All language subtitles for Lift.the.Ice.S01E04.The.Ice.is.Alien.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

[gentle music]

People ask me what is
so special about our ice.

The truth is these
are the closest places

to alien worlds that we have,

that we can actually go to.

[wind whistling]

Utterly mysterious, unknown,
but surprisingly similar

to other environments
in the cosmos.

We're here now on the
edge of civilization.

It's incredibly desolate.

So this gives us some insight

into what the first
astronauts might feel

when they go to
these new worlds,

and that's because
we're looking for places

that are like Mars
right here on Earth.

[dramatic music]

There are actually
planets made of ice.

If we can find life
here under the ice,

that opens up the possibility
for life on other planets.

[Reporter] Zero and lift off

of the Delta II
rocket with Kepler

on a search for planets
in some way like our own.

Since I was a
kid, I've dreamed of exploring alien worlds,

to find a place where
life might exist.

But what if the answers I seek

have been here this
whole time under the ice?

As a planetary scientist,

I've sent robotic
explorers to Mars

in hopes of finding life.

Look at that, he's
pleading for his life.

Now, I'm venturing to the
frozen ends of the Earth

in a race to unlock the
secrets of the cosmos

in our melting ice.

[dramatic music]

What we find will change the
way we look at life itself.

If this were made
by life on Earth,

what could be
doing that on Mars?

The ice will reveal the
most destructive force

in the cosmos.

This gives us a new channel
to observe the universe.

[Nina] And help save us

from the tantrums
of our own sun.

Look more dramatic, I will
say, than what we expected.

[Nina] There are so many
secrets hidden in our ice.

We just need to find
them while we still can.

[ice rumbling]

My journey begins here,

in the blistering cold of
the Canadian High Arctic.

[Christopher] Perfect,
throw it in there.

[ice plunking]

[snowmobile engine humming]

2-6, 2-6, Expedition Fjord.

The winds are from 0-7, 15
knots gusting 17 and over.

Might this
mysterious frozen lake

hold the clues to the
alien life I seek?

We'll need some
samples to find out.

Right now, the pond is covered

with about six
feet of thick ice,

plus a layer of snow
that fell a few days ago.

So there's quite a bit of
material to get through

to get to that water.

[Christopher]
Let's get to work.

Here we go.

[auger engine humming]

[Christopher] Back down.

[auger engine humming]

And up.

[auger engine humming]

Up.

Up.

[Nina] You got it?

[Christopher] We
don't filter it.

We don't treat it.

We don't need to do
anything with it.

Mm, tastes great.

I'm trying to decide if
there's a little tang to it.

If you want to understand

how to find
extraterrestrial life,

you need to come
somewhere otherworldly,

and that's Axel Heiberg,

an island not far
from the North Pole,

where even the drinking water
is, well, a little bit alien.

Well, it's acidic.

So it's the acidity of
around orange juice.

[Nina] The acid
isn't quite as toxic

as the blood in sci-fi
classic "Alien,"

but it's hard to
explain all the same.

In a world of only snow and ice,

any acidity is remarkable.

[gentle music]

The fact that we have
igneous rocks around,

which when weathered provides
certain kinds of elements

that enter the lake,

and we hypothesize that
there are microorganisms

that can use some of
these elements for energy,

and the byproduct of using
this energy generate acidity.

There are some organisms
that do not like acidity,

but as far as we know,

there are plenty of acidophiles,

or acid-loving microorganisms,

and these could be some of them.

They're making this
environment their own.

They're building a
little house here.

We are trying to
isolate and confirm

that they exist in this lake.

When we think of aliens,

we tend to think of
little green men.

But actually, astrobiologists
are not looking

for something that big.

They're looking for microbes,

and that's because big complex
creatures like you and I

couldn't live long
in an alien world

more hostile than we
could possibly imagine.

But microbes are much heartier.

Throw acid at them,

bombard them with
cell-warping radioactivity,

boil them.

[water bubbling]

Freeze them,

and some of them will
be okay, love it even.

So microbes are really
the most likely life

that we might find beyond Earth,

and that's what
we're hunting for.

So when we're looking for
life outside of Earth,

the first thing we're gonna
look for is liquid water.

Where there's liquid
water, there can be life.

So we know, of course, there's
water here in the Arctic.

And the next question
is, is there life?

To find out, we need
to plunge 28 meters

into this frozen lake

to look for signs that
something could be living there.

