we all now know the world did not end in 2012.
People breathe a collective sigh of relief
and they figure, well,
the Maya clearly didn't know what they were talking about.
We got all worked up over nothing.
- [Dennis] But what if
the original calculations were wrong?
- Remember, the Maya are highly advanced for their time
in a number of scientific areas.
Is it possible
that the end of the world predicted by Stela C is real,
it's just not when we thought?
- [Dennis] In 2018,
an independent researcher named Loren Jeffries
attempts to recalculate the date.
- Jeffries points out that while a tun is 360 days,
the Maya knew the solar year was slightly longer.
They measured it at 364 days, not 365,
but still, they were pretty close.
The problem is that later, when working this all out,
we didn't account for the extra four or five days.
And Jeffries says that if we do,
then the end date is 75 years after we thought,
which would put it in the year 2087.
- On display in Mexico City's National Anthropology Museum
sits another powerful stone,
but this one has a much darker origin story.
Known as the Sun Stone,
this mystifying object dates back to the Aztec Empire.
- It's a massive sculpture,
12 feet across, over 3 feet thick,
weighing some 54,000 pounds.
And similar to the Maya Stela,
it's intricately carved with glyphs.
- The Aztec rule Central Mexico
from the 14th to the 16th centuries.
Like their Maya neighbors,
the Aztec are an advanced people.
They develop sophisticated irrigation methods
to use in agriculture.
They design and implement an aqueduct system
to supply fresh water.
They even drain the swampy land
around what is now Mexico City
to construct their capital city of Tenochtitlan.
- [Dennis] They are also deeply spiritual.
- A big part of Aztec religious and cultural beliefs
is ritual human sacrifice.
- Human sacrifice is not unusual in Mesoamerica.
The Maya did human sacrifice.
But for the Maya,
it's reserved for the most important festivals
or the most important times of the year.
While for the Aztec,
it seems to happen much, much more frequently.
- Why are they killing people so often?
It's because they believe that if they don't,
the world, actually the entire universe will come to an end.
As the legend goes, each night,
the stars and the moon in a fit of jealousy
launch an attack against the sun,
and each morning the sun manages to beat them back
to rise again.
The sun is really their Sun God, Huitzilopochtli,
and he can only win this nightly battle
and rise again to power life on Earth
with the help of the Aztec people.
- And the only way to sustain and support a Sun God
is through human sacrifice.
- [Dennis] Central to this ritual, the Aztec Sun Stone.
- It's thought the sacrifices would happen
on or near the Sun Stone,
which was probably originally located
in the main square of Tenochtitlan.
- The victim's blood would spill onto the stone altar,
which features an image of the Sun God at its center,
so the power of human life is being fed directly
into the sun.
You can see how important this practice was by the fact
that the Aztec didn't just use prisoners of war
for their sacrifices.
That's what the Maya did.
But the Aztec also used their own citizens.
- [Dennis] Some historians estimate
the Aztec perform around 20,000 human sacrifices per year.
- This continues for centuries until 1519.
That's when Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes and his men
arrive in the Aztec capital.
They're the first European settlers on this land.
- [Sami] Cortes and his men are in awe of the city,
which has palaces and gardens and raised roads
with bridges connecting it to the mainland.
- While taking in the sight of this awe-inspiring city,
they also witness a human sacrifice for the first time.
- They write about witnessing a grisly sacrificial ceremony
where a priest slices open a victim's chest
and offers their still beating heart to the gods.
They also report finding vast towers
and racks made out of human bones.
- Now, this definitely doesn't fit
with the Spaniard's Christian beliefs,
which they came to Mesoamerica to spread.
And so the Conquistadors very quickly
start to subjugate the Aztec.
In fact, they're so fearful they begin a campaign
to destroy or hide any Aztec artifacts they find
that aren't gold.
- And of course, the scariest artifact of all,
the massive Sun Stone that's seen thousands of deaths,
that definitely has to go.
It's said to have been buried near the center of the city
by the first Spanish archbishop there
who supposedly wants it gone so that, quote,
"the memory of the ancient sacrifice that was made there
would be lost."
- But, as is often the case,
what's buried refuses to stay that way.
In 1790, workers making repairs to Mexico City's Cathedral
accidentally unearthed the stone.
- [Dennis] The Sun Stone is eventually relocated
to the museum where it stands today,
and present day scientists are showing a renewed interest
in Aztec doomsday beliefs.
- What's interesting is that in one key way,
the Aztec might actually be right
about the way the world could end.
