1 00:00:02,962 --> 00:00:04,839 [Man Narrating] Nuclear annihilation- 2 00:00:04,923 --> 00:00:07,759 This would have been an absolutely devastating event. 3 00:00:08,968 --> 00:00:11,054 Mysterious pyramids- 4 00:00:11,638 --> 00:00:15,016 There are, apparently, these unusual structures there. 5 00:00:15,100 --> 00:00:19,187 And evidence of life billions of years ago. 6 00:00:19,270 --> 00:00:21,564 Researchers found objects... 7 00:00:21,648 --> 00:00:26,569 that looked extremely similar to microorganisms here on Earth. 8 00:00:28,738 --> 00:00:30,407 [Narrator] Throughout human history... 9 00:00:30,490 --> 00:00:33,868 the planet Mars has captured our imagination. 10 00:00:33,952 --> 00:00:37,414 But is it simply because of its striking red color... 11 00:00:37,497 --> 00:00:39,541 and prominence in the night sky? 12 00:00:39,624 --> 00:00:44,254 Or might there be a more profound extraterrestrial connection? 13 00:00:45,463 --> 00:00:48,717 [ Man ] NASA knows there is life on Mars... 14 00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:53,805 but for some reason, it does not want that information out. 15 00:00:54,973 --> 00:00:57,267 [Narrator] Millions of people around the world... 16 00:00:57,350 --> 00:01:02,272 believe we have been visited in the past by extraterrestrial beings. 17 00:01:02,355 --> 00:01:04,274 What if it were true? 18 00:01:05,483 --> 00:01:09,654 Did ancient aliens really help to shape our history? 19 00:01:10,655 --> 00:01:15,952 And if so, might they have come from the Red Planet of Mars? 20 00:01:47,108 --> 00:01:49,611 [Narrator] Cape Canaveral, Florida. 21 00:01:49,694 --> 00:01:53,072 August 20, 1975. 22 00:01:54,491 --> 00:01:57,452 [Man] Ignition. We have liftoff. 23 00:01:57,535 --> 00:02:00,663 [Narrator] The United States launches a Titan rocket... 24 00:02:00,747 --> 00:02:03,082 carrying the Viking spacecraft. 25 00:02:04,709 --> 00:02:08,463 Viking is embarking on a 420-million-mile journey... 26 00:02:08,546 --> 00:02:11,883 to one of the most prominent sights in the night sky- 27 00:02:14,385 --> 00:02:16,221 Mars. 28 00:02:17,263 --> 00:02:19,974 If all goes well, in 11 months... 29 00:02:20,058 --> 00:02:23,853 the unmanned probe will touch down on the martian surface... 30 00:02:23,937 --> 00:02:26,564 and search for evidence of life. 31 00:02:28,566 --> 00:02:33,321 Mainstream scientists say Mars is most likely a dead planet... 32 00:02:33,404 --> 00:02:38,785 because of its incredible temperature swings and high levels of solar radiation. 33 00:02:41,079 --> 00:02:45,250 So why is NASA spending a billion dollars to explore it? 34 00:02:48,461 --> 00:02:51,339 [ Man ] The night sky is an astounding thing. 35 00:02:51,422 --> 00:02:55,760 To the naked eye, the Red Planet could be seen with its special colors. 36 00:02:55,844 --> 00:02:59,430 After all, it's the biggest thing you see up there past the moon. 37 00:03:00,056 --> 00:03:03,685 So it's been a special object of fascination and reverence... 38 00:03:03,768 --> 00:03:07,522 because religious systems often were associated with the planets... 39 00:03:07,605 --> 00:03:09,440 and the stars, the sky in general. 40 00:03:10,358 --> 00:03:12,902 Speculations about what's there. 41 00:03:12,986 --> 00:03:15,530 Is intelligent life there? Are the gods there? 42 00:03:15,613 --> 00:03:17,615 That's gone on for a long time. 43 00:03:19,284 --> 00:03:21,703 [ Man ♪2 ] Our dream for life on Mars... 44 00:03:21,786 --> 00:03:25,623 probably goes back even to the ancient times... 45 00:03:25,707 --> 00:03:28,626 when we were just doing naked-eye observation. 46 00:03:29,794 --> 00:03:32,171 It's the planet that really stands out... 47 00:03:32,255 --> 00:03:37,802 that we now know is very close to Earth in terms of physical conditions. 48 00:03:37,886 --> 00:03:42,223 Even though Venus is much more like Earth in size and gravity... 49 00:03:42,307 --> 00:03:45,435 it's a hellhole in the solar system. 50 00:03:49,147 --> 00:03:53,902 But Mars-Mars is out there within our grasp. 51 00:03:56,237 --> 00:04:00,575 [Narrator] Among the first to record this fiery red ball in the night sky... 52 00:04:00,658 --> 00:04:03,161 were ancient Egyptian astronomers. 53 00:04:05,246 --> 00:04:07,624 In 1534 B.C... 54 00:04:07,707 --> 00:04:12,587 they placed Mars on humanity's first chart of the known cosmos- 55 00:04:12,670 --> 00:04:14,464 the Senenmut star map. 56 00:04:16,799 --> 00:04:18,676 Two and a half centuries later... 57 00:04:18,760 --> 00:04:24,223 the Egyptians painted the planet Mars on the ceiling of the tomb of SETI I. 58 00:04:27,185 --> 00:04:29,354 But while the Egyptians honored Mars... 59 00:04:29,437 --> 00:04:32,398 many other ancient cultures feared it... 60 00:04:32,482 --> 00:04:38,446 because they associated the Red Planet with death, destruction and war. 61 00:04:38,529 --> 00:04:41,157 According to some anthropologists... 62 00:04:41,240 --> 00:04:43,576 this is because the planet glows red... 63 00:04:43,660 --> 00:04:46,996 like the color of blood spilled on the battlefield. 64 00:04:50,667 --> 00:04:55,463 The association of the Red Planet with the gods of war goes way back. 65 00:04:55,546 --> 00:04:57,632 In ancient Babylon... 66 00:04:57,715 --> 00:05:00,301 Mars was named after Nergal... 67 00:05:00,385 --> 00:05:04,097 the god of fire, death and destruction... 68 00:05:04,180 --> 00:05:06,265 essentially a god of war. 69 00:05:07,517 --> 00:05:11,479 The Greeks named Mars after Ares, their god of war. 70 00:05:11,562 --> 00:05:15,400 The Romans, "Mars," that is their god of war. 71 00:05:15,483 --> 00:05:17,860 [ Shouting, Screaming ] 72 00:05:17,944 --> 00:05:20,363 [ Young ] Rome was a warrior culture. 73 00:05:20,446 --> 00:05:24,075 So this martial emphasis, all connected to the Red Planet... 74 00:05:24,158 --> 00:05:27,954 is accounting for the great armies that conquered the known world. 75 00:05:28,037 --> 00:05:32,959 A very successful story and very much aligned with the planet Mars. 76 00:05:35,378 --> 00:05:36,587 [ Shouting ] 77 00:05:36,671 --> 00:05:40,842 [Narrator] In 42 B.C., the Roman forces of Augustus... 78 00:05:40,925 --> 00:05:44,887 waged the Battle of Philippi against Marcus Brutus... 79 00:05:44,971 --> 00:05:49,350 as Augustus tried to avenge the assassination of his adopted father... 80 00:05:49,434 --> 00:05:51,060 Julius Caesar. 81 00:05:52,937 --> 00:05:55,857 [ Man ] Augustus pledged to the god of war, Mars... 82 00:05:55,940 --> 00:05:59,485 that if he won this battle, he would build a great temple for him. 83 00:05:59,569 --> 00:06:01,279 [ Shouting ] 84 00:06:05,658 --> 00:06:09,370 So he won the battle, became Caesar Augustus... 