These can be things like
chemicals or minerals,

shapes that life leaves behind,

and these scientists
have figured out

how they're gonna find them.

What we're gonna go
do is core the lake,

and we also have an ROV,

an underwater submarine
essentially on a tether,

to let us essentially see what
we're doing at the bottom.

We've been working on lakes
all through the Arctic

for the last 30 years

and we've never seen
anything like this.

There are some unusual
features at the bottom of lake:

small pools.

[auger whirring]

So our goal on this trip

is to target these
very small pools.

Yes, we're good, and up.

And because when you're standing
out on a lake like this,

the idea of targeting a
one-meter diameter pool

is kind of a needle
in a haystack.

So that's part of where the
submersible submarine device

is gonna help us
target precisely.

[Scientist] Okay,
into the water she goes.

[Nina] Where there's
water, there's life,

or so we hope.

[gentle music]

Take Europa, the Jovian moon
that has NASA so excited.

Its ice crust is up
to 15 miles thick,

but scientists believe
that below that

is an ocean of liquid water.

So if we find life below the
ice of Axel Heiberg's lake,

could there be life on Europa?

Hey, look at that.

Oh, that's interesting.

[Nina] Oh my goodness,
it's so beautiful.

There's the underside
of the ice there.

You can see the cracks
and there's a spot there,

that's on our drill hole.

There's a spot nearby where
the snow's really thin,

so we'll plunge down.

Into the depths.

[Scott] Yeah, so
we're at 14 meters.

[Nina] Look how
dark it's getting

and the color of the
water is changing.

[Scott] Yeah, it
is, you're right.

And as we get to the
bottom, see those specs?

- See how the colors change?
- Yeah, yeah.

- So we're at 22 meters.
- Oh my gosh, yeah.

And it's so blue under there.

It's so blue.

This is amazing.

This is actually really similar

to how Mars rovers work, right?

You're driving around and
you are taking samples

where the rover is.

[Scott] So we gotta
be a little careful.

[Nina] Oh my gosh,
is that? [gasps]

There it is! [gasps]

[water bubbling]
[gentle music]

There, it came out
of nowhere, right?

We found it.

So look how, you can see
how fluffy and light that is.

[Nina] It's so fluffy.

Oh, it's like a popcorn
kind of texture.

[Scott] I don't
know what that is.

That's very interesting.

[Nina] Oh my goodness.

[Scott] A lot of the
other lakes are smooth,

just muddy bottoms.

Nothing like what we just saw.

There's these sort of light,
fluffy, orangeish stuff,

and then these darker,
smoother nodules.

Really fascinating.

It wouldn't be surprising to
me at all if this is microbial.

I mean, look at that.

And there's some
bubbles coming up.

Oh, that's interesting.

[Scott] Yeah, and
there's often gases

coming from the sediments.

What the rover's picking
up seems to be biosignatures.

Little signs that
life exists down here.

This sediment seems to be alive.

Complex textures not
common on lake beds

and brimming with gas bubbles
given off by something.

If it's not geological,

then the next possibility
is that it's biological.

That is a whole other
world down there.

That is remarkable.

Really is another planet.

It never ceases to amaze.

We've seen so few
lakes like this.

They don't have that macro
texture, that popcorn,

that detail that we
see at the bottom here.

Do you think, though,
that that texture

is in part biological?

I think you're right.

And then what's even
more fascinating

is to imagine how
it gets compressed

into the sedimentary record.

It's so much discovery
that lies ahead.

Yeah.

[dramatic music]

The ROV has managed to
find a perfect spot to sample

and find those
telltale signs of life.

If life can exist here,

it's tantalizing to
think it could also exist

on similar alien worlds.

If we ever found
extraterrestrial life,

it would turn our
world upside down.

It would completely
change our understanding

of our place in the universe,

and it would also help
us really understand

the nature of life.

What are we, where did we
come from, where are we going?

But it won't be you
or me encountering this life firsthand.

We're going to have
to rely on robots

to withstand the vast distances

and deadly
environments of space.

Can you go to where the
baggage claim was yesterday?

Yes.

So we're looking
at microbes in ice.

We've got a couple
of instruments

that our prototypes
that we're working with

to detect where that might be.

Our priority is the science.

Our comfort is second.

Chris and I are in the front.

Maddie, Heidi, and
Evan are in the back.

[Nina] Christine is a
glacial microbiologist

who's assembled an all-star team

of scientists and engineers,

eager to test their life-hunting
tech outside the lab.