Astronomers today are confident that our planet,
along with the rest of our solar system,
will one day be destroyed by the death of the sun.
- Similar to the Aztec belief,
the sun's hydrogen fuel supply will eventually burn out.
And as it does,
the sun will grow into this red giant of a star
and it'll engulf several planets.
It'll then shrink and then die out.
And if any part of the Earth survives after that,
it'll be reduced to just a ruined lump of iron.
- But here's an important distinction
from the Aztec beliefs.
While this is scientifically guaranteed to happen,
it isn't happening anytime soon.
We have about 5 billion years to go, no sacrifices required.
- In the arid northeastern corner of Arizona,
stretching across a remote plateau,
sits the home of the Hopi people
and another mysterious doomsday marvel.
- The Hopi are thought to be
among the American Southwest's earliest inhabitants,
so they can trace their ancestry back
more than 2,000 years in this area.
Today, there are tribal members living on a reservation
that's roughly 2,500 square miles,
mostly on three mesas which are dotted
with a series of villages.
- One of the many things that's fascinating about the Hopi
is that they were very effective
at defending their territory
against Spanish and missionary encroachments,
so they've managed to retain
a lot of their ancient beliefs and practices.
- [Dennis] At the heart of their religious belief system
is what's known as the kachina cult.
- The Hopi believe that kachinas,
sometimes also called katsinas,
are ancestral deities,
sort of these supernatural beings,
and they're said to live in the nearby San Francisco Peaks,
which is about 60 miles west of the reservation,
and they come down yearly to bring rain or other blessings.
- There are ceremonial dances
where Hopi people dress as these masked deities
in elaborate costume.
The best known of these is the snake dance,
which is performed as an appeal to the gods
for rain and fertile harvest.
It's pretty impressive
because they actually dance with live snakes
and even hold them in their mouths.
- Now the Hopi are fiercely protective of their traditions
and the snake dance is rarely performed in public.
It was actually filmed during a visit to the reservation
by former President Teddy Roosevelt in 1913.
Today, though, these kinds of ceremonies
are closed to outsiders.
- [Dennis] But dances aren't the only way
to invoke the power of the kachinas.
- Skilled Hopi craftspeople
create these incredibly detailed and colorful figurines
that represent the kachinas
to embody and teach about their gods.
The oldest of these effigies
date back to at at least the 1800s.
- There are over 200 different forms of kachinas
and they can represent things like animal effigies,
important plants, and even weather events.
- [Dennis] While most are believed to bring blessings,
there's one that's different.
It's called the Blue Star Kachina.
- The Blue Star Kachina is perhaps the most revered
and the most feared figure
because it embodies the deity
that has the power to bring about the end of the world.
- Because the Hopi didn't have a written language
and remain relatively isolated,
our main account of this prophecy
comes from historian Frank Waters.
Starting in the early 1960s,
Frank Waters spends years collecting stories
from Hopi elders.
He actually lives on the Hopi reservation
for a good amount of that time.
- Waters eventually completes "The Book of Hopi,"
which is widely regarded as the first time in history
that the Hopi have shared their worldview in written form,
and this worldview includes precisely
how they believe the world will end.
- [Dennis] The stories in Frank Water's book
are confirmed by a Hopi elder named White Feather
who fills in even more details.
- According to the Hopi prophecy
passed down through generations,
we're currently living in the fourth of nine worlds,
and there will be nine signs
that herald the end of this fourth world.
The nine signs start with the arrival of white skinned men
in covered wagons,
which we know has already happened.
- White Feather describes even more of the signs.
Among them, that the land will be crossed by snakes of iron
and a giant spiderweb.
So, what are the snakes of iron?
That's clearly referencing railroad lines,
which started to spread like wildfire
across the United States,
specifically after the Civil War.
The spiderweb are power lines and telephone wires,
all of which also start crisscrossing the land
in the mid to late 19th century.
- [Dennis] Several other signs may have also come true,
including one very recently.
- The seventh sign is the ocean turning black
and many living things dying from it.
Some believe this is a direct reference
to the disastrous oil spills
we've seen the last couple decades.
To the Hopi,
who believe in living harmoniously with the Earth,
these are the kinds of tragic modern events
that foreshadow more bad things to come.
And if you believe in this kind of thing,
it's pretty scary to imagine that seven out of nine signs
have already come true.
The end might be closer than we think.
- [Dennis] But it's the ninth sign
that will ultimately seal our fate.
