Ancient Aliens (2009–…): Season 14, Episode 22 - Secrets of the Exoplanets - full transcript
Over the past 20 years, thousands of potentially habitable exoplanets have been discovered outside our solar system. Could some of them be home to intelligent extraterrestrial life? Perhaps even alien beings that have visited Earth?
NARRATOR: Millions of
planets similar to our own.
GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS:
The discoveries of exoplanets
over the past few years have
been absolutely extraordinary.
NARRATOR: And many could soon be
within the grasp of our technology.
MICHIO KAKU:
Think about it.
Civilizations over billions
of years could have
risen and fallen
even before
the Earth was formed.
NARRATOR: But if we can reach out
in pursuit of life on other worlds,
might they also
be reaching out to us?
And have they been doing so
for thousands of years?
BILL BIRNES: Could it be
that ancient civilizations,
ancient aliens from far away
migrated from their home worlds
and they found Earth?
WILLIAM HENRY:
The implications for humanity
are enormous.
NARRATOR:
There is a doorway
in the universe.
Beyond it is
the promise of truth.
It demands
we question everything
we have ever been taught.
The evidence is all around us.
The future is
right before our eyes.
We are not alone.
We have never been alone.
NARRATOR:
Cape Canaveral, Florida.
April 18, 2018.
At 6:51 p. m.,
a Falcon 9 rocket blasts off
on a mission to deploy
NASA's newest
space telescope into orbit:
the Transiting Exoplanet
Survey Satellite,
or TESS.
TESS is like a survey
of the whole sky, a survey
of the nearest
100 light‐years or so
of planets that would be
around these stars.
NARRATOR:
Over the next decade,
scientists expect that TESS will
fulfill its primary mission:
to discover thousands
of so‐called exoplanets.
SUMMERS: Exoplanets
are planets that exist
outside of our solar system.
We're certainly in an exoplanet
golden age of discovery.
20 years ago, we didn't know
if there were other Earth‐like
planets in the universe.
And now we can't imagine
how we could discover things
at a higher rate and still try
to make sense of it.
It's such a struggle
just to keep up
with the discoveries
that we're making right now.
NARRATOR:
It is only recently,
with the development
of deep‐space satellites
and high‐powered telescopes,
that a more accurate
understanding of nearby planets,
especially planets capable
of supporting human life,
has been possible.
But it wasn't so long ago that
the notion of Earth‐like planets
existing in our galaxy
wasn't simply unknown;
it was considered blasphemy.
When the 16th century Italian
philosopher and cosmologist
Giordano Bruno
expressed his belief
in "an infinity of worlds"
and raised the possibility
that other planets
could harbor life,
he was charged with heresy
and burned at the stake.
KAKU:
It was heretical, revolutionary,
to believe that there could be
alien life out there.
Giordano Bruno was burned alive
in the streets of Rome,
and what was his crime?
To say that there are aliens
out there on other planets.
HENRY: You weren't allowed
to think like that.
It challenged
all their predispositions
and their power structure.
"No, there are no other worlds.
There's nothing out there."
But there is
something out there,
there's no question about it.
NARRATOR:
As recently as the early 1990s,
astronomers were still unable
to detect these distant planets,
even with high‐powered
telescopes.
It's hard to see an exoplanet.
Imagine trying to look at
a firefly next to a spotlight.
It's incredibly difficult
because stars shine
by their own light.
They give off their own light,
but planets reflect light.
A typical star is about
ten billion times brighter
than a planet.
NARRATOR:
Thanks to remarkable
advances in technology,
astronomers made the very first
discovery of an exoplanet
in 1992 using
an Earth‐based telescope.
But that search kicked
into high gear in 2009
with the launch of Kepler,
the first space telescope
specially designed
to find exoplanets.
And in 2018, Kepler was replaced
by the even more powerful TESS.
So, one of the really
cool things about TESS,
the new satellite
that NASA's put up,
is basically it was specifically
designed to detect exoplanets
by what's called
the transit method,
which is where, when a planet
goes in front of a star,
it blocks the light briefly
and you really see the light
blink on and off.
AMY SHIRA TEITEL:
That tell‐tale dip
is what tells you
there might be something
that's passing in front of it.
The regularity tells you
about the orbit,
which is the easiest way
to actually start looking
for new planets.
NARRATOR: Although the initial
objective in the search
for exoplanets was simply
to determine how many stars
in our galaxy might have planets
in orbit around them,
the actual results
were staggering.
Our galaxy has around, um,
400 billion stars.
From what we've seen so far is,
on average,
every star has
at least one planet.
So that means that there are
400 billion, at least,
planets in our galaxy.
NARRATOR:
400 billion planets
in the Milky Way galaxy alone?
The discovery of such
an extraordinary number
of exoplanets represents
a radical change
in our understanding
of the universe.
But even more radical
is the notion
that millions of those planets
might actually be capable
of not just supporting life
but generating it.
And, to that end, astronomers
and astrophysicists
actively search for planets
in a region
they refer to as
the Goldilocks zone.
DENNIN: The Goldilocks zone is
exactly that range for a given star
of where water
is gonna be liquid
on a given type of planet.
KAKU: We want a planet
that is not too close,
not too far
from the mother star,
but just right.
Planets that may have oxygen
and H2O, water,
that may make possible
an atmosphere
and maybe even life.
NARRATOR: Based upon current
observations, scientists are astounded
by the number of potentially
habitable planets that exist
in the Goldilocks zone.
SUMMERS: With at least 400
billion planets in our galaxy,
if you just look
at one percent of that,
you're still talking
about billions of planets
that could potentially
be habitable.
This is exciting 'cause
we once thought that we were
the only game in town,
that can only exist
on the planet Earth.
DENNIN:
The discovery of exoplanets,
I think it's really
changed our view
of the potential for life
in the universe.
Fundamentally, I think
most scientists would now agree
that there is some form of life
elsewhere in the universe.
NARRATOR: But in spite of the
abundance of habitable exoplanets,
many scientists
still cling to the notion
that the only kind of life
likely to exist outside of Earth
is microbial or bacterial.
They are resistant to what they
claim are far‐fetched notions
that these planets might not
only contain more sophisticated
or evolved life‐forms,
but intelligent life‐forms,
some much more evolved
or technologically advanced
than our own.
Think about it.
The universe is about
13.8 billion years old.
The Earth is
4.6 billion years old.
Civilizations,
over billions of years,
could have risen and fallen
even before the Earth
was formed.
NARRATOR: Although the realization
that the galaxy is teeming
with Earth‐like planets
has triggered a revolution
in conventional
scientific thinking,
as far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,
it merely confirms what they
have believed all along.
TSOUKALOS:
The discoveries of exoplanets
over the past few years have
been absolutely extraordinary.
I remember that the first time
they discovered
this first exoplanet, and me
and my colleagues were like‐‐
were saying, "Okay,
this will be the first of many."
And now, apparently,
as many as three exoplanets
are being discovered
on a daily basis.
So what we've said all along,
that Earth is not unique
in this gigantic universe,
turns out to be correct.
This raises the question
that we've been bringing up,
that for thousands of years,
there's evidence
of some type of visitation
from other civilizations.
Hopefully, our sciences are able
to now detect exoplanets,
will allow us to pinpoint
some of these actual home worlds
where aliens
have been visiting us.
TSOUKALOS: I propose that
most of those planets
that are in this Goldilocks zone
have life very similar to ours.
The only question is:
was it them
who came here
thousands of years ago?