[Scientist] 0-2, 01.

You can turn right
pass the wave delta,

pass behind a caravan.

[Scientist] You guys
nailed it with the weather.

Nicest weather we've had.

[Nina] The alien
world they're heading to

is deep in the remote
wilderness of Alaska.

A research hotbed called
the Gilkey Trench.

[dramatic music]

[Christine] It's like the
early explorer's Antarctica.

[Scientist] That's right.

Sludging our way through.

We are in a beautiful spot.

[dramatic music]

[Nina] These stripes
undulating throughout the ice

is something we also see on
the Martian polar ice caps.

[dramatic music]

So this glacier is
perfect for alien hunters

to test their life-sniffing
tech before sending it to Mars.

A frozen planet that
many, including myself,

believe could host life.

So this is an
instrument called SEAMS.

So it's able to take
a microscopic image

of a spot about the
size of a postage stamp.

Let me show you
how this works.

Darker areas of ice
contain sediments

that alien microbes might
be able to use for food.

What the team needs to do
is extract some of this ice

to test with their tech.

The machine works by blasting
the ice with a special laser.

What they're looking for

are any patches of fluorescent
light that shine back.

This happens because the laser's
single wavelength of light

interacts with the
microbes in a way

that makes them fluoresce,

giving away their hiding spot

and potentially unveiling
any alien microbes

no matter how small they are.

[gentle music]

They really are
sci-fi in real life.

We're using lasers to identify
different types of materials

and even possibly microbes.

For the test to work,

the exploration team needs
to locate and drill for cores

that have the best
potential for life.

There's not solid ice.

So for coring, you need
to have good, solid ice

to be able to
actually take a core,

pull it out, and have a
consolidated ice core.

When you're down in it,

it sort of all looks
the same, right?

So with a little technology,

we can get a better
place to sample.

[drone whirring]

We really need to be
only where it's dark

or only where it's light.

Okay.

[Heidi] We don't kind of want

a gradient of gray in between.

Okay, we will start walking

and just give us
directions as we go.

[snow crunching]

Not really seeing

the banding patterns
that I would've expected.

Walk towards the cliffs

that are directly in
front of you, please.

[snow crunching]

[gentle music]

I think it looks like Chris
is in a good spot, Christine.

All right, Heidi,

we're just gonna put
some ice screws in here

and mark it off.

[gentle music]

[auger grinding]

This is way more fun, right?

Getting out here and
actually doing it.

[gentle music]

Actually it looks pretty good.

You see all this?

You got the vertical band?

Yeah, nice work.

We're gonna use six
from each the clean site

and then the dirty site.

And then, from the dirty site,
you guys are gonna want one,

I think, to take back
to the instrument tent

and scan from that.

[Nina] This dirty ice

is what they're
especially excited to get under the machine,

where they'll hopefully
see it brimming with life.

[dramatic music]

[Evan] It feels
a little different.

You can feel some
of the sediment

when you're drilling
the corer down.

Yeah, you can see a
few sediment particles.

Sort of, you can see the trail

where some of it's melted down
a little deeper into the ice.

[dramatic music]

[Nina] This lone tent
and these two researchers

might just represent
the first steps

on a journey to redefine
our place in the universe.

This is the first time
it's being used to scan ice.

This could come just
like shooting off.

Hopefully not.

Oh, it's tilted.

I don't like that, okay.

[Evan] What about that
little one over there?

Would that be better?

I do like that better.

You could do that.

You see the?

Yeah.

Okay, let's try that.

So we're putting ice under
the instrument and from that,

we can try to look for cells

or other sorts of
organic material.

[dramatic music]

Something like
this could be used

on another planetary surface
to do something similar.

It's not easy to get to Mars,

so if you can send
an instrument there

that can collect the data.

[Evan] One of the challenges

when you're looking
for organics in the ice

is that you may be looking for
something that's very small,

so much smaller
than a millimeter,

but there's a very large area

over which you might
be able to find that.

So a set of
instruments like this,

that can help you
find that one hotspot,

which gives you the
best chance of detecting

something that could be life.

[dramatic music]

Definitely wanna
change a few things.

[Nina] So do we have life?

Right now, we don't know.

When you're doing science in
extremely harsh environments,

it can play havoc with
your brand new tech,

but Mars would be far worse.

[dramatic music]

[Evan] Right now,
we're just running into

some troubleshooting
issues with some cabling.

So we're gonna take
it back to camp.