85 00:06:09,454 --> 00:06:11,831 one of the greatest of the Roman emperors... 86 00:06:11,914 --> 00:06:15,126 and he created the Temple of Mars. 87 00:06:15,209 --> 00:06:18,546 And whenever Rome would declare war... 88 00:06:18,629 --> 00:06:21,090 the temple doors would be thrown open. 89 00:06:24,427 --> 00:06:27,096 [ Man ] It was called a Temple to Mars the Avenger. 90 00:06:28,306 --> 00:06:31,225 Famously, we say the "gates of war" nowadays, right? 91 00:06:31,309 --> 00:06:36,981 And it was the gates of Mars's temple that were opened or closed... 92 00:06:37,065 --> 00:06:40,985 depending upon whether there was a war going on. 93 00:06:42,487 --> 00:06:44,197 From India to Rome... 94 00:06:44,280 --> 00:06:47,575 all of the ancient societies had a reverence for Mars... 95 00:06:47,658 --> 00:06:50,244 a great closeness to Mars. 96 00:06:50,328 --> 00:06:52,080 Very important in their pantheon... 97 00:06:52,163 --> 00:06:55,124 very important in the imagination of the people... 98 00:06:55,208 --> 00:06:59,921 that some kind of connection with that red planet be maintained. 99 00:07:05,343 --> 00:07:09,180 [Narrator] But while many ancient societies felt a bond with Mars... 100 00:07:09,263 --> 00:07:13,059 most did not identify it as a planet like Earth. 101 00:07:13,142 --> 00:07:17,355 The ancients thought planets were as uninhabitable as the sun. 102 00:07:17,438 --> 00:07:19,524 They saw them as wandering stars. 103 00:07:19,607 --> 00:07:25,029 In fact, the word "planet" means in Greek "wandering star," planeta. 104 00:07:25,113 --> 00:07:28,032 You have the fixed stars, the constellations... 105 00:07:28,116 --> 00:07:31,911 but then you have these stars wandering about. 106 00:07:31,994 --> 00:07:33,579 They seem to follow the sun... 107 00:07:33,663 --> 00:07:36,874 because they appear to move against the background of the fixed stars... 108 00:07:36,958 --> 00:07:38,543 the same way the sun does. 109 00:07:39,710 --> 00:07:43,256 [Narrator] It wasn't until the 17th and 18th centuries... 110 00:07:43,339 --> 00:07:47,093 when astronomers finally had telescopes powerful enough... 111 00:07:47,176 --> 00:07:50,138 to make out features on the surface of Mars... 112 00:07:50,221 --> 00:07:55,518 that we started to imagine life on the Red Planet as a real possibility. 113 00:07:56,686 --> 00:08:01,607 By the 1860s, an Italian astronomer by the name of Angelo Secchi... 114 00:08:01,691 --> 00:08:04,652 thought he saw straight lines crisscrossing the surface... 115 00:08:04,735 --> 00:08:06,904 of our little ruddy buddy up there, Mars. 116 00:08:06,988 --> 00:08:08,781 And he called them "canali." 117 00:08:08,865 --> 00:08:13,077 The idea was picked up by an American astronomer by the name of Percival Lowell. 118 00:08:13,161 --> 00:08:16,414 And Percival Lowell built his own observatory down in Flagstaff, Arizona. 119 00:08:16,497 --> 00:08:19,458 He spent a lot of time looking through a telescope at Mars. 120 00:08:19,542 --> 00:08:22,545 And he wrote books about this. He was articulate. He was clever. 121 00:08:22,628 --> 00:08:26,674 And he convinced a lot of the public and some of the scientific establishment... 122 00:08:26,757 --> 00:08:29,844 that there really was a civilization on Mars... 123 00:08:29,927 --> 00:08:33,806 busy digging up their planet because they needed to irrigate their crops. 124 00:08:38,060 --> 00:08:42,857 [Narrator] But why has Mars fascinated humankind throughout history? 125 00:08:42,940 --> 00:08:45,902 Is it simply due to the planet's proximity to Earth... 126 00:08:45,985 --> 00:08:48,946 and its striking red color in the night sky? 127 00:08:50,281 --> 00:08:54,368 Or is it possible, as ancient astronaut theorists contend... 128 00:08:54,452 --> 00:08:59,916 that Mars really was at one time inhabited by intelligent life? 129 00:09:05,087 --> 00:09:07,757 The Cydonia region of Mars... 130 00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:11,469 July 20, 1976. 131 00:09:13,095 --> 00:09:18,434 An alien spacecraft sent from Earth touches down on the Red Planet. 132 00:09:18,517 --> 00:09:20,157 [Man On Radio] Nav is green for touchdown. 133 00:09:20,186 --> 00:09:24,565 [Narrator] After a 10-month journey, Viking 1 has reached its destination. 134 00:09:24,649 --> 00:09:26,400 [Man On Radio] Touchdown. We have touchdown. 135 00:09:26,484 --> 00:09:27,985 [ Cheering ] 136 00:09:28,069 --> 00:09:31,614 [Narrator] To NASA scientists, it's a momentous event. 137 00:09:32,698 --> 00:09:34,784 For the first time in its history... 138 00:09:34,867 --> 00:09:38,537 the United States has a probe on another planet. 139 00:09:39,664 --> 00:09:42,416 Viking was the first spacecraft... 140 00:09:42,500 --> 00:09:45,836 to actually attempt a soft landing on Mars... 141 00:09:46,879 --> 00:09:49,215 and give us an actual feel... 142 00:09:49,298 --> 00:09:52,677 a taste for what the conditions were on the surface. 143 00:09:54,679 --> 00:09:57,765 We looked out at those pictures of the surface... 144 00:09:57,848 --> 00:10:01,769 and they looked so much like the Pacific deserts here... 145 00:10:01,852 --> 00:10:03,938 like Death Valley. 146 00:10:04,021 --> 00:10:07,650 We all half expected to see a miner and his burro... 147 00:10:07,733 --> 00:10:10,778 come walking up over the nearest rise. 148 00:10:12,363 --> 00:10:16,409 [Narrator] Scientists knew that finding definitive signs of life on Mars... 149 00:10:16,492 --> 00:10:18,160 was a long shot. 150 00:10:18,953 --> 00:10:23,249 But when the Viking lander performed four tests on the martian soil... 151 00:10:23,332 --> 00:10:25,543 looking for microbial life... 152 00:10:25,626 --> 00:10:29,588 it returned surprising and controversial results. 153 00:10:30,715 --> 00:10:35,886 Dr. Gil Levin designed one of the tests that the Viking probe performed. 154 00:10:37,179 --> 00:10:41,058 [ Man ] Microorganisms breathe just like you or I or anything else... 155 00:10:41,142 --> 00:10:43,644 and then they give off carbon dioxide. 156 00:10:43,728 --> 00:10:48,649 So we got a tiny sample, a thimbleful of the soil... 157 00:10:48,733 --> 00:10:50,985 put into a little container. 158 00:10:51,068 --> 00:10:55,114 It was monitored for seven days continuously... 159 00:10:55,197 --> 00:10:58,993 to see if there are any bubbles forming in the tube. 160 00:10:59,076 --> 00:11:01,996 Surprisingly, the tests... 161 00:11:02,079 --> 00:11:03,998 came up positive for life... 162 00:11:04,081 --> 00:11:08,419 by the criteria that had been approved by NASA. 163 00:11:10,880 --> 00:11:14,091 [Narrator] However, the result of another important test... 164 00:11:14,175 --> 00:11:18,346 one looking for organic matter on the martian surface, was negative. 