NARRATOR: But while a growing
number of mainstream scientists
do admit that intelligent life
can, theoretically,
exist elsewhere
within our galaxy,
they also argue that the
distances between those planets
and our own are too vast for any
extraterrestrial visitation
to take place.
It is a position that puts them
in direct conflict
with ancient
astronaut theorists,
who contend that the keys
to extraterrestrial space travel
can be found
in Albert Einstein's
theory of relativity,
and that a voyage to a distant
star could take not centuries
but seconds.
NARRATOR:
The Atacama Desert, Chile.
August 2016.
At the La Silla Observatory,
astronomers searching
for exoplanets
announce the detection
of an Earth‐like planet
orbiting the closest star to our
solar system, Proxima Centauri.
They name the planet Proxima b,
and describe it
as both Earth‐like
and close enough to its star
to be capable
of supporting life.
One of the more interesting
exoplanets we've found recently
is Proxima b.
This exoplanet is about
1.3 times the size of Earth,
so scientists think
that it might be rocky,
which means that it could be
quite similar to Earth.
SUMMERS:
Proxima b may be habitable.
We'll be able to study it
in more detail
with large telescopes.
And in the next ten years,
we may even be able
to get pictures of the planet.
NARRATOR:
Proxima b is located
just over four light‐years
from Earth,
a distance of about
25 trillion miles.
Despite the immense distance,
an ambitious program
is already underway to send
spacecraft to study it.
Called Breakthrough Starshot,
the program began
as the joint brainchild
of philanthropist Yuri Milner
and famous cosmologist,
the late Stephen Hawking.
For the first time
in human history,
we can do more
than just gaze at the stars.
We can actually reach them.
NARRATOR: The goal of
Breakthrough Starshot
is to send tiny probes,
mere centimeters thick,
to the nearby planet.
We take a computer chip,
energize it with laser beams,
add a parachute.
The laser beam inflates
the parachute
and shoots the chip
to the nearest star
DENNIN: You deploy this and
you basically just cruise.
You can possibly
accelerate them fairly high,
20% the speed of light,
and now getting to the nearest
stars becomes very reasonable.
NARRATOR: But even traveling
at such high speeds,
the probes will take 20 years
to complete their journey.
DENNIN:
Light travels at a finite speed.
A very simple example
of this is:
the Sun is eight minutes away
by the way light travels.
And most things are millions
of light‐years away
or thousands
of light‐years away.
NICK POPE: If we pick up a
signal from another civilization,
uh, that's a big thing,
but it's very distant.
They may never get here,
we may never meet them,
indeed, because
of interstellar distances.
NARRATOR: If,
as ancient astronaut theorists believe,
Earth has been visited
by alien entities
coming from exoplanets
only now being discovered,
such entities would have
to overcome the primary obstacle
to space travel, the vast
distance between objects.
You talk to many scientists,
they'll say the same thing
over and over again:
"The distances between stars
is so great,
impossible that these aliens
can visit us."
Think for a moment,
if they're a million years
more advanced than us.
Just realize
that modern technology,
with all our wonders,
is only about 300 years old.
NARRATOR: In recent years a
growing number of astrophysicists
have proposed
that mankind's ability
to unlock the mysteries
of interstellar space travel
might be much closer
than previously thought.
And they believe the key
is by using
a theoretically possible
structure known as a wormhole,
a bend in space‐time
that was first proposed
by Albert Einstein, which could
make travel times between stars
not only shorter,
but nearly instantaneous.
From the perspective
of ultimate space travel,
from my point of view,
wormholes are simply,
you take space‐‐
which can bend, in our theory
of general relativity,
the modern theory of gravity‐‐
you bend it around on itself
so you have two layers
that are apart and you connect
them with a tunnel.
That tunnel is a wormhole.
They're commonly referred to
as stargates
because it gives you
a way to get
faster‐than‐light space travel
across large distances.
NARRATOR: In theory,
spacecraft that can create wormholes
would be able to travel
to distant exoplanets
in just hours,
possibly even seconds.
If extraterrestrial
civilizations,
far more advanced
than humans, do exist,
could they have discovered
the secrets of space travel
hundreds or perhaps
thousands of years ago?
And, if so, might they have even
traveled here to planet Earth?
Mount Palomar, California.
October 6, 2013.
A massive red star
in the constellation Pegasus,
ten times larger than our sun,
explodes
in a colossal supernova.
For the first time,
scientists are able to witness
the death of a giant star
in real time.
But perhaps even more
profound is the fact
that, because the dying star
is 160 million light‐years
from Earth,
astronomers are actually
witnessing an event
that took place
160 million years ago.
So one of the things
to realize about astronomy
is almost everything we are
looking at is in the past...
'cause the light
doesn't travel instantly.
And a supernova is basically
a star exploding.
If it had any planets around it,
those are wiped out.
So, if there was a civilization
or if there was life there,
what we're seeing happen now
happened very far in the past.
NARRATOR: The violent death
of the star in Pegasus
provides dramatic confirmation
that the universe
is both ancient and dynamic.
But ancient astronaut theorists
believe such discoveries
also provide reasons
why an advanced extraterrestrial
civilization might need to leave
its home planet
in search of other worlds.
When astronomers look out
into the, the galaxy
for dying suns,
if there were beings who had
an advanced civilization
around this dying sun,
they would, in theory, want to
migrate to another solar system,
to another planet
that they could inhabit.
And it's quite possible
that they did that
and came to our planet, in fact.
HENRY: We know that
billions of years from now,
our own star, our sun,
will go supernova,
and we are very close now
to being able to venture out
or migrate to another
habitable planet.
We can extrapolate that to
ancient civilizations as well,
ancient star civilizations,
who knew that their own star
was ready to go supernova
and they embarked on a plan
of planetary migration.
NARRATOR: Has the story of
the cosmos been, in part,
a story of
the extraterrestrial migration
of various advanced
exoplanet life‐forms?
As far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,
the answer is a resounding yes.
And they claim the proof can be
found by carefully examining
everything from ancient carvings
to the religious beliefs
of ancient cultures
from across the globe.
RRATOR:
La Silla Observatory, Chile.
2011.
Astronomers announce
the discovery
of a large Earth‐like planet
orbiting a star
in the constellation Orion.
The planet is located
in the Goldilocks zone,
and the star it orbits
is very similar to our own,
making it an ideal candidate
for extraterrestrial life.
KAKU:
This is exciting 'cause we want
to have a stable solar system
like the planet Earth,
that's the goal.
NARRATOR: As far as ancient
astronaut theorists are concerned,
this may be the most compelling
exoplanet discovery yet,
because throughout the world,
numerous ancient cultures
have told stories
of otherworldly visitors
coming from Orion,
and even built their most
important structures
in alignment
with that constellation.
TSOUKALOS: All around the world,
there are these ancient structures
that have been built
in the form of Orion.
One example that comes to mind
is the Great Pyramid of Giza,
where the three pyramids
are aligned
according to the belt stars
of Orion.
But also,
in the American Southwest,
there are structures
that are in reference to Orion.
Native American myths talk
specifically about visitors
who came here
from the Orion constellation.
The fact that Orion's
constellation exists
in magnificent archaeological
monuments on Earth
indicates to me that someone at
some point taught our ancestors
where and how to build
these structures
to illustrate
where they are from.
NARRATOR: Is it possible
that the exoplanet discovered
in the Orion constellation
is the same place
where extraterrestrial visitors
to Earth came from
thousands of years ago?
For ancient astronaut theorists,
such an audacious notion
is a very real possibility.