[Nina] Which is why they need

to fully stress test
their equipment on this training ground

to get it even remotely
ready for Mars.

We're gonna go fairly slow
to get a high resolution scan.

[dramatic music]

[Nina] It's only back
in the warmth of the lab

that the nervous
team gets to see

if the equipment
can detect life,

or else it's back to
the drawing board.

But then you start to see
all these little hot spots

with the fluorescence that
you couldn't see without it.

Things that are indicative of,

okay, this is
potentially biological,

and the wavelength we were
getting the emission from

was indicative of chlorophyll.

[Nina] These
pigments are only found

in organisms like plants,
bacteria, and algae.

The machine has spoken.

Their samples contain life.

To be able to get
these first set of images

is really impressive.

I mean, I know you had
issues in the field

and didn't get exactly
everything that you wanted.

[Nina] The moment
of truth only comes

when the same sample is examined

under a high-powered microscope

to confirm that
it really is life.

I think it's breathtaking,
it's beautiful.

I wouldn't have gotten
that kind of perspective

just looking at the sediment,

and it's really
pooling with life.

And we can start to see

that there's some bits of
filaments popping through,

indicating that it's
most likely cyanobacteria

that we have in our sample.

[Nina] Cyanobacteria
is another name

for blue-green algae.

They're packed with chlorophyll.

So this scan confirms

that the new probe
is working perfectly.

Yes, what we are picking
up with SEAMS, that signal,

that spectral signal, is
coming from biologies.

To know that our instrumentation

is detecting biology
in the field,

that's really powerful

because we don't have to
bring samples back to the lab

and analyze them.

[dramatic music]

The potential for this
technology is really exciting

because you can put it
on a number of platforms.

You could put it on a rover.

You could put it on a drone.

You could even put
it on a satellite.

[air whooshing]

And then it can literally go out

and hunt for life
on other planets.

We're getting to the
point where the ice

is helping us refine the
tech needed to find life.

So the next question
is where do we send it?

[dramatic music]

That's something our
team back in Axel Heiberg

might just be able to help with

because they're on the
hunt for biosignatures.

Those little hints of life

that tell us where to
focus our attention.

which they hope are
lurking on the bottom

of their strange acid lake.

What we're gonna do

is we're gonna take
out a sediment core

of the surface sediment.

So probably a few hundred
years worth of sediment.

There's a 30-pound steel weight.

We have a clear tube,
so when it comes up,

we should be able
to see what we got.

Wow.

And it'll create suction,

not unlike putting your
finger on a drinking straw

and lifting the fluid
out of the drink.

Of course, it's quite heavy and.

[dramatic music]

I can feel it going down.

[Nina] Yeah, I felt that.

I felt that.

You can feel it
and you can hear it.

[dramatic music]

Okay, we got it, nope.

Wow.

Oh, that's so cool.

I want you to contrast
the taste of this

to the surface water.

Are you ready?

I'm ready.

You'll get a
little there, okay.

All right, good.

- Okay.
- All right.

Already smells quite different.

Cheers.

You don't have to swallow it.

Mm, I did and
that was a mistake.

Wow, the aftertaste,
it's still coming.

It's very sulfurous.

Want some snow?

Yes, I think I'm gonna
do some snow chaser.

Not gonna lie, it
tastes like farts.

It seems the human
body is also equipped

with the remarkable ability
to detect biosignatures.

In this case, it's the rancid
taste of hydrogen sulfide.

Could microbes be making it?

It's really remarkable.

The water at the top,
best water I've ever had.

This is verging on the worst.

Is it just gonna get more
intense, more intense?

We should puncture it
down there and try that.

You have to promise
not to swallow.

Okay, promise.

- Now you're good.
- All right.

Okay, try that.

All right.

To Mars.

You can spit it out.

Oh, that is,

that's, that'll wake you up.

And you've got that added grit

so there's texture to
go with that flavor.

It would be quite
normal in this setting

to expect a lot of
dissolved metal there,

and it definitely had
a metallic tang to it.

It did.

So what I'll do is I'll just
extrude it really quickly.

We have these larger chunks.

Mm-hmm, whoa,
that's very smushy.

Am I imagining this or is
this oxidizing before my eyes?

It is.

It really looks like
it's changing color, right?

It is.

It was much darker

and now it's turning this
sort of greenish yellow.

Absolutely because now,

we have all the
ingredients for oxidation.

We have liquid water present

and we have free
oxygen in abundance.