165 00:11:19,430 --> 00:11:21,766 But Dr. Levin says the other test... 166 00:11:21,849 --> 00:11:24,935 wasn't nearly as sensitive as his experiment. 167 00:11:25,644 --> 00:11:29,857 It needed three million bacteria in a thimbleful of martian soil... 168 00:11:29,940 --> 00:11:31,984 to find signs of life... 169 00:11:32,068 --> 00:11:36,530 while Dr. Levin's test only required 30 bacteria. 170 00:11:37,114 --> 00:11:42,536 So there was a vast discrepancy in the sensitivity of the two experiments. 171 00:11:42,620 --> 00:11:45,289 And I immediately said, "Well, you know, they both could be right." 172 00:11:45,373 --> 00:11:51,170 We detected life, but maybe there aren't enough bacteria per unit of soil... 173 00:11:51,253 --> 00:11:54,048 for the organic analysis instrument to find. 174 00:11:54,131 --> 00:11:57,593 But NASA was very cautious... 175 00:11:57,676 --> 00:12:02,348 and they opted to say no organic matter. 176 00:12:02,431 --> 00:12:05,142 There goes the ball game. No life. 177 00:12:07,019 --> 00:12:10,898 [Narrator] Dr. Levin has fought NASA for almost 40 years... 178 00:12:10,981 --> 00:12:14,902 on whether the Viking probe found evidence of life on Mars. 179 00:12:15,736 --> 00:12:18,906 If he was right about the results of his test... 180 00:12:18,989 --> 00:12:22,868 this would be the first proof accepted by mainstream science... 181 00:12:22,952 --> 00:12:26,372 that life exists outside our planet. 182 00:12:26,455 --> 00:12:28,749 But ancient astronaut theorists... 183 00:12:28,833 --> 00:12:32,753 say an even more profound discovery regarding the Red Planet... 184 00:12:32,837 --> 00:12:35,631 has been uncovered right here on Earth- 185 00:12:36,340 --> 00:12:42,221 mysterious relics that may reveal an actual visitation of beings... 186 00:12:42,304 --> 00:12:43,931 from Mars. 187 00:12:49,854 --> 00:12:52,273 [Narrator] Teotihuacan, Mexico. 188 00:12:53,858 --> 00:12:59,530 In 2003, archaeologists in this ancient city made a startling discovery. 189 00:13:00,990 --> 00:13:02,992 A previously unknown tunnel... 190 00:13:03,075 --> 00:13:07,037 lies 45 feet beneath the Temple of the Feathered Serpent... 191 00:13:07,663 --> 00:13:10,833 one of the most sacred pyramids on the continent. 192 00:13:13,210 --> 00:13:14,712 Working underground... 193 00:13:14,795 --> 00:13:18,215 scientists methodically explored the debris-filled tunnel... 194 00:13:18,299 --> 00:13:22,261 using a robotic probe with an infrared scanner. 195 00:13:23,512 --> 00:13:27,641 After some 250 feet, they reached a side cave. 196 00:13:28,767 --> 00:13:30,978 The tail end of the tunnel- terminus of the tunnel... 197 00:13:31,061 --> 00:13:34,773 was loaded with, uh, yellowish metallic-looking orbs... 198 00:13:34,857 --> 00:13:37,234 apparently colored clay. 199 00:13:38,986 --> 00:13:41,280 [ Man ] The orbs are very interesting objects. 200 00:13:41,363 --> 00:13:46,952 I've never seen anything like them in any kind of other archaeological context. 201 00:13:48,412 --> 00:13:50,664 On the inside, they are clay. 202 00:13:50,748 --> 00:13:54,960 On the outside, they're coated with some sort of gold flecks... 203 00:13:55,044 --> 00:13:57,671 so they look like golden balls. 204 00:13:58,714 --> 00:14:02,301 [Narrator] What purpose these golden balls served is unknown. 205 00:14:02,384 --> 00:14:04,512 But some archaeologists believe... 206 00:14:04,595 --> 00:14:08,682 the cavern in which they were found was a place of sacred ritual. 207 00:14:10,809 --> 00:14:12,436 Like the clay balls... 208 00:14:12,520 --> 00:14:15,481 the walls were also covered in gold flecks. 209 00:14:15,564 --> 00:14:19,652 So if the cavern was illuminated by a torch during a ceremony... 210 00:14:19,735 --> 00:14:22,738 it would have shimmered with a thousand points of light... 211 00:14:22,821 --> 00:14:25,074 resembling the cosmos. 212 00:14:28,452 --> 00:14:32,456 [ Man ] These beautiful orbs of yellow material... 213 00:14:32,540 --> 00:14:37,002 strongly suggest that someone was illustrating planets. 214 00:14:38,754 --> 00:14:44,051 We do know that the Mayan calendar is heavily calibrated... 215 00:14:44,134 --> 00:14:48,264 to the orbital parameters of the planets in our solar system... 216 00:14:48,347 --> 00:14:50,307 specifically the inner planets. 217 00:14:53,143 --> 00:14:55,813 [Narrator] The Red Planet's connection to the Mayan calendar... 218 00:14:55,896 --> 00:14:58,357 is portrayed in the Dresden Codex. 219 00:14:59,984 --> 00:15:02,611 This rare book from Mayan antiquity... 220 00:15:02,695 --> 00:15:06,865 describes the calendar in relation to Mars's movements across the sky. 221 00:15:07,950 --> 00:15:13,664 The Dresden Codex is one of four remaining books that the Maya wrote. 222 00:15:13,747 --> 00:15:18,669 It is, in many regards, an astronomical almanac. 223 00:15:18,752 --> 00:15:22,506 There are many different sections of the book... 224 00:15:22,590 --> 00:15:25,426 that talk about different astronomical phenomena. 225 00:15:25,509 --> 00:15:28,220 One of them is the planet Mars. 226 00:15:29,597 --> 00:15:32,141 There is an almanac near the end of the book... 227 00:15:32,224 --> 00:15:37,021 that breaks up days into 10 groups of 78 days... 228 00:15:37,104 --> 00:15:39,773 equaling 780 days... 229 00:15:39,857 --> 00:15:42,359 which is the synodic period of Mars. 230 00:15:42,443 --> 00:15:46,572 In other words, the time in which it takes Mars... 231 00:15:46,655 --> 00:15:51,619 to get back to the same place on the horizon from a human perspective. 232 00:15:57,583 --> 00:16:01,795 [Narrator] Scholars believe Mars played an important role in the Maya astrology... 233 00:16:01,879 --> 00:16:04,965 that's described in the Dresden Codex. 234 00:16:05,049 --> 00:16:08,302 Above that almanac is a sky band... 235 00:16:08,385 --> 00:16:11,930 shown with various aspects of celestial symbols... 236 00:16:12,014 --> 00:16:13,724 we recognize out of hieroglyphs. 237 00:16:13,807 --> 00:16:19,480 And hanging off of it is this interesting dragon-like creature. 238 00:16:20,439 --> 00:16:25,694 That dragon-like creature is recognized as the face of Mars. 239 00:16:29,239 --> 00:16:31,158 [Narrator] Why did the planet Mars... 240 00:16:31,241 --> 00:16:34,286 feature so prominently in Maya astronomy? 241 00:16:35,913 --> 00:16:40,084 Ancient astronaut theorists suggest the answer may be found... 242 00:16:40,167 --> 00:16:44,880 in a little-known myth surrounding the story of the feathered serpent god... 243 00:16:46,632 --> 00:16:51,595 whose temple sits above the secret tunnel that contains the golden orbs. 244 00:16:53,847 --> 00:16:58,519 In the Mayan tradition, their great god, often pictured as a feathered serpent... 