- This is where the Blue Star Kachina comes in.
Frank Waters writes
that the spirit of the Blue Star Kachina,
also known as Saquasohuh,
will appear in the sky in the form of a large blue star.
- White Feather says that this brilliant blue star
will actually fall from the heavens
and crash into the Earth.
- And that would signal earthquakes, tsunamis,
and floods to destroy the Earth.
- It's incredible to think of such a great power
invested in a little tiny figurine.
But if that power is unleashed,
well, let's just hope it never is.
- And as remarkable as it sounds, unfortunately,
we can't entirely write off this prophecy
because there's a chance it might actually come true.
[tense music]
- [Dennis] In the Arizona desert,
a small blue-faced figurine covered in feathers
is believed by some to hold the fate of the world.
- If the Hopi prophecy is correct,
the Blue Star Kachina spells doom for our planet.
- A massive star crashing into the Earth?
I'd say that qualifies as an extinction level event.
It would be a pretty terrible way to go.
- [Dennis] But is there proof this could actually happen?
- Sure, it sounds a bit fantastical,
but here's the thing.
Not unlike the Aztec being right
about the sun burning out someday,
scientists believe the Hopi legend
also might be a real possibility,
and on a much sooner timeline.
- And while we don't know of any actual stars
capable of crashing into our planet,
there's a very similar threat out there
that sounds a lot like the Blue Star Kachina prophecy.
There are thought to be about a million near-Earth asteroids
in our solar system
capable of causing significant damage if they make impact,
and scientists are keeping a watchful eye on this.
In fact, NASA and an organization called
the Planetary Society
are currently tracking about 20,000 asteroids
whose orbits make them a legitimate threat to Earth,
possibly even wiping out life on Earth entirely.
- The most dangerous asteroid of all of these
is called Bennu.
It is 1,600 feet wide
and weighs 86 million tons.
That is a lot of rock hurdling through space.
- Bennu likely formed in the main asteroid belt
between Mars and Jupiter
and has recently drifted closer to Earth.
Right now, its orbit is stable,
revolving around the Sun every 1.2 years,
but that stability may not last much longer.
- In 2135, Bennu is expected to pass extra near to us,
closer to Earth than the Moon.
And when that happens,
our gravitational pull will alter its trajectory.
This could put it on a deadly collision course
with our planet.
- We won't know until the 2135 event
if Bennu's new course will put us in danger.
But as of right now,
Bennu has one of the highest probabilities of any asteroid
to impact Earth, about 1 in 2,700.
I personally don't like those odds.
- If this asteroid were to hit Earth,
it would be catastrophic.
Because of Bennu's size,
the impact would release 80,000 times more energy
than the Hiroshima atomic bomb blast.
It would punch a crater several miles wide
in the planet's surface,
spawning earthquakes and shock waves
that would reverberate through Earth's atmosphere.
It would be a true global disaster.
- [Dennis] For now, there's no need to panic.
NASA scientists are already working on a solution.
- In 2020, NASA landed a probe on Bennu
and collected a sample from its surface.
That probe only recently returned to Earth
on September 24th, 2023.
- The sample will allow scientists
to study Bennu's composition
and work on plans to deflect or divert it
from hitting the planet.
- One thing that they have discovered
is the Bennu asteroid is very high in magnesium,
so if it comes crashing to Earth,
as it burns through the atmosphere,
it will release a blue light.
- The ancient Hopi
certainly couldn't have predicted Bennu itself,
but maybe they did once see an asteroid or meteor
burn up as a streak across the atmosphere,
and it occurred to them, hey,
one of those might hit us one day.
Turns out, they're right.
Modern science is all over this one, so we should be fine.
But still, it's pretty amazing, isn't it?
I mean, this figurine, this spirit, this Blue Star Kachina,
a piece of Native American doomsday lore
that just goes to prove that our ancient ancestors
might have been a lot more insightful
than we give them credit for.
- And if this sounds familiar,
that's because stars falling from the sky
is a central feature of many doomsday prophecies.
It's in John of Patmos's revelation.
It's in Nostradamus.
It's in the Aztec prediction as well.
It's pretty incredible that despite so many years
and so many miles in between,
all these prophets have such a similar take.
Let's just hope the end of the world is a long ways off.
- Whether it's written down in a dark, ancient cave
or carved into stone monuments,
speculation about the end of the world
has been part of our belief systems for thousands of years.
I'm Dennis Quaid, thanks for watching "Holy Marvels."