All language subtitles for The UnXplained S02E04 The Truth About UFOs 1080p HULU WEB-DL AAC2 0 H 264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

aerial maneuvers
that defy understanding

and top secret government
installations

forbidden to the public.

What exactly are
unidentified flying objects?

Are they simply aircraft
that haven't been accounted for?

Examples of advanced
military technology?

Weather phenomena?

Or could they be exactly what
many people believe they are:

alien spacecrafts?

Well, that is what
we'll try and find out.

♪ ♪

An opinion poll conducted
by the Gallup Organization

reveals two astonishing facts:

one‐third of all Americans
have not only seen a UFO,

they believe alien spaceships
have visited the Earth.

In the last few years, there's
been a historic, dramatic shift

in the entire debate over UFOs.

It used to be that the burden of
proof was on the true believers.

They had to prove that
they were from another planet.

Now the burden has shifted.

Before, it was hearsay.

Now we have the videotapes.

And the fact
that everyone has cell phones

has vastly increased
the number of encounters.

And so now we're
running out of excuses.

We're running
out of natural phenomena

that can explain
these UFO sightings.

PAUL HYNEK:
MUFON is the Mutual UFO Network

and the largest UFO
research group in the world.

There were 5,000 reported cases
to MUFON last year alone.

So, what that shows
is that the UFO phenomenon

is not slowing down at all.

This is a real pointer
that this subject

is now absolutely mainstream.

This is no longer a subject

of fringe belief
and conspiracy blogs.

This is absolutely
down the middle,

on your TV screens
every evening.

This is real.

SHATNER: If the number of recent
sightings is any indication,

then by all means, the UFO
phenomenon is quite real.

But despite
the compelling evidence

presented by true believers,

skeptics are still waiting
for a smoking gun.

There are several issues
that are at work

in this whole topic of UFOs,

and number one,
you think you've got

a really good scientific
experiment about

things from another planet
being here on Earth?

Go write that scientific paper
and try to get it published.

It's most likely
not going to get published

because, for whatever reason,
we call that "fringe science."

POPE:
Intellectually, from history,

we know the sorts of things
that people misidentify as UFOs.

Military aircraft activity, of
course, and commercial airlines.

We know that certain
meteorological phenomena

can give rise to UFO reports.

We liaise with astronomers
and we find out

whether there were
any meteor showers,

or debris from a rocket launch.

All of these things we check
and we essentially try to see

if the UFO has
a conventional explanation.

BILL BIRNES: When the stealth
fighter was being tested,

one of the things
the Air Force would do

is have its pilots fly the
stealth fighter under the wing

of commercial flights
from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.

And the pilots would see
this triangular craft,

and they would say,
"What is this thing?

"Is it a flying saucer
or is it a UFO?

We don't know."

It was actually
the stealth fighter.

SHATNER:
While some may be quick to say

that alien UFOs are figments
of the imagination,

the truth is, sightings
of strange things in the sky

are not a recent phenomenon.

According to both ufologists
and ancient astronaut theorists,

they have been documented
for thousands of years.

The idea of celestial visitors
goes way back.

This is not just
a modern phenomenon.

And it's not just things
that seem like spaceships.

There are celestial visitors
in the form of angels

and random characters
that show up in mysterious ways.

The idea that we would have
some kind of contact

with beings beyond ourselves
is part of ancient cultures.

It varies
from culture to culture,

but there is something universal
about this,

something that seems persistent.

ARIEL BAR TZADOK:
One of the most profound

close encounters in the Bible

is recorded
in the Book of Ezekiel.

The episode begins
by saying that Ezekiel

had the hand of God upon him,

and that he witnessed
this experience

of this profound apparatus
which he tries to describe,

but yet is described
in the most bizarre ways,

talking about types of angels
called wheels, Ophanim,

and they have multiple faces
and the like.

Many want to understand
Ezekiel's vision as either being

some psychological
dreamlike experience.

Others want to interpret it
as being a spaceship.

But the reality is,
it was both and more.

SHATNER:
Strange objects raining fire
from the heavens,

celestial bodies streaking
across the night skies

and floating balls
of mesmerizing light.