245 00:16:58,602 --> 00:17:03,399 was said to have been responsible for the death of the god of Mars... 246 00:17:03,482 --> 00:17:04,983 flayed him to death. 247 00:17:05,067 --> 00:17:06,568 That's stripping off the skin. 248 00:17:06,652 --> 00:17:11,365 It's a horrific ritual that was actually done in other ways in that culture. 249 00:17:11,448 --> 00:17:14,451 But the idea is death by that means... 250 00:17:14,535 --> 00:17:18,205 absorbs the power of the enemy. 251 00:17:18,288 --> 00:17:23,252 But the name of their god also is associated with the comets. 252 00:17:25,587 --> 00:17:30,217 [ Barnhart ] There are certain drawings that show comets... 253 00:17:30,300 --> 00:17:32,761 that look like they have feathers coming off the back. 254 00:17:32,845 --> 00:17:36,056 That the flames are depicted as feathers. 255 00:17:36,140 --> 00:17:39,017 And some scholars believe there's a connection... 256 00:17:39,101 --> 00:17:44,273 between the look of the flying feathered serpent and these comets. 257 00:17:46,400 --> 00:17:50,070 [Narrator] Is it possible that the Mayan myth of the feathered serpent... 258 00:17:50,154 --> 00:17:52,531 describes an actual event- 259 00:17:54,116 --> 00:17:56,452 a cataclysmic comet strike... 260 00:17:56,535 --> 00:17:59,246 that destroyed the martian atmosphere? 261 00:18:10,174 --> 00:18:13,343 After studying the Red Planet for decades... 262 00:18:13,427 --> 00:18:15,512 mainstream scientists admit... 263 00:18:15,596 --> 00:18:21,143 it's entirely possible this impact occurred on Mars in the distant past. 264 00:18:24,271 --> 00:18:25,957 [ Brandenburg ] If you look at the martian landscape... 265 00:18:25,981 --> 00:18:28,776 it's heavily cratered compared to Earth. 266 00:18:28,859 --> 00:18:30,903 Mars is next to the asteroid belt. 267 00:18:30,986 --> 00:18:34,782 In fact, in some ways, it defines the inner edge of the asteroid belt. 268 00:18:34,865 --> 00:18:39,745 So Mars is constantly being hammered by asteroids relative to Earth. 269 00:18:42,456 --> 00:18:46,335 You always have the risk, and of course, we've seen it here on Earth... 270 00:18:46,418 --> 00:18:50,130 of having large asteroids or comets hit the planet... 271 00:18:50,214 --> 00:18:53,383 and cause tremendous ecological damage. 272 00:18:54,551 --> 00:18:58,222 The most famous example of that is the Chicxulub asteroid... 273 00:18:58,305 --> 00:19:03,393 that may or may not have been the final nail in the dinosaurs' coffin. 274 00:19:05,103 --> 00:19:07,397 And certainly that could've happened at Mars... 275 00:19:07,481 --> 00:19:10,818 because it doesn't have a large moon to help shield the planet... 276 00:19:10,901 --> 00:19:13,403 and possibly deflect asteroids. 277 00:19:16,365 --> 00:19:19,701 [Narrator] In his book, Life and Death on Mars... 278 00:19:19,785 --> 00:19:23,664 physicist John Brandenburg describes an impact crater... 279 00:19:23,747 --> 00:19:29,503 in the Lyot region of Mars that's more than 125 miles in diameter. 280 00:19:29,586 --> 00:19:31,505 He believes this comet strike... 281 00:19:31,588 --> 00:19:35,676 may have caused a profound disruption to Mars's planetary system. 282 00:19:36,885 --> 00:19:39,680 [ Brandenburg ] It's a large double-ring crater. 283 00:19:39,763 --> 00:19:43,433 Only this happened to a planet that only gets half the sunlight of Earth... 284 00:19:43,517 --> 00:19:45,811 and has one quarter of its surface area. 285 00:19:45,894 --> 00:19:50,816 So this would have been an absolutely devastating, planet-climate-changing event. 286 00:19:51,733 --> 00:19:53,652 There may have been a very dramatic event... 287 00:19:53,735 --> 00:19:57,197 where some other leftover piece from the birth of the solar system... 288 00:19:57,281 --> 00:20:00,200 some big asteroid, sort of made a close fly-by... 289 00:20:00,284 --> 00:20:02,494 sort of a fender-bender collision with Mars... 290 00:20:02,578 --> 00:20:04,580 and just stripped off a lot of the atmosphere. 291 00:20:04,663 --> 00:20:07,916 That's a very popular way to look at what may have gone wrong with Mars. 292 00:20:15,048 --> 00:20:20,095 [Narrator] But if Mars fostered life long ago before losing its atmosphere... 293 00:20:20,178 --> 00:20:23,724 could intelligent life, and perhaps even civilization... 294 00:20:23,807 --> 00:20:27,477 have existed and even flourished on the Red Planet? 295 00:20:29,313 --> 00:20:33,817 And if so, where would the inhabitants have gone after the cataclysm? 296 00:20:34,818 --> 00:20:38,238 Some say the answers to these questions can be found... 297 00:20:38,322 --> 00:20:42,784 in the origin story of Earth's first civilization. 298 00:20:50,375 --> 00:20:53,629 [Narrator] Mosul, Iraq. 1849. 299 00:20:55,005 --> 00:20:58,926 During an excavation of the biblical city of Nineveh... 300 00:20:59,009 --> 00:21:04,222 a team led by the eminent British archaeologist Austen Henry Layard... 301 00:21:04,306 --> 00:21:09,353 discovered the ruins of the ancient Assyrian library of Ashurbanipal. 302 00:21:10,812 --> 00:21:14,816 Among the priceless relics Layard recovered from the library... 303 00:21:14,900 --> 00:21:19,947 is a series of cuneiform tablets called the Enûma Eliš... 304 00:21:20,030 --> 00:21:23,867 also known as "The Seven Tablets of Creation." 305 00:21:24,826 --> 00:21:30,123 [ Woman ] The tablets are, essentially, text in columnar style... 306 00:21:30,207 --> 00:21:33,794 no more than eight to 10 inches tall... 307 00:21:33,877 --> 00:21:36,296 uh, six to seven inches wide... 308 00:21:36,380 --> 00:21:38,090 which were made of clay. 309 00:21:38,173 --> 00:21:41,718 And while the clay was just in the process of setting... 310 00:21:41,802 --> 00:21:45,639 a stylus would be used by a trained scribe... 311 00:21:45,722 --> 00:21:50,018 to etch the stories of our existence on this planet. 312 00:21:53,188 --> 00:21:56,149 [Narrator] The Seven Tablets of Creation tell a story... 313 00:21:56,233 --> 00:21:59,319 about a group of gods called the Anunnaki... 314 00:21:59,403 --> 00:22:03,407 who came from heaven to give birth to the human race. 315 00:22:03,490 --> 00:22:07,661 But some ancient astronaut theorists believe the original translations... 316 00:22:07,744 --> 00:22:12,416 completed in the 19th century by some of the best scholars of the day... 317 00:22:12,499 --> 00:22:14,292 are flawed. 318 00:22:14,376 --> 00:22:17,504 The professors, certainly brilliant brains... 319 00:22:17,587 --> 00:22:20,382 had no idea of space travel... 320 00:22:20,465 --> 00:22:22,718 not to speak of extraterrestrials. 321 00:22:22,801 --> 00:22:25,637 So they all, without exception... 