And they also insist that Orion
is not the only star system
from where aliens may have come.
CHILDRESS:
All over the world,
we have different cultures
who identify with certain
star systems as their origins.
The Quechua people of Peru,
they believe that we're
from the, the Pleiades.
In Africa, we have the Dogon,
who are saying that, uh,
our origin is actually
with the Sirius star system.
Various cultures have
imagined they have come
from specific places, uh,
the Pleiades or Sirius.
Well, that would be a planet
near the star system,
suggesting that,
at least in mythology,
there are planets there
that could be
inhabited by creatures like us.
NARRATOR:
While many ancient cultures
pointed to distant star systems
as the homes of their gods,
ancient astronaut theorists
suggest that
one of the oldest human
civilizations, the Sumerians,
left records of otherworldly
beings that came from a planet
right in our own solar system.
A planet that until
very recently
was thought not to exist.
New York City.
1976.
Author Zecharia Sitchin
publishes his landmark book
The 12th Planet.
The first of over
a dozen books based upon
Sitchin's translations
of ancient Sumerian texts,
The 12th Planet
ultimately reshapes the way
millions of people view
the history of life on Earth.
In it, Sitchin claims that
ancient Sumerians wrote about
an extraterrestrial race
that once visited Earth,
the Anunnaki.
The term "Anunnaki"
is essentially
interchangeable
with "extraterrestrial,"
because the word
"Anunnaki" itself means
"those who from
the heavens came."
MARTELL:
There's a whole pantheon
of Anunnaki, basically.
There was Anu,
who is essentially
the king of all the Anunnaki.
And then his two sons
Enlil and Enki.
When we look in a lot
of the Sumerian tablets,
they seemed to have come from
a much larger planet,
a reddish, glowing planet.
HENRY:
One of the great questions
about the Anunnaki is:
where did they come from?
Well, Zecharia went back
into the ancient texts
and began to build a theory
that the Anunnaki came
from an as‐yet undiscovered
12th planet in our solar system
that he called Nibiru.
MARTELL:
Nibiru is described
as a much larger planet
than Earth.
And it has
a very elliptical orbit.
More like a large
egg‐shaped orbit.
The kicker here is that
it goes once around the Sun
every 3,600 years.
So a solar year for them
is 3,600 of our years.
CHILDRESS:
Sitchin believed that there was
a time during
this 3,600‐year orbit
when this planet was actually
relatively close to the Earth.
And Sitchin then theorized
the Anunnaki
would then fire their rockets
and then they would
come here to Earth.
And that this was how they were
interacting with humans.
NARRATOR:
For decades,
astronomers claimed
that no such planet
could exist in our solar system.
But in 2016, Caltech astronomers
Konstantin Batygin
and Mike Brown
made a discovery that could
prove this theory wrong.
Batygin and Brown were using
an interesting method
of looking for other planets
in the solar system.
Namely, they were looking
at dwarf planets
and distant Kuiper belt objects
to see how they move.
If they exhibit
any strange behavior,
astronomers can use that
to theorize new planets.
And what they found was
a theoretical planet‐sized mass,
orbiting in
a hugely elliptical orbit
around the Sun.
CHILDRESS:
Astronomers have often
suspected, because of certain
gravitational anomalies
and things,
that there is still
some other planet
far out in our solar system,
uh, beyond Pluto.
Astronomers called
this other planet Planet X.
And it could be
a very large planet.
Astronomers cannot see it,
but I would suspect
that astronomers
will eventually discover it
and‐and prove that it exists.
NARRATOR:
Batygin and Brown estimate
that Planet X has
a highly elliptical orbit
and takes it thousands of years
to make a single trip
around our sun.
This matches exactly
what Zecharia Sitchin found
in his translation
of the ancient Sumerian tablets,
concerning an extra planet
in our solar system.
HENRY:
The thing about it is, is that
if we discover Planet X,
then we will also discover
the Anunnaki.
So they're absolutely entwined.
The idea of the Anunnaki
and the discovery of Planet X
will prove one another.
NARRATOR:
Could extraterrestrials have
come to Earth from a planet
within our own solar system?
And if Earth has, in fact,
played host to alien visitors
from multiple worlds,
what brought them here?
According to the ancient
Sumerian tablets,
the Anunnaki valued
one thing above all else...
gold.
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Find out @ saveanilluminati.com
The Trans Astronautic
Corporation announces
a partnership with NASA to
develop a new venture in space‐‐
asteroid mining.
We incorporated TransAstra
in 2015 when we saw that
SpaceX and Elon Musk
and Blue Origin and Jeff Bezos
and other entrepreneurs
were developing low‐cost,
really effective ways
to get in orbit.
Once we have rockets that can
get into orbit inexpensively,
then it makes sense to start
building real industries
in space.
And one of the first industries
is asteroid mining.
Precious metals that
we really value on the Earth‐‐
things like gold and platinum‐‐
they're called precious metals
'cause they're not around much.
Question is: where are they?
And the answer is asteroids.
NARRATOR:
Metals like gold, copper,
and zinc have been mined
on Earth for thousands of years
and are vital to civilization.
But their supply is finite,
in part because they are
not native to this planet.
When the Earth was originally
being formed, it was molten,
and a lot of the precious metals
were drawn towards
the center of the Earth.
And through this molten process,
all the heavy elements went
down to the core of the Earth
where we can't
get access to them.
Then the Earth started to cool
and form a cool crust,
which was made
of lighter materials.
NARRATOR:
It is widely accepted that
without access to metals,
both technology
and civilization
would not have been possible.
But luckily for mankind,
some 3.8 billion years ago,
it is estimated that trillions
of asteroids crashed
into the Earth and deposited
a layer of heavy metals
into the planet's
now‐hardened crust.
These elements weren't actually
from Earth originally.
All of these elements came to
Earth via comets and asteroids
that impacted our planet long
ago and early in its history.
SERCEL:
So all the precious metals
that we mine on the Earth
actually came
from the asteroids.
NARRATOR:
The bombardment of asteroids
seeded Earth's crust with
enough metals to make possible
the Bronze Age, the Iron Age,
and today's technological
civilization.
But many metals, including
rare earth elements needed
for high technology, are
in increasingly short supply.
Because of this, many experts
believe the asteroid belt
may once again
come to the rescue.
SUMMERS:
You get a typical asteroid,
a few hundred meters
in diameter,
it will have more of those
rare earth elements
than have been mined on Earth
in all of human history.
NARRATOR:
Of the more than 6,000 asteroids
in NASA's database,
it is estimated that even just
the ten easiest
to reach and mine
would yield an astonishing $1.5
trillion dollars in resources.
SUMMERS:
The asteroid belt could
provide for the needs of our
civilization for many centuries.
Maybe thousands of years
into their future.
SERCEL:
The natural thing to do
is to build spacecraft,
go out to the asteroids,
mine them,
make goods out of the asteroids.
And we presume
that other intelligences,
if there are other intelligence,
would think
the same way we would.
And so anything that seems
to make sense to us
could make sense to others.
NARRATOR:
If other intelligent life‐forms
exist on nearby exoplanets,
might they too
be aware of the vast
resources that exist
in the asteroid belt
and also on planet Earth?
Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes
and suggest that Earth
is rich in another commodity
that would be of great value
to any advanced civilization
looking to mine
for precious metals...
liquid water.
If aliens wanted to mine
the asteroid belt,
they'd need a base,
somewhere to regroup and refuel.
As it happens,
there's one pretty close,
and it's called planet Earth.