But believe it or not,
until the mid‐19th century,

UFOs like these were often
dismissed as little more

than delusional daydreams
or hoaxes.

So, what changed?

A little invention
called photography.

RICHARD DOLAN:
The first known UFO photograph

is from a place called
Mount Washington

in New Hampshire, from 1870.

And what you see is,
in the clouds,

is this horizontal
cigar‐shaped object.

Which is odd
because airship technology

really didn't take off
until the early 1900s.

There were attempts even then to
create photographic illusions,

but this is clearly not that.

We don't really have an
explanation for it to this day.

SHATNER:
Despite photographic evidence

and thousands of credible
eyewitness accounts,

there are many who still refuse
to believe that UFOs are real.

However, there is one incident
that continues to cast doubt

in the minds of even
the most hardened UFO skeptics,

an incident so infamous

that many researchers
believe it was a tipping point,

when UFOs went from being
science fiction to science fact.

A radar operator with
the 509th Operations Group

detects an unidentified craft
approaching the base.

Moments later,
the object drops from the sky

and crashes into the desert
outside a nearby cattle ranch.

A local rancher found debris,

contacted the local sheriff,
who then contacted the air base.

You have a couple of days pass
before the 509th Bomb Group

was able to get up to the site.

So, it absolutely is clear

that the United States military
was not immediately

on top of acquiring whatever
it was that came down there.

BIRNES:
People in the city of Roswell

thought it was an airline crash.

They saw a kind of
a delta‐shaped object embedded

into the arroyo
that was split open.

DOLAN:
The Roswell Daily Record

had the most famous headline,
uh, you know,

probably of the year, which was

"the Army's recovered
one of these flying discs."

That made national,
international news.

BIRNES:
After the crash,

Roger Ramey, who was general
of the Eighth Air Force,

flew to Roswell.

And Jesse Marcel, who was
the base intelligence officer,

brought all of the Army
truck drivers out,

gave them gunnysacks,

and they said,
"Look, just collect this stuff."

Meanwhile, Ramey says to Marcel,

I want you to pose in front
of this weather balloon.

Marcel is, like, in shock, but
he poses with it with a smile,

and he becomes the poster boy
for the cover‐up.

PAUL HELLYER:
The first press release
was the truth

and the second one was a lie.

And that is an indication
of the depth

of the withholding
of information

and the, uh, truth embargo,
as it has been called.

SHATNER:
A truth embargo?

Is it possible that the rumors
about Roswell are true,

and the United States military
was concealing physical evidence

that UFOs exist?

Despite the government's
insistence to the contrary,

almost 75 years later,

UFO researchers are still
searching for answers.

Because according
to many firsthand accounts,

Roswell may have been the
government's first UFO cover‐up,

but it wouldn't be the last.

SHATNER: An unidentified object
slams into a hill
DOLAN:
They went out there

eight miles northeast
of the Kingman Airport.

Within moments,
the United States military

springs into action.
This time,

they won't repeat the mistake
they made at Roswell

of letting the public
find out about it.

BIRNES:
The Army descends on that hill,

locks it down.

Onlookers are trying
to climb the hill to see it.

Nope, can't see it.

The Army puts up a tent,
but it invites

different scientists
to come out

and kind of examine it.

It was estimated to be
about 14 feet high,

classic flying saucer shape.

It had, like, rows of lights
along the perimeter.

And they were all told
to examine this site

and provide their assessment.

And then they were told, like,
"You are to take an oath,

and you are never
to talk about this again."

The Kingman crash was really
not even discussed

until the 1970s,
when one researcher

was able to interview
a primary witness of it:

an atomic scientist who gave
a very detailed description

about the Kingman event.

SHATNER:
Unlike the crash at Roswell
six years earlier,

the U. S. military's response
to the Kingman incident

was so swift that
it wasn't until years later

that the world knew
anything had occurred there.

But how was an event
of this apparent magnitude

kept secret for so long?

In my experience of government,
there would need to be

what we would call
a standard operating procedure.

And it's claimed that
one was drawn up

for UFO crashes after Roswell.