322 00:22:25,721 --> 00:22:28,432 made the translations in the belief... 323 00:22:28,515 --> 00:22:31,768 that the stories had to do with the almighty God. 324 00:22:33,228 --> 00:22:36,857 In the old texts, we have, for example, a word like "heaven." 325 00:22:36,940 --> 00:22:40,569 For example, Abraham was taken up to heaven... 326 00:22:40,652 --> 00:22:42,904 and brought back to Earth. 327 00:22:42,988 --> 00:22:47,659 So we should change the word "heaven" into the word "space"... 328 00:22:47,743 --> 00:22:49,911 so it makes sense. 329 00:22:52,956 --> 00:22:57,502 [Narrator] Using what they say is a more accurate translation of this origin myth... 330 00:22:57,586 --> 00:23:01,423 ancient astronaut theorists believe the tablets tell a story... 331 00:23:01,506 --> 00:23:07,471 about the Anunnaki coming from space to colonize both Mars and Earth. 332 00:23:08,388 --> 00:23:10,182 According to some researchers... 333 00:23:10,265 --> 00:23:13,560 the Sumerians had a number of myths about Mars... 334 00:23:13,643 --> 00:23:16,188 including that the Anunnaki... 335 00:23:16,271 --> 00:23:21,109 used Mars as a supply base to come here to Earth. 336 00:23:22,486 --> 00:23:26,031 And subsequently the Anunnaki then ruled the Earth... 337 00:23:26,114 --> 00:23:29,910 as these extraterrestrial god-kings... 338 00:23:29,993 --> 00:23:34,790 while humans began to create the many civilizations on our planet. 339 00:23:34,873 --> 00:23:39,336 And eventually the Anunnaki left to go back to their own planet. 340 00:23:40,295 --> 00:23:41,379 Or did they? 341 00:23:43,006 --> 00:23:47,469 [Narrator] Is it possible that the Anunnaki gods in our ancient origin stories... 342 00:23:47,552 --> 00:23:50,347 were actually extraterrestrial beings... 343 00:23:50,430 --> 00:23:55,477 and that they created the structures that some believe they see on Mars? 344 00:23:57,771 --> 00:24:01,650 And if so, did they then journey to Earth? 345 00:24:02,692 --> 00:24:06,696 [ Wilcock ] We see multiple references in the cuneiform tablets... 346 00:24:06,780 --> 00:24:09,908 that are allegedly the records of the Anunnaki. 347 00:24:09,991 --> 00:24:13,620 That, in fact, they did originate from Mars. 348 00:24:15,705 --> 00:24:20,710 That this is not a dead, isolated, rocky world with nothing on it... 349 00:24:20,794 --> 00:24:23,421 but there was life. 350 00:24:27,092 --> 00:24:29,469 [Narrator] But according to modern translation... 351 00:24:29,553 --> 00:24:32,556 of Sumerian and Babylonian origin myths... 352 00:24:32,639 --> 00:24:35,642 a cataclysmic event occurred on Mars... 353 00:24:35,725 --> 00:24:38,562 an event that sounds remarkably similar... 354 00:24:38,645 --> 00:24:40,647 to ancient Mesoamerican myths... 355 00:24:40,730 --> 00:24:44,234 about a feathered serpent flaying the Red Planet. 356 00:24:45,277 --> 00:24:49,990 [ CHILDRESS ] While the Anunnaki were using Mars as a supply base for Earth... 357 00:24:50,073 --> 00:24:53,201 at some point there was a catastrophe. 358 00:24:53,285 --> 00:24:57,080 There was some asteroid or comet strike on Mars. 359 00:25:01,668 --> 00:25:04,421 It ripped the atmosphere from Mars. 360 00:25:04,504 --> 00:25:06,464 It changed the climate. 361 00:25:06,548 --> 00:25:11,469 And Mars couldn't be used as a habitable space base for the Anunnaki anymore. 362 00:25:12,345 --> 00:25:16,057 And so therefore, as we explore Mars more and more... 363 00:25:16,141 --> 00:25:20,687 we may find structures, pyramids, ziggurats... 364 00:25:20,770 --> 00:25:24,816 even giant statues carved into rock on Mars... 365 00:25:24,900 --> 00:25:28,069 which are really relics of the Anunnaki... 366 00:25:28,153 --> 00:25:30,739 and the time when they occupied that planet. 367 00:25:32,908 --> 00:25:36,870 [ Man ] Some have suggested that Mars may have had an atmosphere... 368 00:25:36,953 --> 00:25:41,541 and it got annihilated about 65 million years ago. 369 00:25:41,625 --> 00:25:45,754 What some have suggested is that before this annihilation occurred... 370 00:25:45,837 --> 00:25:50,592 that that civilization was able to escape to Earth. 371 00:25:51,760 --> 00:25:56,139 Now, according to this view, we might, in fact, be the Martians. 372 00:26:00,685 --> 00:26:02,479 [Narrator] Some scientists say... 373 00:26:02,562 --> 00:26:06,358 they've found powerful evidence of this lost civilization. 374 00:26:06,441 --> 00:26:10,153 They believe they may have discovered a nuclear signature... 375 00:26:10,237 --> 00:26:15,617 in the martian atmosphere that matches Earth's after a nuclear test. 376 00:26:18,161 --> 00:26:19,805 [ Brandenburg ] During the height of the Cold War... 377 00:26:19,829 --> 00:26:22,874 we were detonating very large hydrogen bombs in the open air... 378 00:26:22,958 --> 00:26:26,586 and it produces a lot of a gas called Xenon 129. 379 00:26:28,171 --> 00:26:32,425 On Mars, we've also found a lot of Xenon 129. 380 00:26:32,509 --> 00:26:36,763 The only process we know to produce this Xenon 129... 381 00:26:36,846 --> 00:26:38,848 is a nuclear explosion. 382 00:26:42,352 --> 00:26:46,523 So apparently, a very large nuclear weapon... 383 00:26:46,606 --> 00:26:49,401 or weapons, was detonated on Mars. 384 00:26:50,860 --> 00:26:53,530 [ Wilcock ] If we look at the Sumerian cuneiform tablets... 385 00:26:53,613 --> 00:26:58,743 there are very clear references to a variety of advanced forms of technology. 386 00:26:58,827 --> 00:27:02,580 And it would seem pretty clear that if we were able to get a nuclear bomb... 387 00:27:02,664 --> 00:27:06,334 then why couldn't a civilization that was superior to our own... 388 00:27:06,418 --> 00:27:08,420 have developed the same technology? 389 00:27:09,629 --> 00:27:12,924 [ Brandenburg ] There is a Sumerian myth concerning the planet Mars... 390 00:27:13,008 --> 00:27:16,136 having to do with some colossal battle of the gods. 391 00:27:16,219 --> 00:27:20,974 So there is elements in mythology that look very much like... 392 00:27:21,057 --> 00:27:23,226 descriptions of nuclear war. 393 00:27:27,272 --> 00:27:30,066 [Narrator] Signs of a possible nuclear blast... 394 00:27:30,150 --> 00:27:33,236 myths of a comet flaying the planet... 395 00:27:34,696 --> 00:27:39,075 and a controversial NASA experiment that may have found life. 396 00:27:40,618 --> 00:27:46,458 Could these really be traces of an ancient alien civilization on Mars? 397 00:27:46,541 --> 00:27:50,628 And if so, is it possible there are artificial structures... 398 00:27:50,712 --> 00:27:54,591 buried beneath the surface even to this day? 399 00:28:01,264 --> 00:28:03,558 [Narrator] The Ares Vallis region of Mars... 400 00:28:04,517 --> 00:28:07,479 July 4, 1997. 