We have a very sharp transition
from oxygen near the water

at the sediment water interface

down into sediment where
the oxygen is depleted.

It's been removed by bacteria
or consumed by bacteria.

[Nina] The mud
doesn't look like much,

but it's actually a
riot of biosignatures,

from the texture to the color,

to the fact that it
reacts to oxygen.

These are little
pieces of the puzzle

suggesting that there's
something alive in there.

So this is perhaps
10 centimeters of time,

but that may
represent centuries.

You can see the difference.

You can smell it.

You can taste it.

It really is indicative
of life, right?

Life is doing this work.

This is not something
that just happens

without the presence
of microbes.

[snowmobile engines humming]

Our most advanced probes

are starting to smell
and taste like we can.

But if we want to give
them the best chance

of detecting life,

they have to look for a wider
spectrum of biosignatures.

The more ways we study the lake,

the clearer the picture
of life becomes.

[Scott] It's just
before the bottom.

[Nina] Very strange.

Just before we touch bottom,

the electrical connectivity
goes almost exponentially.

So this spike in solutes,

the drop in oxygen,
the turbidity,

and even the cooling
associated with the bottom

are all telling us
something about,

there's probably a
microbial community there.

There shouldn't be
life in this lake,

so these are big discoveries.

If I were to see the conditions

that we see here on Axel
Heiberg on another planet,

I would be really excited

to look more carefully
for biosignatures.

There's no guarantee
that this environment

is always inhabited,

but we know that it's
definitely habitable.

[Reporter] And lift off.

As the countdown
to Mars continues,

the Perseverance of humanity

launching the next generation
of robotic explorers

to the Red Planet.

[Nina] Finding alien life
might be the ultimate dream,

but we're also
looking to our ice

to help solve other
cosmic mysteries,

some of which are the
stuff of nightmares.

[black hole moaning]

What you're hearing right now
isn't from a horror movie,

but close.

It's the moaning
of a black hole.

These stellar destroyers rip
up everything in their path

to fuel their growth,

but could also be our key

to understanding
how galaxies form.

We can barely find these
mysterious monsters,

let alone understand them,

which is why a team
of Russian scientists

are working the
harsh Siberian ice

to find out where they're
hiding and unlock their secrets.

[Alexander speaks
in foreign language]

Because of conflicts
in the region,

I can't travel there to lift
the ice on their cosmic probe,

so Alex is going
to do it for us.

[scientists speaking
in foreign language]

[dramatic music]

Okay, good morning.

Welcome to our base.

I think it's minus five, minus
seven degrees centigrade.

As you can see, people
are departing slowly

to begin working on ice.

[dramatic music]

Russia is building a gateway

to the most obscure
parts of our universe,

beneath the ice of
the world's oldest

and deepest freshwater lake.

[dramatic music]

It's like some kind
of a James Bond lair,

except designed to
catch a tiny particle

and get a glimpse of the cosmos.

This is a really important
piece of the puzzle.

Everything in the universe
that has mass is made of atoms,

but there are things out there

that make atoms look
as big as planets.

So small in fact that
they can pass through

pretty much everything.

They are neutrinos

and we are bombarded by 100
trillion of them every second,

but we'll never notice

because they are a
billion times smaller

than the tiniest atom and
have no electrical charge.

They actually come from
places like black holes

or other energetic events

that are happening really
far away from Earth.

Without neutrinos, we
might have no other way

of locating these
invisible cosmic events.

So how do these particles
reveal their creators?

This is our planet being
bombarded by neutrinos.

Since they haven't interacted
with any other matter

since their creation,

all it takes is for
us to capture just one

and we'll be able
to trace its path

back through the vast universe

to discover the cosmic force

that fired it in our direction,

which could be a super
massive black hole

at the center of a distant
undiscovered galaxy.

[dramatic music]

This is a very big
deal because it gives us a new channel

to observe the universe,

a window which we
did not have before,

and which allow us to see things

that we did not
have expect to see,

and observe processes we could
not have observed otherwise.

[Nina] Because it's
not just tracking down

super massive black holes,

it could also help us solve

why we can only see 4% of the
matter making up the universe.

Neutrinos might unlock
the missing 96%.

[Alexander] Okay, so we
are en route to the ice camp.

A party bus of experienced
and dedicated professionals.

[Nina] But the massive,
yet delicate telescope

beneath the ice is
a beast to manage

with crucial parts that
always need repair,

and these engineers are racing

against the melting of the
ice to complete their task.