And it seems that this
was used in 1953

in relation to
the Kingman UFO crash.

SHATNER:
An operations manual

on how to deal with
UFO crashes?

As far‐fetched as it sounds,
UFO researchers believe

that such a handbook
not only exists,

but was put in place
to avoid the mistakes

the U. S. military made
trying to contain

the earlier crash at Roswell
in 1947.

And they claim that
the authors of this handbook

were members of
a shadowy organization

known as the Majestic 12.

DOLON:
Majestic 12, or MJ‐12,
is believed by many researchers

to be a group of individuals
who essentially are

controlling the UFO cover‐up.

MIKE BARA:
There are many, many documents
that exist that say that

MJ‐12 actually was a real
government organization.

Majestic 12 was signed
into existence

by President Harry Truman
in September of 1947,

shortly after
the Roswell incident,

when the U. S. government decided
it needed to have

a main central oversight
committee that would handle

the so‐called alien problem.

And it contained many,
many prominent members,

including the head of the CIA
at the time,

or what became the CIA.

Of all of the documents
that I have ever received,

most important to me is
the Majestic 12:

Extraterrestrial Entities
and Technology,

Recovery and Disposal.

The document is about how
you would take military units

out into a field,

gather extraterrestrial
biological entities,

alive or dead.

How you would get the craft.

And it has top secret
classification throughout.

SHATNER:
Are we really to believe
a secret government agency

was established in order to
cover up evidence of UFOs?

According to many experts,

even if that organization
did exist,

it would be nearly
impossible to keep

such information
under wraps for long.

They argue that it's much easier
to convince eyewitnesses

that what they saw wasn't really
there in the first place.

High school basketball coach
Reggie Bone and his players

are driving through
the Ozark woods

on their way home from a game
when they spot

a bright shaft of light
coming from the sky.

In 1973, I was general manager
of KPWB radio station

in Piedmont, Missouri.

And I did the news
for the station.

I interviewed Reggie and five
of his basketball players.

After the team had seen a light
flashing in the sky,

several miles later,

one of the boys exclaims, said,
"Hey, there's that light again."

The coach and the ballplayers
got out, and they saw

these lights, circular,
in red, amber, green and white.

And then it started raising up,
and... no sound.

And went over a hill,

and that's the last
they saw of it.

SHATNER:
At first, Reggie and his team
thought what they had seen

wasn't actually a UFO,
but merely a trick of light

fooling their tired eyes.

But, as it turns out...

they weren't the only ones
who saw it.

HOVIS:
Pretty soon, the local
police department had received

500‐plus phone calls
from people saying,

"Hey, we're looking at this,
we're seeing this."

As a reporter,
I felt like I needed to

do some more investigating
besides just the local people

explaining to me
what they were seeing.

So I contacted personnel
at Scott Air Force Base

to find out if they had any
lights in the area.

And the gentleman at the time
explained to me that they‐‐

nothing like that was
going on.

SHATNER:
According to one theory,
the reason why

the Air Force was so unhelpful
was due to yet another

government program created
to cover up UFOs.

One that wasn't designed
to conceal UFO wreckage,

but to explain it away.

DOLON:
Project Blue Book was
the official

UFO investigative body
of the United States Air Force,

from the 1950s
through the end of the '60s.

And one of the tricks
that they used was

they eliminated the category
of "possible."

And so, if something was
a possible balloon,

even if it was
the most remote possibility,

then it became balloon,
and that was the explanation.

All they wanted to do was
just get these reports

into the "identified" category

so that the public didn't get
worked up over them.

HELLYER:
One of the ways to combat

public understanding of UFOs

was ridicule.

First denial, then ridicule.

And then, if that didn't work,
to call it Venus or swamp gas.

One day, a couple
of gentlemen came in

and started questioning me about
what the people were seeing,

what was in the air, did it
leave any kind of traces?

I suspected then that they were
part of the military.

Part of the Air Force.

SHATNER:
Although Project Blue Book
was officially ended in 1970,

three years before
the Piedmont sightings,

its methods of disinformation
still seemed to be in place.