BIRNES:
Why aliens come here
might well be
because we're mostly
water on planet Earth.
They stop here
because they could
break down water into hydrogen
and oxygen as fuel.
So, if you have a craft
that somehow uses
hydrogen power,
you have all the hydrogen
you'll ever need.
It well could be that this is
a way station
for extraterrestrials.
NARRATOR:
Is it possible
that extraterrestrial
civilizations have come to Earth
not only as refugees from
planets orbiting dying stars
but also to mine precious metals
or abundant natural resources
like water?
And if so, would that indicate
that these Earth visitors
might be physically
very similar to ourselves?
NARRATOR:
La Silla Observatory.
Chile. 2009.
Astronomers identify
a potentially habitable planet
orbiting the star Gliese 667 C.
It's a large Earth‐like planet
located firmly
in the Goldilocks zone.
While evidence of life has yet
to be discovered,
scientists are able to speculate
as to how life on this planet
would evolve.
When we imagine life
on other planets,
we have to imagine that
the environment on those planets
will determine what the creature
may look like.
DENNIN: In considering planets
larger than Earth,
the increased gravity
will likely result
in shorter complex life‐forms.
This results in a more stable,
um, life‐form
and protects against falls.
So life‐forms on larger planets
would likely be smaller
than those on smaller planets.
NARRATOR: Like Earth, a major
evolutionary force on the planet
is the strength of its sun.
Gliese 667 C is
a red dwarf star, an M star,
that's about 1.4%
as bright as our sun.
Because M‐dwarf stars
are much smaller than our sun,
they're much cooler and they
give off a lot less light.
Because the star gives out such
low light compared to our sun,
any life on those planets
would look much different.
BIRNES: Let's assume,
for the sake of argument,
that there is life
on Gliese 667 C,
such life would be living
in kind of eternal darkness.
In order for life‐forms
on a planet like that to see,
they'd be like owls
on planet Earth.
They would have
very, very large eyes
to capture as much light
as possible.
CHILDRESS:
They are going to develop eyes
that are perhaps more like
a insect's eyes,
where you're seeing
different light spectrums
and heat signatures.
Something completely different
than the way we see.
NARRATOR:
For ancient astronaut theorists,
these descriptions
share a curious similarity
to accounts reported
by alleged alien abductees.
BIRNES:
Alien abductees
give very consistent accounts
of some of the types
of aliens they see.
The most consistent account is:
four feet, short, gray,
big‐headed, big‐eyed aliens.
And this would fit what
we might expect with gravity
so intense that you couldn't
grow to six feet.
NARRATOR: Short,
gray aliens with large, black eyes?
Is it possible
that the habitable planet
orbiting Gliese 667 C
is the home world
of the beings known
in the UFO community
as the Greys?
As far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,
the planet orbiting Gliese 667 C
is just one of a number
of recently discovered worlds
that could represent places
of origin for extraterrestrials
encountered both in modern times
and in the distant past.
Mountain View, California.
April 2013.
NASA scientists
at the Ames Research Center
announce that the
Kepler space telescope
has discovered
two new exoplanets
that seem highly promising
for life.
Named Kepler‐62e and 62f,
they are so‐called water worlds,
planets covered by an
all‐encompassing global ocean.
DENNIN: The planets 62e and f are
very exciting because they are
ocean‐covered planets
and in the habitable zone.
So if you're
an ocean‐covered planet,
it increases the chance
that there's actually life
on that planet.
BIRNES:
If there is a water world
with an atmosphere, with water,
the creatures that may inhabit
there are waterborne creatures.
They wouldn't necessarily
look like human beings
standing up on two legs
and two arms.
They might look
more like mermaids.
NARRATOR: Ancient astronaut
theorists point out
that many early civilizations
reported sky visitors
with amphibious,
fish‐like characteristics.
Considered to be gods,
they were seen in China,
sub‐Saharan Africa,
Central America,
and Egypt, just to name a few.
These amphibian beings
were said to interact
with humans by day
and retreat to rivers
or lakes at night.
Could such entities have come
from so‐called water worlds
like Kepler 62‐e and f?
POPE:
Creatures like that,
if they existed,
would evolve on water worlds,
planets with a global ocean,
and it just so happens that
in the ongoing search
for exoplanets, many such worlds
are being discovered.
CHILDRESS: These half‐human,
half‐fish‐type gods
that are like us
but are still aquatic
are coming from
these water planets.
Extraterrestrials may be
very attracted to planet Earth
because the oceans
are huge and vast.
So aquatic extraterrestrials
could find a‐a‐a very happy home
here on planet Earth.
KAKU: So, when we encounter
alien life‐forms out in space,
are they gonna look like us? No.
They could look completely
different from us
and have a different pathway
to intelligence.
NARRATOR: In their search
for habitable exoplanets,
could mainstream scientists
be discovering the home worlds
of extraterrestrial
visitors to Earth?
For ancient astronaut theorists,
the answer is a resounding yes,
and they suggest
that the search for life
is about to be
revolutionized once again
as NASA prepares to launch
an extraordinary new technology
into space.
Astronomers Michel Mayor
and Didier Queloz
are awarded the Nobel Prize
in Physics for discovering
the first exoplanet in 1992.
In the years since,
more than 4,000 have been
examined and categorized,
and more are being found
every day.
KAKU: Let's do a science
experiment tonight.
Go outside, look up,
and see all the
thousands of stars you see.
Every single one, on average,
has a planet going around them,
and about one in 20
has an Earth‐like planet.
And so, when you look
at the stars tonight,
realize that somebody
could be looking back at you
from outer space.
NARRATOR:
In 2021,
NASA will launch
the James Webb Space Telescope,
a satellite that can
do something
once thought impossible:
take detailed, color images
of an exoplanet.
The James Webb Space Telescope
is, um, a‐a different type
of telescope than we've had
in space before.
It will give us the ability
to look at the reflected light
from exoplanets and the
infrared part of the spectrum
and to search for the potential
for biology being present.
NARRATOR: But when we look upon
the images of other worlds,
and possibly even the beings
that inhabit them,
what will we find?
CHILDRESS: I think that what's really
lying in store for humanity now
is that we will prove that there
are these exoplanets out there,
that they have life
and quite possibly
intelligent life
capable of coming
to our solar system.
This will cause a sea change
all over the world,
within scientific communities
and within the religious
communities, too.
NARRATOR: If astronomers
discover exoplanets
with intelligent
alien life‐forms,
will they appear
eerily familiar?
Could they find amphibious
humanoid beings,
like the gods depicted
in ancient times?
Small, gray aliens like those
reported by alleged abductees?
And is it possible
that some visitors,
perhaps coming from worlds
very similar to Earth,
might look remarkably like us?
Within established
ancient astronaut theory,
it's generally thought
that these
extraterrestrial beings coming
from outside of our solar system
were interacting
with our society
and they were manipulating
our DNA and, in a sense,
creating people
on this planet, us,
who look like them
and are similar to them.
HENRY: As we discover
more and more exoplanets,
the implications for humanity
are enormous.
I think it's very possible
that we're on the verge
of discovering our home planet,
the place of our origins.
TSOUKALOS: The big revelation will
not be, "Do they look like us?"
But we look like them
'cause we are their offspring.
NARRATOR: As scientists continue
their search for habitable worlds,
are we on the verge of
discovering not only alien life
but the very extraterrestrials
that came to Earth
centuries ago?
And will we find
that the strange gods
depicted by our ancestors
as mythological creations
were very real
flesh and blood entities
not so different from ourselves?