Okay, so we have
arrived on Cluster 9.

[engine humming]

Below us is 1,300 meters
of clear Baikal water.

What they're doing right now
is mercilessly smashing ice

so we could get
a winch over here

and hopefully lift the
string with this rope.

[ice cracking]

Most neutrinos are
just passing through

the entire Earth
without interacting,

so we've gotta figure out
some really clever ways

to make them stop.

[dramatic music]

This was.

[speaks in foreign language]

This is an optical module

of the Baikal-GVD
Neutrino Telescope.

There are thousands of
optical modules like this.

You can see down here below

the photo sensors are
called the photomultiplier,

which can detect single photons

emitted by charged
particles in water.

As trillions of neutrinos
zip through the water

almost at the speed of light,

ever so rarely one might
collide with a water molecule.

This produces a
chain of radiation

and a very faint
blue cone of light.

The closest modules
need to be on guard

to capture this signal.

By analyzing this cone of light,

we can calculate the
direction and distance

to the neutrinos' source.

[dramatic music]

But a neutrino interaction
is extremely rare.

Lake Baikal is the
deepest lake on Earth

and it has some of the
clearest water ever measured,

which means there's not a
lot of background scattering,

so there's a lot
of signal there.

So this is really good place
to actually catch neutrinos.

Within this giant tank,

multiple teams are scaling
up as big a net as possible

to catch neutrinos.

[dramatic music]

If we were to lift the
ice of Lake Baikal,

this is what it would look like.

Suspended 1,300
meters underwater,

these pearl necklace strands

are the sunken
underwater telescopes

that Russia has devised
to detect neutrinos.

Each of these thousands
of modules is an eye

peering toward the cosmos
to capture a neutrino,

and this vast telescopic
network is expanding every year,

rivaling the largest neutrino
observatories in the world.

The scientists there
believe they can detect

several neutrinos a year,
which may not sound impressive,

but is actually
really impressive

when you think
about how hard it is

to detect these neutrinos

and how they just don't want
to interact with anything.

But a machine of this
size and sensitivity

needs constant
love and attention.

So this piece of
equipment is operational.

We tested it.

But unfortunately, it's in
our way to the leaked modules,

so we're going to remove it.

[Nina] These black modules

control several others
in the telescope.

The modules may live underwater,

but if any of that
water leaks through

and corrodes the
ultrasensitive sensors inside,

they would be completely
useless to the Russians

in their quest to
detect neutrinos.

[dramatic music]

[Alexander speaking
in foreign language]

[scientist speaking
in foreign language]

Even when you're far
away from civilization,

you can still do
groundbreaking science

by working with what you've got.

Alex's team needs to get
everything working perfectly

because they aren't
the only ones

out there hunting neutrinos.

[dramatic music]

They are so sought after

that the Americans
turned a cubic kilometer

of subterranean Antarctic
ice into the home of IceCube,

the largest neutrino
hunter in the world.

Even Japan has their own
15-story deep Super-K telescope,

catching neutrinos from
deep beneath a mountain.

[dramatic music]

Russia is joining
this global hunt,

expanding and perfecting
their telescope

in hopes of uncovering
cosmic secrets of their own.

[dramatic music]

[scientists speaking
in foreign language]

The sun is setting

and it's only getting colder
out there for the team.

Alex needs to hurry.

[dramatic music]

[Alexander speaking
in foreign language]

[scientist speaking
in foreign language]

[gentle music]

Now that these modules
are back up and running,

could the next neutrino impact

lead them to a black
hole discovery?

[scientist speaking
in foreign language]

Or an even more elusive
cosmological event?

[gentle music]

Our ice is giving us hints of
these incredible phenomena,

like black holes,
from a safe distance.

[dramatic music]

But there's a destructive
force much closer to home.

We're fortunate enough to
live in the Goldilocks Zone,

not too close and not too far

from the giant fusion
reactor that is the sun.

But we should never forget

just how powerful and
destructive our star is.

Imagine waking up one day

and finding that the
internet no longer existed.

You'll probably get by

without checking
social media for a bit,

but imagine hospitals
shutting down,

airplanes losing
communications mid-air,

our clean water supplies
grinding to a halt.

This isn't dystopia.

It's an entirely
possible scenario

caused by the
behavior of the sun.

Today, we rely a lot
on our technology

to build the world
that we are in,

but one solar storm could
really take that all out.

So I just wanna break
down how it works.