Because one of the mysterious
men in black

who visited Piedmont
after the UFO sightings

was none other than
J. Allen Hynek,

the scientist who had been
in charge of Project Blue Book.

My father was in a very
awkward position at times,

being a scientist who wanted
to discover the truth,

but knowing that Project
Blue Book was not chartered

to go out and find the truth
to the UFO phenomenon,

but rather to be a public
relations answer factory

for the Air Force so that they
could trot out an astronomer

and say, "Oh, we've discovered
that this is a sighting

of Venus, or it's a weather
balloon or a hoax."

And so my father's on record
as saying that

the 1973 sightings in Piedmont,
Missouri were mass hysteria.

HOVIS:
I disagree with that.

I didn't see anybody
going crazy,

running up and down the streets
of Piedmont, in a rural area.

There was no mass hysteria
in Piedmont at that time.

Could the hundreds of UFO
sightings in Piedmont, Missouri

really have been a simple case
of mass hysteria?

Or did those witnesses see
something that

traveled to Earth from somewhere
across the galaxy?

To find out,
perhaps we should

ask for scientists who are
searching for signs

of advanced technology
in a place...

where no one has gone before.

KAKU:
EvenAstronomer Seth Shostak
is at home,

getting ready to have dinner,

‐when he receives
an urgent phone call.
‐(phone ringing)

SETH SHOSTAK:
The phone rings, and it's my
boss at the SETI Institute.

And he says, "Seth,

I think you ought to
get down to the office."

Now, he never calls me at home,
and certainly not at dinnertime.

And he never, never ever says,
"Get down to the office."

So I didn't know what
was going on.

SHATNER:
Moments later, Seth arrives
at the SETI Institute,

a nonprofit organization
tasked with the search

for extraterrestrial
intelligence.

I go in, and there are about
a dozen of my colleagues

all looking at computer screens.

There was a signal
that we had picked up...

...and it had the
characteristics that we look for

when we're trying to find
whether ET is on the air

somewhere else in the galaxy.

So this was
pretty darn exciting.

SHATNER:
After attempting to pinpoint
the source of the signal

for hours, Seth and his
colleagues' initial excitement

gave way to profound
disappointment.

As it turned out,
one of my colleagues

had been busily looking up
the frequencies‐‐

the telemetry frequencies‐‐
of known satellites,

and he found a European
satellite that sent data

back to Earth just
at the frequencies

that we were picking up,

and it was in the direction
we were looking, and he said,

you know, "Everybody
can go back to bed now."

SHATNER:
Despite the false alarm, there
are many leading scientists

who believe that SETI's work
is a key component

in the investigation
of the UFO phenomenon.

Because if there are aliens
visiting Earth,

programs like SETI may be able
to tell us where they came from.

SHOSTAK:
The universe has been around
a long time,

a lot longer than the Earth
and our solar system.

There could be very advanced
societies out there,

and maybe they've sent probes
to our solar system.

You know, maybe they've sent
probes to lots of solar systems,

and we just have one ourselves.

HYNEK:
My father thought that SETI was
a tremendously important effort.

He felt that it was incumbent
upon us as a civilization

to reach out to try to find life
elsewhere in the universe

as opposed to only waiting
for it to land in our laps.

We know that there are planets
around pretty much every star.

So now we have
to look at those planets

and see if there are things
called technosignatures.

These are signatures
that civilization is occurring.

Are they creating
what we call greenhouse gases

or outgassing materials or
properties that we could detect

with our instruments
using normal, natural,

astronomical technologies
that we have?

One thing they might be
producing is light.

Do they have cities
that make light,

or radio waves or whatever?

SETI has so far
turned up empty‐handed.

For all the millions of dollars,
for all the stars

that they've analyzed,
they have yet to pick up

a single signal indicating
intelligence in outer space.

But maybe we're barking
up the wrong tree.

After all,
what do we do with SETI?

We analyze radio
from outer space.

But the aliens out there
may laugh at us, saying, "What?

"You're looking for
our civilization using radio?

"That's so 20th century.

We got rid of radio
centuries ago."

SHATNER:
Is it possible

our current technology
is too primitive to detect

advanced alien civilizations
throughout the galaxy?