Perhaps one day soon
we will look
at the satellite image
of a distant exoplanet
and see not only
mankind's future home
but one that could have
once been inhabited
by our ancient alien ancestors.
Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.
planets similar to our own.
GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS:
The discoveries of exoplanets
over the past few years have
been absolutely extraordinary.
NARRATOR: And many could soon be
within the grasp of our technology.
MICHIO KAKU:
Think about it.
Civilizations over billions
of years could have
risen and fallen
even before
the Earth was formed.
NARRATOR: But if we can reach out
in pursuit of life on other worlds,
might they also
be reaching out to us?
And have they been doing so
for thousands of years?
BILL BIRNES: Could it be
that ancient civilizations,
ancient aliens from far away
migrated from their home worlds
and they found Earth?
WILLIAM HENRY:
The implications for humanity
are enormous.
NARRATOR:
There is a doorway
in the universe.
Beyond it is
the promise of truth.
It demands
we question everything
we have ever been taught.
The evidence is all around us.
The future is
right before our eyes.
We are not alone.
We have never been alone.
NARRATOR:
Cape Canaveral, Florida.
April 18, 2018.
At 6:51 p. m.,
a Falcon 9 rocket blasts off
on a mission to deploy
NASA's newest
space telescope into orbit:
the Transiting Exoplanet
Survey Satellite,
or TESS.
TESS is like a survey
of the whole sky, a survey
of the nearest
100 light‐years or so
of planets that would be
around these stars.
NARRATOR:
Over the next decade,
scientists expect that TESS will
fulfill its primary mission:
to discover thousands
of so‐called exoplanets.
SUMMERS: Exoplanets
are planets that exist
outside of our solar system.
We're certainly in an exoplanet
golden age of discovery.
20 years ago, we didn't know
if there were other Earth‐like
planets in the universe.
And now we can't imagine
how we could discover things
at a higher rate and still try
to make sense of it.
It's such a struggle
just to keep up
with the discoveries
that we're making right now.
NARRATOR:
It is only recently,
with the development
of deep‐space satellites
and high‐powered telescopes,
that a more accurate
understanding of nearby planets,
especially planets capable
of supporting human life,
has been possible.
But it wasn't so long ago that
the notion of Earth‐like planets
existing in our galaxy
wasn't simply unknown;
it was considered blasphemy.
When the 16th century Italian
philosopher and cosmologist
Giordano Bruno
expressed his belief
in "an infinity of worlds"
and raised the possibility
that other planets
could harbor life,
he was charged with heresy
and burned at the stake.
KAKU:
It was heretical, revolutionary,
to believe that there could be
alien life out there.
Giordano Bruno was burned alive
in the streets of Rome,
and what was his crime?
To say that there are aliens
out there on other planets.
HENRY: You weren't allowed
to think like that.
It challenged
all their predispositions
and their power structure.
"No, there are no other worlds.
There's nothing out there."
But there is
something out there,
there's no question about it.
NARRATOR:
As recently as the early 1990s,
astronomers were still unable
to detect these distant planets,
even with high‐powered
telescopes.
It's hard to see an exoplanet.
Imagine trying to look at
a firefly next to a spotlight.
It's incredibly difficult
because stars shine
by their own light.
They give off their own light,
but planets reflect light.
A typical star is about
ten billion times brighter
than a planet.
NARRATOR:
Thanks to remarkable
advances in technology,
astronomers made the very first
discovery of an exoplanet
in 1992 using
an Earth‐based telescope.
But that search kicked
into high gear in 2009
with the launch of Kepler,
the first space telescope
specially designed
to find exoplanets.
And in 2018, Kepler was replaced
by the even more powerful TESS.
So, one of the really
cool things about TESS,
the new satellite
that NASA's put up,
is basically it was specifically
designed to detect exoplanets
by what's called
the transit method,
which is where, when a planet
goes in front of a star,
it blocks the light briefly
and you really see the light
blink on and off.
AMY SHIRA TEITEL:
That tell‐tale dip
is what tells you
there might be something
that's passing in front of it.
The regularity tells you
about the orbit,
which is the easiest way
to actually start looking
for new planets.
NARRATOR: Although the initial
objective in the search
for exoplanets was simply
to determine how many stars
in our galaxy might have planets
in orbit around them,
the actual results
were staggering.
Our galaxy has around, um,
400 billion stars.
From what we've seen so far is,
on average,
every star has
at least one planet.
So that means that there are
400 billion, at least,
planets in our galaxy.
NARRATOR:
400 billion planets
in the Milky Way galaxy alone?
The discovery of such
an extraordinary number
of exoplanets represents
a radical change
in our understanding
of the universe.
But even more radical
is the notion
that millions of those planets
might actually be capable
of not just supporting life
but generating it.
And, to that end, astronomers
and astrophysicists
actively search for planets
in a region
they refer to as
the Goldilocks zone.
DENNIN: The Goldilocks zone is
exactly that range for a given star
of where water
is gonna be liquid
on a given type of planet.
KAKU: We want a planet
that is not too close,
not too far
from the mother star,
but just right.
Planets that may have oxygen
and H2O, water,
that may make possible
an atmosphere
and maybe even life.
NARRATOR: Based upon current
observations, scientists are astounded
by the number of potentially
habitable planets that exist
in the Goldilocks zone.
SUMMERS: With at least 400
billion planets in our galaxy,
if you just look
at one percent of that,
you're still talking
about billions of planets
that could potentially
be habitable.
This is exciting 'cause
we once thought that we were
the only game in town,
that can only exist
on the planet Earth.
DENNIN:
The discovery of exoplanets,
I think it's really
changed our view
of the potential for life
in the universe.
Fundamentally, I think
most scientists would now agree
that there is some form of life
elsewhere in the universe.
NARRATOR: But in spite of the
abundance of habitable exoplanets,
many scientists
still cling to the notion
that the only kind of life
likely to exist outside of Earth
is microbial or bacterial.
They are resistant to what they
claim are far‐fetched notions
that these planets might not
only contain more sophisticated
or evolved life‐forms,
but intelligent life‐forms,
some much more evolved
or technologically advanced
than our own.
Think about it.
The universe is about
13.8 billion years old.
The Earth is
4.6 billion years old.
Civilizations,
over billions of years,
could have risen and fallen
even before the Earth
was formed.
NARRATOR: Although the realization
that the galaxy is teeming
with Earth‐like planets
has triggered a revolution
in conventional
scientific thinking,
as far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,
it merely confirms what they
have believed all along.
TSOUKALOS:
The discoveries of exoplanets
over the past few years have
been absolutely extraordinary.
I remember that the first time
they discovered
this first exoplanet, and me
and my colleagues were like‐‐
were saying, "Okay,
this will be the first of many."
And now, apparently,
as many as three exoplanets
are being discovered
on a daily basis.
So what we've said all along,
that Earth is not unique
in this gigantic universe,
turns out to be correct.
This raises the question
that we've been bringing up,
that for thousands of years,
there's evidence
of some type of visitation
from other civilizations.
Hopefully, our sciences are able
to now detect exoplanets,
will allow us to pinpoint
some of these actual home worlds
where aliens
have been visiting us.
TSOUKALOS: I propose that
most of those planets
that are in this Goldilocks zone
have life very similar to ours.
The only question is:
was it them
who came here
thousands of years ago?
NARRATOR: But while a growing
number of mainstream scientists
do admit that intelligent life
can, theoretically,
exist elsewhere
within our galaxy,
they also argue that the
distances between those planets
and our own are too vast for any
extraterrestrial visitation
to take place.