401 00:28:09,272 --> 00:28:13,234 NASA's Pathfinder spacecraft lands on the Red Planet. 402 00:28:15,195 --> 00:28:18,698 The first probe to reach the martian surface since Viking... 403 00:28:18,782 --> 00:28:21,826 Pathfinder will look for signs of water. 404 00:28:28,041 --> 00:28:31,086 Since the Viking missions in the 1970s... 405 00:28:31,169 --> 00:28:34,005 mainstream scientists have come to the conclusion... 406 00:28:34,089 --> 00:28:38,551 that the planet may have once boasted oceans full of water... 407 00:28:38,635 --> 00:28:40,303 and complex life. 408 00:28:41,638 --> 00:28:44,724 Billions of years ago, early in the history of the solar system... 409 00:28:44,808 --> 00:28:46,559 Mars probably looked... 410 00:28:46,643 --> 00:28:49,104 in many ways, the way the Earth did. 411 00:28:51,064 --> 00:28:53,650 It did build up an atmosphere and oceans. 412 00:28:54,859 --> 00:28:58,279 The atmosphere probably would have been equivalent... 413 00:28:58,363 --> 00:29:00,698 to Earth's atmosphere at that time. 414 00:29:00,782 --> 00:29:03,326 Life could well have formed in the oceans. 415 00:29:08,206 --> 00:29:11,000 [Narrator] One day after Pathfinder touched down... 416 00:29:11,084 --> 00:29:14,712 the Sojourner rover began exploring the martian surface... 417 00:29:14,796 --> 00:29:17,257 for signs of these ancient life-forms... 418 00:29:17,340 --> 00:29:21,344 using an X-ray spectrometer and a high-powered camera. 419 00:29:22,846 --> 00:29:25,932 What they discovered was... 420 00:29:26,015 --> 00:29:28,810 yes, Mars, in certain places... 421 00:29:28,893 --> 00:29:32,272 looks like the high desert on Earth. 422 00:29:34,065 --> 00:29:39,195 And maybe there are areas which do seem to be dried-out riverbeds. 423 00:29:40,488 --> 00:29:43,408 Maybe there's water under the surface. 424 00:29:44,117 --> 00:29:47,245 The thing we've learned from the rovers that's most interesting, I think... 425 00:29:47,328 --> 00:29:50,999 is the fact that Mars once had a wet past. 426 00:29:52,041 --> 00:29:54,961 And if there was liquid water on the surface of Mars long enough... 427 00:29:55,044 --> 00:29:58,256 not just for a couple of weeks, a couple of years, a couple of thousand years... 428 00:29:58,339 --> 00:30:00,359 but for millions of years, hundreds of millions of years... 429 00:30:00,383 --> 00:30:02,135 maybe something cooked up in that liquid. 430 00:30:02,218 --> 00:30:03,928 Maybe life. 431 00:30:05,263 --> 00:30:09,809 [Narrator] As the Pathfinder rover snapped photographs of the martian surface... 432 00:30:09,893 --> 00:30:13,855 it captured images of something that puzzled some scientists. 433 00:30:16,149 --> 00:30:19,861 A mountain range they nicknamed the Twin Peaks. 434 00:30:22,322 --> 00:30:25,700 In his book, Life and Death on Mars... 435 00:30:25,783 --> 00:30:28,661 Dr. John Brandenburg says that because Mars... 436 00:30:28,745 --> 00:30:32,123 has limited volcanic and tectonic activity... 437 00:30:32,207 --> 00:30:36,711 it's an open question as to how these mountains were formed. 438 00:30:39,422 --> 00:30:44,177 This interesting formation is the tallest thing for hundreds of miles. 439 00:30:44,260 --> 00:30:48,515 Most of the volcanic activity on Mars is concentrated in the Tharsis region. 440 00:30:48,598 --> 00:30:51,226 How many miles away is that approximately? 441 00:30:51,309 --> 00:30:53,811 Oh, it's, like 2,000 miles away, to the west. 442 00:30:53,895 --> 00:30:58,608 So this area is not known for any volcanoes or anything like that? 443 00:30:58,691 --> 00:31:02,654 No. And because we now know so much more about the climate of Mars... 444 00:31:02,737 --> 00:31:04,197 than we did 20 years ago. 445 00:31:04,280 --> 00:31:05,532 It had an ocean. 446 00:31:05,615 --> 00:31:09,577 It had long periods, apparently, of liquid water flowing on its surface. 447 00:31:09,661 --> 00:31:14,165 So all of this causes us to look at everything on Mars with new eyes. 448 00:31:14,249 --> 00:31:15,291 Mm-hmm. 449 00:31:15,375 --> 00:31:20,505 And so we have these two interesting objects. They're conjoined. 450 00:31:20,588 --> 00:31:23,758 Not only are they the tallest things for 200 miles... 451 00:31:23,841 --> 00:31:25,385 but they're linked to each other. 452 00:31:25,468 --> 00:31:31,307 And this reminds me of what we have found on planet Earth. 453 00:31:31,391 --> 00:31:33,309 Now, there's alignment. 454 00:31:33,393 --> 00:31:34,644 Mm-hmm. 455 00:31:34,727 --> 00:31:40,692 And what's interesting, this is the Giza Plateau from Egypt. 456 00:31:40,775 --> 00:31:42,652 And it is near Cairo... 457 00:31:42,735 --> 00:31:46,823 which derives from the name in Arabic Al-Qahirah... 458 00:31:46,906 --> 00:31:49,367 which means "Camp of Mars"- "Place of Mars." 459 00:31:49,450 --> 00:31:50,910 - Very interesting. - Fascinating. 460 00:31:50,994 --> 00:31:53,496 - Huh. - And we also have found out recently... 461 00:31:53,580 --> 00:31:57,834 that, at one time, the Sphinx was covered with red paint. 462 00:32:00,003 --> 00:32:06,926 So, imagine we are looking at the Giza complex, and the Sphinx... 463 00:32:07,010 --> 00:32:09,846 and a million years of erosion has happened. 464 00:32:09,929 --> 00:32:14,934 Wouldn't these things all look kind of rounded and mounded like this? 465 00:32:15,685 --> 00:32:17,270 It's conjectural. 466 00:32:18,521 --> 00:32:21,941 Now I notice over here, because it's the Giza Plateau... 467 00:32:22,025 --> 00:32:23,484 we have the Sphinx. 468 00:32:23,568 --> 00:32:26,904 Has something similar been discovered on Mars... 469 00:32:26,988 --> 00:32:30,033 specifically around the Twin Peaks area? 470 00:32:30,116 --> 00:32:32,761 [ Brandenburg ] Well, we have this strange object which is nearby... 471 00:32:32,785 --> 00:32:35,872 and we see that from space and also in the picture. 472 00:32:35,955 --> 00:32:39,292 And look at this. At this alignment. 473 00:32:39,375 --> 00:32:42,795 Here is the Sphinx on Earth. Here is the pyramid. 474 00:32:44,714 --> 00:32:49,302 Here is this object. And there is what looks like a mound of stuff. 475 00:32:49,385 --> 00:32:51,596 Who knows if it is degraded archeology? 476 00:32:51,679 --> 00:32:54,557 We must look at everything on Mars now with new eyes. 477 00:32:54,641 --> 00:32:58,144 In fact, when the Sphinx was originally found in modern times... 478 00:32:58,227 --> 00:33:02,815 it was buried up to its neck in rubble and had to be excavated. 479 00:33:02,899 --> 00:33:05,652 [ TSOUKALOS ] So something similar could be going on right here. 480 00:33:05,735 --> 00:33:08,738 [ Brandenburg ] There could be a much larger structure buried beneath. 481 00:33:11,783 --> 00:33:13,951 [Narrator] Could the Twin Peaks be evidence... 