Perhaps.

But if some UFO researchers
are to be believed,

it hardly matters.

Because according to them,

astronomers already have
the evidence they need

to confirm the existence
of alien spaceships.

Evidence that is hiding
in plain sight.

Scientists working at
the Panoramic Survey Telescope

detect a mysterious,
oblong object

that has wandered
into our solar system.

Named 'Oumuamua,

which means "scout from
a distant place" in Hawaiian,

it is the first
interstellar asteroid

ever observed by astronomers.

And many believe its journey
from across the galaxy

to our solar system
is no accident.

SHOSTAK:
It's just a little dot
on a photograph.

You don't really know
what it looks like up close.

We knew
it was kind of cigar‐shaped,

and beyond that, we didn't know.

It was about the size
of a football stadium.

Well, Avi Loeb, who is the chair

of the Harvard Astronomy
Department, suggested

that there was a good reason
to think that maybe

this wasn't just a rock,
that maybe it was a spacecraft,

deliberately sent by aliens
from some other solar system.

Astronomers were shocked to find
that it tracked backwards

into outer space
from another solar system.

Not only that,

but the trajectory
was acting irregularly.

This sent shockwaves
through the community.

Even reputable astronomers said,
"We cannot rule out the fact

that this irregular trajectory
means that it's piloted."

It seems very, very unlikely

that a rock that's just randomly
thrown out by nature

would so accurately get to
the center of our solar system,

swing around the Sun and leave.

That's pretty unlikely.

This may be a directed rock and
maybe it's an alien spacecraft.

POPE: The fact that we're even
having this debate

shows how much
the landscape has changed

in the last two or three years.

I think, previously,
this sort of theory

would have been just dismissed
as nonsense.

Uh, mainstream media would have
not covered the story at all,

and if they had, they would have
simply ridiculed it.

But now, stories like this
are treated very seriously,

and it's‐it's reported
in an absolute levelheaded way.

You're not shocking people
by telling them something

they already believe.

SHATNER:
Could 'Oumuamua
be an alien ship?

One that is cigar‐shaped

like the many UFOs that have
been reported in the past?

According to some astronomers,
it's a distinct possibility.

But there are those who believe
that we can find out for sure,

by determining whether it's even
possible for a spacecraft

to travel across the galaxy
in the first place.

SHATNER:
The New York Times publishes
an article that reveals

the existence of a top secret
military program known as AATIP,

the Advanced Aerospace
Threat Identification Program.

Its purpose: to identify
and investigate UFOs.

Congress was informed
about AATIP

in a letter dated January 2018.

And the Defense Intelligence
Agency wrote to Congress

and said, "The AATIP program
was designed

"to look at far‐term aviation
threats to the United States

"out to maybe 40 years
into the future

"from Russia, China,
Iran, North Korea,

secret prototype aircraft,
missiles and drones."

But there was an attachment
to the letter, and said,

"Please find attached
a list of all the products

produced under
the AATIP contract."

Antigravity, invisibility,
warp drive,

wormholes, stargates.

And when I looked at this list,
it‐it was astounding.

SHATNER:
In the weeks that follow,

a number of previously
classified videos

are leaked to the public.

Among them is footage
of an encounter

that took place in 2004,

between a squadron
of fighter jets

and an unidentified flying craft

that appears to be
not of this world.

TAYLOR: Whatever this thing is
in this video,

it goes from a couple hundred
miles per hour

to thousands of miles per hour
like that.

That's the equivalent of going
many hundreds of miles per hour

and hitting a brick wall.

So, what would that do?

It would turn
your brain to mush.

It would turn your body
to Jell‐O.

I mean, you‐‐
it would kill you instantly.

So, there's a technology
in there that would protect

a biological thing if it's
a biological thing in there.

We don't have that type
of technology yet.

We now know much more
about the AATIP program

and indeed government UFO
investigations more generally

than we knew
a couple of years ago.

So, we have pilots who are
involved in these incidents.

We have radar operators, we have
former intelligence officers

who handled this,
all going public,

going on the record
and saying this is real.