It is a position that puts them
in direct conflict
with ancient
astronaut theorists,
who contend that the keys
to extraterrestrial space travel
can be found
in Albert Einstein's
theory of relativity,
and that a voyage to a distant
star could take not centuries
but seconds.
NARRATOR:
The Atacama Desert, Chile.
August 2016.
At the La Silla Observatory,
astronomers searching
for exoplanets
announce the detection
of an Earth‐like planet
orbiting the closest star to our
solar system, Proxima Centauri.
They name the planet Proxima b,
and describe it
as both Earth‐like
and close enough to its star
to be capable
of supporting life.
One of the more interesting
exoplanets we've found recently
is Proxima b.
This exoplanet is about
1.3 times the size of Earth,
so scientists think
that it might be rocky,
which means that it could be
quite similar to Earth.
SUMMERS:
Proxima b may be habitable.
We'll be able to study it
in more detail
with large telescopes.
And in the next ten years,
we may even be able
to get pictures of the planet.
NARRATOR:
Proxima b is located
just over four light‐years
from Earth,
a distance of about
25 trillion miles.
Despite the immense distance,
an ambitious program
is already underway to send
spacecraft to study it.
Called Breakthrough Starshot,
the program began
as the joint brainchild
of philanthropist Yuri Milner
and famous cosmologist,
the late Stephen Hawking.
For the first time
in human history,
we can do more
than just gaze at the stars.
We can actually reach them.
NARRATOR: The goal of
Breakthrough Starshot
is to send tiny probes,
mere centimeters thick,
to the nearby planet.
We take a computer chip,
energize it with laser beams,
add a parachute.
The laser beam inflates
the parachute
and shoots the chip
to the nearest star
DENNIN: You deploy this and
you basically just cruise.
You can possibly
accelerate them fairly high,
20% the speed of light,
and now getting to the nearest
stars becomes very reasonable.
NARRATOR: But even traveling
at such high speeds,
the probes will take 20 years
to complete their journey.
DENNIN:
Light travels at a finite speed.
A very simple example
of this is:
the Sun is eight minutes away
by the way light travels.
And most things are millions
of light‐years away
or thousands
of light‐years away.
NICK POPE: If we pick up a
signal from another civilization,
uh, that's a big thing,
but it's very distant.
They may never get here,
we may never meet them,
indeed, because
of interstellar distances.
NARRATOR: If,
as ancient astronaut theorists believe,
Earth has been visited
by alien entities
coming from exoplanets
only now being discovered,
such entities would have
to overcome the primary obstacle
to space travel, the vast
distance between objects.
You talk to many scientists,
they'll say the same thing
over and over again:
"The distances between stars
is so great,
impossible that these aliens
can visit us."
Think for a moment,
if they're a million years
more advanced than us.
Just realize
that modern technology,
with all our wonders,
is only about 300 years old.
NARRATOR: In recent years a
growing number of astrophysicists
have proposed
that mankind's ability
to unlock the mysteries
of interstellar space travel
might be much closer
than previously thought.
And they believe the key
is by using
a theoretically possible
structure known as a wormhole,
a bend in space‐time
that was first proposed
by Albert Einstein, which could
make travel times between stars
not only shorter,
but nearly instantaneous.
From the perspective
of ultimate space travel,
from my point of view,
wormholes are simply,
you take space‐‐
which can bend, in our theory
of general relativity,
the modern theory of gravity‐‐
you bend it around on itself
so you have two layers
that are apart and you connect
them with a tunnel.
That tunnel is a wormhole.
They're commonly referred to
as stargates
because it gives you
a way to get
faster‐than‐light space travel
across large distances.
NARRATOR: In theory,
spacecraft that can create wormholes
would be able to travel
to distant exoplanets
in just hours,
possibly even seconds.
If extraterrestrial
civilizations,
far more advanced
than humans, do exist,
could they have discovered
the secrets of space travel
hundreds or perhaps
thousands of years ago?
And, if so, might they have even
traveled here to planet Earth?
Mount Palomar, California.
October 6, 2013.
A massive red star
in the constellation Pegasus,
ten times larger than our sun,
explodes
in a colossal supernova.
For the first time,
scientists are able to witness
the death of a giant star
in real time.
But perhaps even more
profound is the fact
that, because the dying star
is 160 million light‐years
from Earth,
astronomers are actually
witnessing an event
that took place
160 million years ago.
So one of the things
to realize about astronomy
is almost everything we are
looking at is in the past...
'cause the light
doesn't travel instantly.
And a supernova is basically
a star exploding.
If it had any planets around it,
those are wiped out.
So, if there was a civilization
or if there was life there,
what we're seeing happen now
happened very far in the past.
NARRATOR: The violent death
of the star in Pegasus
provides dramatic confirmation
that the universe
is both ancient and dynamic.
But ancient astronaut theorists
believe such discoveries
also provide reasons
why an advanced extraterrestrial
civilization might need to leave
its home planet
in search of other worlds.
When astronomers look out
into the, the galaxy
for dying suns,
if there were beings who had
an advanced civilization
around this dying sun,
they would, in theory, want to
migrate to another solar system,
to another planet
that they could inhabit.
And it's quite possible
that they did that
and came to our planet, in fact.
HENRY: We know that
billions of years from now,
our own star, our sun,
will go supernova,
and we are very close now
to being able to venture out
or migrate to another
habitable planet.
We can extrapolate that to
ancient civilizations as well,
ancient star civilizations,
who knew that their own star
was ready to go supernova
and they embarked on a plan
of planetary migration.
NARRATOR: Has the story of
the cosmos been, in part,
a story of
the extraterrestrial migration
of various advanced
exoplanet life‐forms?
As far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,
the answer is a resounding yes.
And they claim the proof can be
found by carefully examining
everything from ancient carvings
to the religious beliefs
of ancient cultures
from across the globe.
RRATOR:
La Silla Observatory, Chile.
2011.
Astronomers announce
the discovery
of a large Earth‐like planet
orbiting a star
in the constellation Orion.
The planet is located
in the Goldilocks zone,
and the star it orbits
is very similar to our own,
making it an ideal candidate
for extraterrestrial life.
KAKU:
This is exciting 'cause we want
to have a stable solar system
like the planet Earth,
that's the goal.
NARRATOR: As far as ancient
astronaut theorists are concerned,
this may be the most compelling
exoplanet discovery yet,
because throughout the world,
numerous ancient cultures
have told stories
of otherworldly visitors
coming from Orion,
and even built their most
important structures
in alignment
with that constellation.
TSOUKALOS: All around the world,
there are these ancient structures
that have been built
in the form of Orion.
One example that comes to mind
is the Great Pyramid of Giza,
where the three pyramids
are aligned
according to the belt stars
of Orion.
But also,
in the American Southwest,
there are structures
that are in reference to Orion.
Native American myths talk
specifically about visitors
who came here
from the Orion constellation.
The fact that Orion's
constellation exists
in magnificent archaeological
monuments on Earth
indicates to me that someone at
some point taught our ancestors
where and how to build
these structures
to illustrate
where they are from.
NARRATOR: Is it possible
that the exoplanet discovered
in the Orion constellation
is the same place
where extraterrestrial visitors
to Earth came from
thousands of years ago?
For ancient astronaut theorists,
such an audacious notion
is a very real possibility.
And they also insist that Orion
is not the only star system
from where aliens may have come.
CHILDRESS:
All over the world,
we have different cultures
who identify with certain
star systems as their origins.