482 00:33:14,035 --> 00:33:18,247 that an ancient civilization may have once existed on Mars? 483 00:33:20,041 --> 00:33:24,879 A civilization whose structures appear to resemble those on Earth? 484 00:33:26,255 --> 00:33:29,425 Ancient astronaut theorists say yes... 485 00:33:29,509 --> 00:33:32,095 and that evidence for this startling conclusion... 486 00:33:32,178 --> 00:33:35,515 has been accumulating for four decades. 487 00:33:36,140 --> 00:33:41,604 When Viking orbiters originally started taking pictures of the surface of Mars... 488 00:33:42,605 --> 00:33:48,277 they took pictures of very intriguing features on the plain of Cydonia. 489 00:33:49,529 --> 00:33:54,158 On July 25, 1976, they took a picture of something... 490 00:33:54,242 --> 00:33:58,454 that looked for all the world like a human face. 491 00:33:59,414 --> 00:34:01,040 The whole thing kind of blew up... 492 00:34:01,124 --> 00:34:04,001 when a NASA project scientist named Toby Owen put a magnifying glass... 493 00:34:04,085 --> 00:34:06,963 over a frame number named "35A72"... 494 00:34:07,046 --> 00:34:09,173 and said, "Hey, look at this." 495 00:34:09,257 --> 00:34:11,968 NASA actually held a press conference the next day... 496 00:34:12,051 --> 00:34:16,097 where Owen and Gerald Soffen, who was the chief Viking project scientist said... 497 00:34:16,180 --> 00:34:19,809 you know, isn't it peculiar what tricks of light and shadow can do? 498 00:34:19,892 --> 00:34:23,438 The whole thing kind of went away a couple hours later when we took another picture. 499 00:34:24,439 --> 00:34:27,233 The problem with that is that a couple hours later... 500 00:34:27,316 --> 00:34:31,028 the Viking orbiter was nowhere near Cydonia, and it was dark. 501 00:34:31,112 --> 00:34:33,656 So there's no way that picture could have ever existed. 502 00:34:35,616 --> 00:34:40,788 [Narrator] Some believe they found not only a human face carved into martian rock... 503 00:34:40,872 --> 00:34:44,333 but also a pyramid, a cliff. 504 00:34:44,417 --> 00:34:50,047 In fact, an entire city buried by thousands of years of sand and soil. 505 00:34:51,466 --> 00:34:53,134 By the late 1980s... 506 00:34:53,217 --> 00:34:56,429 one researcher had even discovered what he thought... 507 00:34:56,512 --> 00:35:00,975 were mathematical relationships among the features of Cydonia. 508 00:35:01,058 --> 00:35:03,770 A cartographer and satellite imagery expert... 509 00:35:03,853 --> 00:35:06,355 from the Defense Mapping Agency named Erol Torun... 510 00:35:06,439 --> 00:35:09,776 took a look at the pyramid and concluded that it was what he called... 511 00:35:09,859 --> 00:35:12,820 the Rosetta stone of Mars. 512 00:35:12,904 --> 00:35:15,156 He found a bunch of mathematical relationships... 513 00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:19,660 that pointed to other objects in the area that he thought were artificial-looking. 514 00:35:19,744 --> 00:35:21,996 They included the face, an object called the cliff... 515 00:35:22,079 --> 00:35:24,624 which is a straight line that goes on for hundreds of meters... 516 00:35:24,707 --> 00:35:26,918 a rounded mound called the tholos... 517 00:35:27,001 --> 00:35:29,420 which appears to have a pathway that goes up to the top. 518 00:35:30,922 --> 00:35:33,716 [Narrator] More than 20 years after the Viking mission... 519 00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:38,137 NASA rephotographed the Cydonia region in 1998... 520 00:35:38,221 --> 00:35:40,890 and again in 2001. 521 00:35:41,974 --> 00:35:45,311 The face no longer looked human... 522 00:35:45,394 --> 00:35:47,271 but some scientists believe... 523 00:35:47,355 --> 00:35:52,318 that was because of when and how NASA took the newer pictures. 524 00:35:52,401 --> 00:35:54,320 [ Brandenburg ] They shot it from the side. 525 00:35:54,403 --> 00:35:56,155 They shot it at morning. 526 00:35:56,239 --> 00:36:00,326 It was as much a different viewing geometry and lighting geometry... 527 00:36:00,409 --> 00:36:03,412 as possible from the original pictures. 528 00:36:04,705 --> 00:36:07,500 Based on that evidence, the face on Mars... 529 00:36:07,583 --> 00:36:10,837 evidence of past climate on Mars... 530 00:36:10,920 --> 00:36:12,588 a past ocean... 531 00:36:12,672 --> 00:36:16,676 I have concluded that Mars was apparently the home... 532 00:36:16,759 --> 00:36:18,553 of a civilization in the past. 533 00:36:20,429 --> 00:36:23,224 [Narrator] Is it possible that an alien civilization... 534 00:36:23,307 --> 00:36:26,811 existed on Mars in the distant past... 535 00:36:26,894 --> 00:36:31,065 and built the structures that recent martian probes have photographed? 536 00:36:33,609 --> 00:36:36,821 If so, does the government know more than it's telling us... 537 00:36:36,904 --> 00:36:40,032 about life and death on the Red Planet? 538 00:36:49,125 --> 00:36:53,754 [Narrator] Washington, D.C., August 7, 1996. 539 00:36:54,589 --> 00:36:56,924 On the South Lawn of the White House... 540 00:36:57,008 --> 00:37:00,261 30 years after NASA announced the Viking mission... 541 00:37:00,344 --> 00:37:03,306 had not found evidence of life on Mars... 542 00:37:03,389 --> 00:37:07,018 President Bill Clinton held an historic press conference... 543 00:37:07,101 --> 00:37:09,729 to announce some momentous news- 544 00:37:10,479 --> 00:37:15,109 microbial life may exist on the Red Planet after all. 545 00:37:16,193 --> 00:37:18,779 Scientists had found what they believed... 546 00:37:18,863 --> 00:37:21,908 to be fossilized remains on a martian meteorite... 547 00:37:21,991 --> 00:37:25,328 that crashed to Earth 12, 000 years ago. 548 00:37:28,331 --> 00:37:31,375 It must be confirmed by other scientists... 549 00:37:31,459 --> 00:37:36,923 but clearly the fact that something of this magnitude is being explored... 550 00:37:37,006 --> 00:37:40,968 is another vindication of America's space program... 551 00:37:41,052 --> 00:37:45,348 and our continuing support for it, even in these tough financial times. 552 00:37:45,431 --> 00:37:49,602 [ Frisbee ] There was enormous excitement over this discovery. 553 00:37:49,685 --> 00:37:53,439 Based on the chemical composition of the meteorite... 554 00:37:53,522 --> 00:37:56,108 we could tell that it was from Mars. 555 00:37:57,026 --> 00:38:01,113 Inside the rock, researchers found different chemicals... 556 00:38:01,197 --> 00:38:05,993 and, in particular, different physical shapes of objects... 557 00:38:06,077 --> 00:38:11,707 that looked extremely similar to microorganisms here on Earth. 558 00:38:14,418 --> 00:38:17,588 [Narrator] Soon after the president's press conference... 559 00:38:17,672 --> 00:38:20,633 scientists began to backpedal... 