SHATNER:
Is the footage proof
that UFOs not only exist,

but that they employ technology
that far surpasses our own?

It's certainly
a far‐fetched notion,

but according to one man
who was there, the answer's yes.

On the day of the incident,
Petty Officer P. J. Hughes

was stationed
on the nearby USS Nimitz,

the aircraft carrier from which
the fighters were launched.

His job was to facilitate
the storage of radar data

by an E‐2C Hawkeye aircraft that
was in the air at the same time

that the fighter jets
encountered the UFO.

The easiest way to explain
what an E‐2C Hawkeye is

is by saying it's the
quarterback of the air wing.

It's got a bunch of sensors,

it's got a bunch
of communications equipment.

We were doing some testing,
and before that exercise

was actually able to start,
the object actually came up,

so everybody got a good look
at it and then it just took off.

I wasn't in the plane,
so the information I'm getting

is secondhand from the multitude
of sources who've seen it.

HUGHES:
It's a giant white
cylindrical object,

roughly 48 feet,
49 feet, somewhere in there.

No windows, no engines,
no flight control surfaces,

a smooth object, basically.

It looked like
a white Tic Tac.

No visible means of propulsion,
but be able to go

from full blast to zero
in time we can't measure.

When the Hawkeye left,
it was recording.

When it came back,
the recording was stopped.

I took the bricks.

They're classified hard drives

that basically record
everything it saw.

Went down, put them in our safe.

20 minutes after I locked them
in that safe,

my executive officer
shows up at my door

with two uniformed
Air Force officers,

and he asked me
for all the hard drives

that were in that Hawkeye
that went flying.

'Cause normally we'd sign
them out in a logbook saying,

you know, "XO took
these‐these serial numbers,"

and as I started to write,
he's like, "Don't do it."

So, I hand them over
and away they went,

and I never knew
what happened to them.

SHATNER:
On April 27, 2020,
the Pentagon officially released

the three now‐famous
AATIP videos.

By doing so, they acknowledged
that the UFOs depicted

were genuinely
of unknown origin,

although they stopped short
of admitting

they might also
be extraterrestrial.

HUGHES:
The fact that the government
wants to know more about things

that we encounter in the sky
and that the pilots see,

there's something to it.

The universe is way too big
for us to be alone.

There's something else
out there.

If extraterrestrials really do
possess advanced technologies

thousands of years
ahead of ours,

wouldn't we seem
as insignificant

and primitive to them
as bugs are to us?

Perhaps.

But there are many who believe
that aliens might be coming here

not to invade us

but to guide us
to a future more incredible

than anything
we could otherwise imagine.

‐of weather phenomenon...
‐MAN: Oh, my God.

...or Earth technology,
is it possible

that they are really
extraterrestrial spacecrafts?

(people exclaiming)

As far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,

alien visitors have been coming
to Earth for thousands of years.

And they have left behind
evidence in the form

of everything
from magnificent architecture

to mysterious symbols
etched into the earth.

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS:
The ancient astronaut theory

suggests that at some point,

extraterrestrials
came to our planet and they saw

that there was potential
for a civilization here,

and so, they artificially
changed the genetic makeup

of our ancestors.

And they left behind

these m‐massive
megalithic structures

in ancient Egypt
and on Easter Island,

in South America, in Greece,
all over the world.

We have multiple written stories
and oral stories

where we are told that these
megalithic blocks at one point

levitated into place.

And the mythologies only
happened because our ancestors

thought they were visited
by divine beings,

when in actuality,

the only divine thing that they
had was more advanced technology

which, to our ancestors,
looked divine.

SHATNER: But if highly advanced
alien visitors

are visiting Earth
from other worlds,

shouldn't we be frightened?

Ancient astronaut theorists
believe that, if anything,

extraterrestrial interest
in our planet suggests

they have a much more
benevolent agenda.

DOLAN: I think that,
from the 20th century onward,

there has been a qualitative
change in the UFO phenomenon,

and I think it is our technology
that has gotten

the interest of other beings.

And I'm looking particularly
at nuclear technology.