[dramatic music]

Every day, the sun
produces charged particles

that hurdle toward
us here on Earth.

[dramatic music]

This typically doesn't
affect us at all

because we have the
Earth's magnetic field

as a shield of protection.

But every so often

when the sun loses control
of its own magnetic field,

it throws a giant tantrum

in the form of an abnormally
powerful particle ejection.

If this blast is big enough

when it storms into
our magnetic field,

it will weaken our
shield of protection,

generating enormous currents
that flood our electrical grid,

crippling anything
that relies on power,

our communications,
transport, healthcare systems,

which could be fatal

for many of us here
in the modern world.

The big problem is that
we don't really know

when a solar storm
is going to happen,

so it's very hard to know
when we should be ready

or even what we
should do to prepare.

[dramatic music]

But by lifting the ice,

could we find a pattern to
the madness of solar activity?

Many hope so.

[Iben] Hey, AT.

Kevin is arriving today,

so I just put his key over here.

[Nina] Scientists
are coming in

from all over the world
for a long-awaited mission

that Iben has the mammoth
task of organizing.

[dramatic music]

[Iben] At EastGRIP, we
are drilling a ice core

and doing some science
next to the ice core.

[dramatic music]

[Nina] This
Greenland ice sheet

is where we might find the clues

to predict future solar storms,

but there are some
obstacles in our way.

So we have now
finally started up again

after two years where we have
not been able to do field work

because of the COVID situation.

I got these pictures from camp,

where we see the
condition of the trenches

of EastGRIP's underground.

How they look like
after three years

when nobody has been down there.

The ceiling has went
really far down.

It also look more
dramatic, I will say,

than maybe what we expected

and there is a big
task in front of us

to make the trenches ready
to do some science there

on the ice core.

[dramatic music]

[Nina] The team
has spent all year

preparing to get to
the Greenland ice sheet

and finally drill some ice.

[dramatic music]

But it could all come to naught

if they don't break
into the site.

[dramatic music]

Underneath all this ice is
a massive scientific base.

One of their missions
is to retrieve ice

containing the
sun's cosmic secrets

from thousands of meters
below the surface.

Iben and her team are determined
to carve their way back in.

[saw whirring]

So the ice will slide
down to this level here.

You have to walk bended in here.

So all this ceiling
has been cut,

all the space above the cabins

because some of the cabin was
also crushed a little bit.

[Nina] It's been weeks
of hard labor for the team.

[gentle music]

So now we are down
in the trenches.

All these, they are
made of balloons,

so big balloons that we blow up,

cover it with snow,

and then take the balloons out.

Done.

[Nina] They've succeeded

in getting the base
up and running.

Now they can
finally get to work.

[Iben] They are in
the process of drilling

one more piece of the ice core.

[Nina] This supersized
coring machine

is capable of piercing
thousands of meters

down into the ice sheet
to lift out ice cores,

but it doesn't always
do what it's told.

It's the same as yesterday,

but I think before that
we didn't have the,

- we didn't have this issue.
- We never had any problem.

It's like we need to use
a lot of force to do it,

which should not be the case.

Sometimes we just have
to try a lot of times,

and then the seventh
time is your lucky time.

It took a little tries
this time. [laughs]

So we can start lowering the
drill and start drilling.

Okay, and then down.

[drill whirring]

Wait, now we are there.

Yeah, it's in.

[dramatic music]

In a few seconds or minutes,

the drill, it will come
up from the borehole

and I'm just standing here
to see if I can see it.

[drill whirring]

[Nina] This drill
is a time machine

that lets us go
back into the past

to solve the mystery
of solar storms.

When the sun blasts a solar
storm in our direction,

the high energy particles

slam into Earth's
upper atmosphere.

The force of this impact

creates altered
versions of elements

called beryllium and chlorine.

These unique breadcrumbs
fall onto the ice sheet

and are buried by
layers of snowfall.

The ice record preserves a
signature from each solar storm

that has hit the Earth.

Scientists are now lifting
the ice to unlock this record.

Previously, human
observations of solar storms

only went back fewer
than 500 years.

But this ancient ice
is helping scientists

go back 130,000 years to
piece together a pattern,

the key to potentially
predicting the unpredictable.

Should we quickly
measure it, Johannes?

Length, 3.1;

coring time, 21:50;

inclination, 3.9.

So per each run, we get roughly
about three meters core.

Yeah, so we get about 15,
maybe 20 meter core every day.

[Nina] The layers of
ice get more compressed

the further down we go.