560 00:38:20,716 --> 00:38:24,720 on whether the meteorite actually showed signs of life. 561 00:38:24,804 --> 00:38:28,808 They said the original team of experts may have been wrong. 562 00:38:28,891 --> 00:38:34,814 The image certainly looks like some kind of a microorganism... 563 00:38:34,897 --> 00:38:40,528 but the opponents said the microorganism remains are too small... 564 00:38:40,611 --> 00:38:43,531 to have D.N.A. to be inside it. 565 00:38:43,614 --> 00:38:47,159 And therefore, it can't be a fossil. 566 00:38:49,912 --> 00:38:54,542 Since then, microorganisms have been found that small... 567 00:38:54,625 --> 00:38:56,502 which have D.N.A. in them. 568 00:38:58,337 --> 00:39:00,923 But it has not been resolved. 569 00:39:03,759 --> 00:39:06,762 [Narrator] But given the controversy surrounding the possibility... 570 00:39:06,846 --> 00:39:10,016 that life may have been discovered on Mars... 571 00:39:10,099 --> 00:39:13,352 starting with the Viking mission of the 1970s... 572 00:39:13,436 --> 00:39:15,938 and continuing to the present day- 573 00:39:16,022 --> 00:39:17,523 [Man On Radio] Liftoff. 574 00:39:17,606 --> 00:39:22,737 Some scientists say NASA almost seems to be avoiding the issue. 575 00:39:24,405 --> 00:39:28,492 The space agency has never retried Gil Levin's test... 576 00:39:28,576 --> 00:39:31,120 for signs of life on the Red Planet. 577 00:39:34,915 --> 00:39:38,127 It is very puzzling as to why... 578 00:39:38,210 --> 00:39:43,340 NASA has refused to send life-detection experiments back to Mars. 579 00:39:45,092 --> 00:39:49,096 My experiment discovered the most remarkable thing... 580 00:39:49,180 --> 00:39:51,307 yet known about Mars. 581 00:39:51,390 --> 00:39:54,560 That there is something highly reactive in the soil- 582 00:39:54,643 --> 00:39:56,937 chemical or biological. 583 00:39:57,021 --> 00:40:00,066 But we really should find out what it is. 584 00:40:00,149 --> 00:40:05,404 It is startling that NASA has made no attempt... 585 00:40:05,488 --> 00:40:08,157 to determine that issue. 586 00:40:11,035 --> 00:40:16,082 I truly think NASA knows there is life on Mars... 587 00:40:16,165 --> 00:40:19,418 but for some reason unbeknownst to me... 588 00:40:19,502 --> 00:40:22,922 it does not want that information out. 589 00:40:29,762 --> 00:40:33,808 [Narrator] Has NASA found definitive signs of life on Mars... 590 00:40:33,891 --> 00:40:36,685 that they're intentionally keeping from the public? 591 00:40:37,645 --> 00:40:40,147 And if so, have they found evidence... 592 00:40:40,231 --> 00:40:44,110 that an advanced civilization once lived on the Red Planet? 593 00:40:44,944 --> 00:40:48,572 Some ancient astronaut theorists believe they have... 594 00:40:48,656 --> 00:40:53,702 and as evidence, point to a report commissioned by NASA in 1960... 595 00:40:56,872 --> 00:40:59,959 that offers advice for how to reveal the news... 596 00:41:00,042 --> 00:41:05,881 if the American space program should ever find proof of extraterrestrial life. 597 00:41:07,883 --> 00:41:11,178 [ BARA ] The so-called Brookings Report essentially said... 598 00:41:11,262 --> 00:41:14,140 that in your travels throughout the solar system... 599 00:41:14,223 --> 00:41:18,102 there is a distinct possibility that you will discover artifacts... 600 00:41:18,185 --> 00:41:22,481 that you will actually discover evidence of an ancient alien presence... 601 00:41:22,565 --> 00:41:26,485 on Venus, on the moon or on Mars. 602 00:41:26,569 --> 00:41:30,656 And the implications of such an announcement, if it were made... 603 00:41:30,739 --> 00:41:34,743 would be potentially devastating to the human race. 604 00:41:34,827 --> 00:41:36,328 It could be catastrophic. 605 00:41:36,412 --> 00:41:38,414 In fact, it used the word "disintegrate." 606 00:41:40,416 --> 00:41:42,394 [ BAUVAL ] I would imagine that it would be something... 607 00:41:42,418 --> 00:41:44,170 that would be kept secret for a while. 608 00:41:45,838 --> 00:41:50,092 I don't think it's a bunch of men sitting in a room and smoking cigarettes... 609 00:41:50,176 --> 00:41:52,136 and saying, "We're gonna keep this secret." 610 00:41:52,219 --> 00:41:54,263 But it is a responsibility. 611 00:41:54,346 --> 00:41:57,391 And I think that they would certainly be very, very careful... 612 00:41:57,474 --> 00:41:59,602 as to how to let out this knowledge. 613 00:42:07,151 --> 00:42:11,071 [Narrator] Is it possible that not just microbial life... 614 00:42:11,155 --> 00:42:16,827 but also intelligent beings once called the Red Planet their home? 615 00:42:16,911 --> 00:42:19,163 And if so, what would that mean... 616 00:42:19,246 --> 00:42:23,083 for the existence of life elsewhere in the cosmos? 617 00:42:25,211 --> 00:42:27,171 If life used to exist on Mars... 618 00:42:27,254 --> 00:42:29,965 particularly if it formed independently of Earth life... 619 00:42:32,134 --> 00:42:34,762 life in the universe is all over the place. 620 00:42:37,473 --> 00:42:42,561 That means that of the billions of planets discovered now... 621 00:42:44,146 --> 00:42:47,233 similar to Earth through our universe... 622 00:42:47,316 --> 00:42:50,236 many of them would have life on them. 623 00:42:52,154 --> 00:42:57,326 And if there is life different from life on Earth that has evolved... 624 00:42:57,409 --> 00:43:01,080 there would be every reason to suspect such evolution... 625 00:43:01,163 --> 00:43:05,000 would have gone on on countless other earths... 626 00:43:05,084 --> 00:43:08,504 and that there would be intelligent life out there as well. 627 00:43:12,132 --> 00:43:13,884 We want there to be life on Mars. 628 00:43:13,968 --> 00:43:16,595 We want there to be life somewhere beyond here. 629 00:43:16,679 --> 00:43:20,432 We want that transcendent connection to the heavens. 630 00:43:20,516 --> 00:43:25,271 We don't want it to be invaders, but we don't want to be alone in the universe. 631 00:43:29,858 --> 00:43:31,860 [Narrator] Are tales of life on Mars... 632 00:43:31,944 --> 00:43:34,113 found in cultures across the world... 633 00:43:34,196 --> 00:43:36,407 simply mythology? 634 00:43:39,159 --> 00:43:43,497 Or might Martians really have visited Earth in the distant past... 635 00:43:43,580 --> 00:43:46,542 as ancient astronaut theorists suggest? 636 00:43:47,376 --> 00:43:52,756 If so, could there be evidence waiting to be discovered on the Red Planet? 637 00:43:54,049 --> 00:43:56,302 Perhaps with further missions to Mars... 638 00:43:56,385 --> 00:44:01,807 we'll find that not only was it home to alien beings thousands of years ago... 639 00:44:02,558 --> 00:44:04,935 but it still is... 640 00:44:05,019 --> 00:44:06,729 today.