When you look at all
of the confluence of sightings

of these unknown objects over
our nuclear technology sites,

nuclear weapons sites,
over the many years,

this is way beyond chance.

So, there is a definite interest

by these objects
in our nuclear technology.

HELLYER: It is my belief
that, over the years,

they have catalogued
every nuclear installation

in the whole world,
of all nations,

and they have gone
from one location to another

to record what is there

and what its capabilities are
and what they should expect.

Perhaps to prepare themselves
better in case they ever had

to come to our rescue and
save us from wrecking our world.

SHATNER:
Nick Pope, a defense analyst
for the British government,

attends
an international symposium

on advanced propulsion systems.

POPE: These people came together
with different backgrounds,

united by their common interest
in exotic propulsion systems,

the sort of propulsion
that ultimately will take us

to the stars.

And if anything
in the UFO phenomenon is real,

this is the technology
the aliens use

because it gets
around the problem

of, "Well, you can't
get here from there."

The answer is, "Maybe you can."

And what happened is these
people came together to say,

"If it's true,
this is how they do it."

Some people
were from government,

some people from the military,

some from
the intelligence community

and some
from the big defense contractors

and others were scientists
working in academia.

But what's really interesting
is that a number of people

who attended that conference,
who spoke

and who presented papers at it,

went on to be involved with
the Pentagon's AATIP program.

For the longest time,

studying UFOs was not
gonna be a career maker, right?

It was gonna be a career killer.

But yet, there's no question

that a number of very brilliant,
knowledgeable,

scientifically oriented
individuals

have said to themselves,

"You know what,
I'm not gonna be swayed

by the media propaganda
that this is all nonsense."

And they started looking into
it, and what they discovered

is that there's something there
and they began communicating

with each other about it.

That's the invisible college.

SHATNER:
UFOs, piloted
by extraterrestrials

who come to Earth not to invade
or destroy but to instruct?

If true, it's a temptingly
reassuring notion.

But, then, what would be
their ultimate goal?

Perhaps the answer
can be found not here on Earth

but on a neighboring planet
in our own solar system.

it,

Perseverance, which it plans
to launch later in the year.

It will be equipped
with an experimental instrument

designed to generate oxygen

from the carbon dioxide‐rich
Martian atmosphere,

paving the way
for humans to one day

be able to breathe on Mars.

Some people dream of the day
when we can terraform Mars.

That is, turn Mars
into a Garden of Eden

by changing the atmosphere,
and then water, liquid water,

will then flow freely
in the riverbeds of Mars.

And so, we're talking about
creating a new home for us

in outer space.

SHATNER:
If humankind is planning
to colonize Mars

as a first step in expanding
its knowledge of the universe,

is it so far‐fetched to suggest
that alien‐piloted UFOs

may be coming to Earth
for very similar reasons?

We got to think of why would

UFOs come here
in the first place?

What if you wanted
to find kindred spirits,

you wanted to find other life?

We send probes to the Moon
and Mars and elsewhere.

Saturn, Jupiter, you name it.

They're doing a search
for extraterrestrial life.

Maybe that's what's happening.

Somebody else is sending probes.

DOLAN:
This is a planet
overflowing with life.

If you know
how to manipulate DNA,

Earth could be the ultimate,
ultimate gold mine,

and that's got to be
an attraction.

Do they want
to take over the world?

Something tells me that although
some people believe that,

I'm not sure
that I believe that.

But I do think that there is
a presence here that is covert,

a monitoring that is covert
to a large degree.

TSOUKALOS:
Once a technological society

has reached or mastered

the way with which to explore
beyond your solar system,

at least morally
and philosophically,

you have advanced enough
to recognize that if and when

you encounter a species that is
less technologically advanced,

you don't destroy them,
you let them live.

You let them develop
to see what happens.

And according
to the ancient astronaut theory,

you may even help them.

So, what do you think?

Are UFOs really evidence
that aliens

are coming to Earth to visit,
to examine, to colonize?

And is the proof really being
withheld from us by a government

that believes we would panic
if we knew the truth?

For the answers, perhaps we
should keep searching the skies

and continue to find more
evidence of the unusual,

the unknown and the unexplained.

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