The Quechua people of Peru,
they believe that we're
from the, the Pleiades.
In Africa, we have the Dogon,
who are saying that, uh,
our origin is actually
with the Sirius star system.
Various cultures have
imagined they have come
from specific places, uh,
the Pleiades or Sirius.
Well, that would be a planet
near the star system,
suggesting that,
at least in mythology,
there are planets there
that could be
inhabited by creatures like us.
NARRATOR:
While many ancient cultures
pointed to distant star systems
as the homes of their gods,
ancient astronaut theorists
suggest that
one of the oldest human
civilizations, the Sumerians,
left records of otherworldly
beings that came from a planet
right in our own solar system.
A planet that until
very recently
was thought not to exist.
New York City.
1976.
Author Zecharia Sitchin
publishes his landmark book
The 12th Planet.
The first of over
a dozen books based upon
Sitchin's translations
of ancient Sumerian texts,
The 12th Planet
ultimately reshapes the way
millions of people view
the history of life on Earth.
In it, Sitchin claims that
ancient Sumerians wrote about
an extraterrestrial race
that once visited Earth,
the Anunnaki.
The term "Anunnaki"
is essentially
interchangeable
with "extraterrestrial,"
because the word
"Anunnaki" itself means
"those who from
the heavens came."
MARTELL:
There's a whole pantheon
of Anunnaki, basically.
There was Anu,
who is essentially
the king of all the Anunnaki.
And then his two sons
Enlil and Enki.
When we look in a lot
of the Sumerian tablets,
they seemed to have come from
a much larger planet,
a reddish, glowing planet.
HENRY:
One of the great questions
about the Anunnaki is:
where did they come from?
Well, Zecharia went back
into the ancient texts
and began to build a theory
that the Anunnaki came
from an as‐yet undiscovered
12th planet in our solar system
that he called Nibiru.
MARTELL:
Nibiru is described
as a much larger planet
than Earth.
And it has
a very elliptical orbit.
More like a large
egg‐shaped orbit.
The kicker here is that
it goes once around the Sun
every 3,600 years.
So a solar year for them
is 3,600 of our years.
CHILDRESS:
Sitchin believed that there was
a time during
this 3,600‐year orbit
when this planet was actually
relatively close to the Earth.
And Sitchin then theorized
the Anunnaki
would then fire their rockets
and then they would
come here to Earth.
And that this was how they were
interacting with humans.
NARRATOR:
For decades,
astronomers claimed
that no such planet
could exist in our solar system.
But in 2016, Caltech astronomers
Konstantin Batygin
and Mike Brown
made a discovery that could
prove this theory wrong.
Batygin and Brown were using
an interesting method
of looking for other planets
in the solar system.
Namely, they were looking
at dwarf planets
and distant Kuiper belt objects
to see how they move.
If they exhibit
any strange behavior,
astronomers can use that
to theorize new planets.
And what they found was
a theoretical planet‐sized mass,
orbiting in
a hugely elliptical orbit
around the Sun.
CHILDRESS:
Astronomers have often
suspected, because of certain
gravitational anomalies
and things,
that there is still
some other planet
far out in our solar system,
uh, beyond Pluto.
Astronomers called
this other planet Planet X.
And it could be
a very large planet.
Astronomers cannot see it,
but I would suspect
that astronomers
will eventually discover it
and‐and prove that it exists.
NARRATOR:
Batygin and Brown estimate
that Planet X has
a highly elliptical orbit
and takes it thousands of years
to make a single trip
around our sun.
This matches exactly
what Zecharia Sitchin found
in his translation
of the ancient Sumerian tablets,
concerning an extra planet
in our solar system.
HENRY:
The thing about it is, is that
if we discover Planet X,
then we will also discover
the Anunnaki.
So they're absolutely entwined.
The idea of the Anunnaki
and the discovery of Planet X
will prove one another.
NARRATOR:
Could extraterrestrials have
come to Earth from a planet
within our own solar system?
And if Earth has, in fact,
played host to alien visitors
from multiple worlds,
what brought them here?
According to the ancient
Sumerian tablets,
the Anunnaki valued
one thing above all else...
gold.
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The Trans Astronautic
Corporation announces
a partnership with NASA to
develop a new venture in space‐‐
asteroid mining.
We incorporated TransAstra
in 2015 when we saw that
SpaceX and Elon Musk
and Blue Origin and Jeff Bezos
and other entrepreneurs
were developing low‐cost,
really effective ways
to get in orbit.
Once we have rockets that can
get into orbit inexpensively,
then it makes sense to start
building real industries
in space.
And one of the first industries
is asteroid mining.
Precious metals that
we really value on the Earth‐‐
things like gold and platinum‐‐
they're called precious metals
'cause they're not around much.
Question is: where are they?
And the answer is asteroids.
NARRATOR:
Metals like gold, copper,
and zinc have been mined
on Earth for thousands of years
and are vital to civilization.
But their supply is finite,
in part because they are
not native to this planet.
When the Earth was originally
being formed, it was molten,
and a lot of the precious metals
were drawn towards
the center of the Earth.
And through this molten process,
all the heavy elements went
down to the core of the Earth
where we can't
get access to them.
Then the Earth started to cool
and form a cool crust,
which was made
of lighter materials.
NARRATOR:
It is widely accepted that
without access to metals,
both technology
and civilization
would not have been possible.
But luckily for mankind,
some 3.8 billion years ago,
it is estimated that trillions
of asteroids crashed
into the Earth and deposited
a layer of heavy metals
into the planet's
now‐hardened crust.
These elements weren't actually
from Earth originally.
All of these elements came to
Earth via comets and asteroids
that impacted our planet long
ago and early in its history.
SERCEL:
So all the precious metals
that we mine on the Earth
actually came
from the asteroids.
NARRATOR:
The bombardment of asteroids
seeded Earth's crust with
enough metals to make possible
the Bronze Age, the Iron Age,
and today's technological
civilization.
But many metals, including
rare earth elements needed
for high technology, are
in increasingly short supply.
Because of this, many experts
believe the asteroid belt
may once again
come to the rescue.
SUMMERS:
You get a typical asteroid,
a few hundred meters
in diameter,
it will have more of those
rare earth elements
than have been mined on Earth
in all of human history.
NARRATOR:
Of the more than 6,000 asteroids
in NASA's database,
it is estimated that even just
the ten easiest
to reach and mine
would yield an astonishing $1.5
trillion dollars in resources.
SUMMERS:
The asteroid belt could
provide for the needs of our
civilization for many centuries.
Maybe thousands of years
into their future.
SERCEL:
The natural thing to do
is to build spacecraft,
go out to the asteroids,
mine them,
make goods out of the asteroids.
And we presume
that other intelligences,
if there are other intelligence,
would think
the same way we would.
And so anything that seems
to make sense to us
could make sense to others.
NARRATOR:
If other intelligent life‐forms
exist on nearby exoplanets,
might they too
be aware of the vast
resources that exist
in the asteroid belt
and also on planet Earth?
Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes
and suggest that Earth
is rich in another commodity
that would be of great value
to any advanced civilization
looking to mine
for precious metals...
liquid water.
If aliens wanted to mine
the asteroid belt,
they'd need a base,
somewhere to regroup and refuel.
As it happens,
there's one pretty close,
and it's called planet Earth.
BIRNES:
Why aliens come here
might well be
because we're mostly
water on planet Earth.
They stop here
because they could
break down water into hydrogen
and oxygen as fuel.