So as the team drills
deeper into the ice,

they uncover a much
larger range of time

in which ice core scientists

could find a
potential solar storm.

[Iben] We didn't
know how it will go,

but it has been
extremely successful

and we have drilled now more
than 200 meters of ice core.

[dramatic music]

[drill whirring]

[Nina] These
cores may be the key

to unlocking the
terror of solar storms.

The frozen fruits of the
EastGRIP team's labor

are headed to a place

where they hope those
discoveries will be made

almost 2,000 miles away.

[gentle music]

[Chiara] Where we are
going now to sample the ice

is basically just a huge freezer

that contains kilometers of ice

that comes from Greenland,

split into smaller pieces
that are stored in boxes.

[Nina] Thousands of
years of solar activity

are sitting right
here in this room,

and so are the clues to
a historical catastrophe

that these two scientists seek.

[Chiara] Yes, that one.

[dramatic music]

[dial clicking]

[drill whirring]

Just extracting an ice
sample takes so much work.

Just think of the number of
people that are in the field

to get the camp going and
to get the drill work.

It's really lucky to be able
to hold one of these samples.

[dramatic music]

When we analyze a layer of ice

and measure beryllium
and chlorine,

it's like being
able to read a page

in the history of the Earth.

[dramatic music]

We will prepare these samples

for the measurement of
beryllium and chlorine

to see if we can
find a solar storm.

[dramatic music]

You can see the
solar cycle before.

So these are the results
from the solar storm

that we found about
9,000 years ago,

and you can just
tell that it's really

a kind of an outstanding peak.

You can see that
there's a big spike

that can be seen
in every record.

[Nina] And there it is.

The spikes are those telltale

altered beryllium and
chlorine breadcrumbs

that indicate a
giant solar storm.

This is just a
normal variation

of how 10 beryllium
varies every year,

and then suddenly there's
just a big increase

that's very different from
what's happening around it.

So this is induced,
obviously, by the solar storm.

[Nina] 9,000 years ago,

humans wouldn't
have been affected

by this solar storm at all

because there wasn't any
technology to wipe out.

But if it hit us today, it
would knock out our satellites,

deliver fatal doses of radiation

to astronauts and airplanes,

and black out the power grids
needed to keep humanity alive.

The data looks amazing and
we were even able to understand

that the event
occurred in a period

where the solar
activity was low.

That was, yeah, exciting
'cause completely unexpected.

And so, yeah, we really
need to better understand

why 'cause that goes
against intuition.

[dramatic music]

[Nina] They can now
add this data point

to a growing body of evidence

that suggests that
massive solar storms

can happen during periods
of low solar activity,

which is a time when
solar flares are rare,

so we would expect
fewer solar storms.

But something else
about their finding

highlights why this discovery
is so groundbreaking.

[dramatic music]

So we think that the solar
storm that Chiara discovered

was probably at least 100 times
bigger than, for instance,

the big solar storm
that hit earth in 1989,

and that actually blacked
out the Quebec Province

for about nine hours.

Also, much bigger than a famous
event that occurred in 1859

called the Carrington Event,

and that induced the disruption
of the telegraph systems

in North America and Europe.

[dramatic music]

We can't say with certainty

when the next big
one will happen.

If it's gonna be in 10 years,
or 100 years, or 1,000 years,

we don't know.

[dramatic music]

If we could uncover
more solar storms

embedded in the 130,000-year
ice record of Greenland,

we might be able to
piece together a pattern

to predict when they
might happen next.

[dramatic music]

With this information,

engineers can actually
harden our spacecraft

to make them less vulnerable
to these solar storms.

It's incredible to
think that even though

there are no written
records 9,000 years ago,

we still know that
this event occurred

because it was
recorded in this ice.

How incredible is it that
we, children of the universe,

just made up of star stuff,
can actually learn about stars

and learn about the universe

as we study these
icy environments?

[gentle music]

I set out to study the
Earth's precious cryosphere

and to see how much it could
tell us about other worlds.

Along the way,

I've met other scientists
who are lifting the ice

to uncover deep secrets
about our universe.

All this work that
we're doing on the ice

is expanding our knowledge
of the mysterious cosmos,

and all its mighty and
destructive forces.

[dramatic music]

There's so much about
our universe that we don't understand,

but it turns out we
don't have to go far

to study its mysteries.

[dramatic music]

There's so much we can learn

right here among
Earth's alien ice.

[dramatic orchestral music]