So, if you have a craft
that somehow uses
hydrogen power,
you have all the hydrogen
you'll ever need.
It well could be that this is
a way station
for extraterrestrials.
NARRATOR:
Is it possible
that extraterrestrial
civilizations have come to Earth
not only as refugees from
planets orbiting dying stars
but also to mine precious metals
or abundant natural resources
like water?
And if so, would that indicate
that these Earth visitors
might be physically
very similar to ourselves?
NARRATOR:
La Silla Observatory.
Chile. 2009.
Astronomers identify
a potentially habitable planet
orbiting the star Gliese 667 C.
It's a large Earth‐like planet
located firmly
in the Goldilocks zone.
While evidence of life has yet
to be discovered,
scientists are able to speculate
as to how life on this planet
would evolve.
When we imagine life
on other planets,
we have to imagine that
the environment on those planets
will determine what the creature
may look like.
DENNIN: In considering planets
larger than Earth,
the increased gravity
will likely result
in shorter complex life‐forms.
This results in a more stable,
um, life‐form
and protects against falls.
So life‐forms on larger planets
would likely be smaller
than those on smaller planets.
NARRATOR: Like Earth, a major
evolutionary force on the planet
is the strength of its sun.
Gliese 667 C is
a red dwarf star, an M star,
that's about 1.4%
as bright as our sun.
Because M‐dwarf stars
are much smaller than our sun,
they're much cooler and they
give off a lot less light.
Because the star gives out such
low light compared to our sun,
any life on those planets
would look much different.
BIRNES: Let's assume,
for the sake of argument,
that there is life
on Gliese 667 C,
such life would be living
in kind of eternal darkness.
In order for life‐forms
on a planet like that to see,
they'd be like owls
on planet Earth.
They would have
very, very large eyes
to capture as much light
as possible.
CHILDRESS:
They are going to develop eyes
that are perhaps more like
a insect's eyes,
where you're seeing
different light spectrums
and heat signatures.
Something completely different
than the way we see.
NARRATOR:
For ancient astronaut theorists,
these descriptions
share a curious similarity
to accounts reported
by alleged alien abductees.
BIRNES:
Alien abductees
give very consistent accounts
of some of the types
of aliens they see.
The most consistent account is:
four feet, short, gray,
big‐headed, big‐eyed aliens.
And this would fit what
we might expect with gravity
so intense that you couldn't
grow to six feet.
NARRATOR: Short,
gray aliens with large, black eyes?
Is it possible
that the habitable planet
orbiting Gliese 667 C
is the home world
of the beings known
in the UFO community
as the Greys?
As far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,
the planet orbiting Gliese 667 C
is just one of a number
of recently discovered worlds
that could represent places
of origin for extraterrestrials
encountered both in modern times
and in the distant past.
Mountain View, California.
April 2013.
NASA scientists
at the Ames Research Center
announce that the
Kepler space telescope
has discovered
two new exoplanets
that seem highly promising
for life.
Named Kepler‐62e and 62f,
they are so‐called water worlds,
planets covered by an
all‐encompassing global ocean.
DENNIN: The planets 62e and f are
very exciting because they are
ocean‐covered planets
and in the habitable zone.
So if you're
an ocean‐covered planet,
it increases the chance
that there's actually life
on that planet.
BIRNES:
If there is a water world
with an atmosphere, with water,
the creatures that may inhabit
there are waterborne creatures.
They wouldn't necessarily
look like human beings
standing up on two legs
and two arms.
They might look
more like mermaids.
NARRATOR: Ancient astronaut
theorists point out
that many early civilizations
reported sky visitors
with amphibious,
fish‐like characteristics.
Considered to be gods,
they were seen in China,
sub‐Saharan Africa,
Central America,
and Egypt, just to name a few.
These amphibian beings
were said to interact
with humans by day
and retreat to rivers
or lakes at night.
Could such entities have come
from so‐called water worlds
like Kepler 62‐e and f?
POPE:
Creatures like that,
if they existed,
would evolve on water worlds,
planets with a global ocean,
and it just so happens that
in the ongoing search
for exoplanets, many such worlds
are being discovered.
CHILDRESS: These half‐human,
half‐fish‐type gods
that are like us
but are still aquatic
are coming from
these water planets.
Extraterrestrials may be
very attracted to planet Earth
because the oceans
are huge and vast.
So aquatic extraterrestrials
could find a‐a‐a very happy home
here on planet Earth.
KAKU: So, when we encounter
alien life‐forms out in space,
are they gonna look like us? No.
They could look completely
different from us
and have a different pathway
to intelligence.
NARRATOR: In their search
for habitable exoplanets,
could mainstream scientists
be discovering the home worlds
of extraterrestrial
visitors to Earth?
For ancient astronaut theorists,
the answer is a resounding yes,
and they suggest
that the search for life
is about to be
revolutionized once again
as NASA prepares to launch
an extraordinary new technology
into space.
Astronomers Michel Mayor
and Didier Queloz
are awarded the Nobel Prize
in Physics for discovering
the first exoplanet in 1992.
In the years since,
more than 4,000 have been
examined and categorized,
and more are being found
every day.
KAKU: Let's do a science
experiment tonight.
Go outside, look up,
and see all the
thousands of stars you see.
Every single one, on average,
has a planet going around them,
and about one in 20
has an Earth‐like planet.
And so, when you look
at the stars tonight,
realize that somebody
could be looking back at you
from outer space.
NARRATOR:
In 2021,
NASA will launch
the James Webb Space Telescope,
a satellite that can
do something
once thought impossible:
take detailed, color images
of an exoplanet.
The James Webb Space Telescope
is, um, a‐a different type
of telescope than we've had
in space before.
It will give us the ability
to look at the reflected light
from exoplanets and the
infrared part of the spectrum
and to search for the potential
for biology being present.
NARRATOR: But when we look upon
the images of other worlds,
and possibly even the beings
that inhabit them,
what will we find?
CHILDRESS: I think that what's really
lying in store for humanity now
is that we will prove that there
are these exoplanets out there,
that they have life
and quite possibly
intelligent life
capable of coming
to our solar system.
This will cause a sea change
all over the world,
within scientific communities
and within the religious
communities, too.
NARRATOR: If astronomers
discover exoplanets
with intelligent
alien life‐forms,
will they appear
eerily familiar?
Could they find amphibious
humanoid beings,
like the gods depicted
in ancient times?
Small, gray aliens like those
reported by alleged abductees?
And is it possible
that some visitors,
perhaps coming from worlds
very similar to Earth,
might look remarkably like us?
Within established
ancient astronaut theory,
it's generally thought
that these
extraterrestrial beings coming
from outside of our solar system
were interacting
with our society
and they were manipulating
our DNA and, in a sense,
creating people
on this planet, us,
who look like them
and are similar to them.
HENRY: As we discover
more and more exoplanets,
the implications for humanity
are enormous.
I think it's very possible
that we're on the verge
of discovering our home planet,
the place of our origins.
TSOUKALOS: The big revelation will
not be, "Do they look like us?"
But we look like them
'cause we are their offspring.
NARRATOR: As scientists continue
their search for habitable worlds,
are we on the verge of
discovering not only alien life
but the very extraterrestrials
that came to Earth
centuries ago?
And will we find
that the strange gods
depicted by our ancestors
as mythological creations
were very real
flesh and blood entities
not so different from ourselves?
Perhaps one day soon
we will look
at the satellite image
of a distant exoplanet
and see not only
mankind's future home
but one that could have
once been inhabited
by our ancient alien ancestors.
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