All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S06E04.Aliens.of.the.Infinity.War.WEB.x264-CAFFEiNE_(SUBRIP-AR-CLEAN)_PT

Narrator: They're watching you.

More than 4,000 satellites
circle the earth.

Every day, they uncover
new mysterious phenomena

that defy explanation.

The atomic tomb...

It looks like there's something
hidden underneath.

Vaughn:
This is one big gravestone.

Narrator: ...From the heavens,
unleashing hell.

You could get killed, and
your buddies could get killed.

Narrator: And did it come
from outer space?

That's not just a symbol.
That's a message.

Narrator: Baffling phenomena,
mysteries from space,

what on earth are they?

-- captions by vitac --
www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by
discovery communications

September 9, 2015 --
when an eye in the sky

passes over the rocky mountains
of southwestern colorado,

it captures a large
black-and-white shape

amid remote peaks.

It looks almost like
one big parking lot

in the middle of nowhere
with no structures around it,

no sign of settlement,
no sign of human life.

It looks like a big capital
letter "a" is imprinted

into the earth.

Narrator: Spectral analysis
suggests the massive object

is made from rock or concrete.

It's built up a little bit,
maybe like a mound.

Maybe we're looking at
the top of something,

and there's something
hidden underneath.

Narrator: Further investigation
uncovers a puzzling detail.

Several tracks abruptly end

on approach
to the mystery structure.

Maybe the roads
aren't dead-ending at it,

but the roads are going into it,
and it's an underground complex.

The u.S. Military
certainly has those.

Narrator: Former intelligence
officer trevor albertson

reveals that
if this is a military facility,

it's not the only one
hidden under the rockies.

Cheyenne mountain is built
inside a mountain, literally.

It's about a 4-acre facility.

It's the holy grail

of u.S. Defense
command and control.

This is where all air defense
in the united states

and canada
is coordinated from.

Narrator: The subterranean
cheyenne mountain complex

becomes operational
in February 1967,

tasked with identifying and
tracking attacks on the u.S.

Today, the site houses several
clandestine government agencies.

Potential hostile assaults
are neutralized

by 25-ton blast doors

that can withstand
a 30-megaton nuclear explosion.

Albertson:
It's got its own lake for water.

The floors ride on giant springs
in the case of a nuclear attack

to help deaden
the impact of shaking.

It's quite an amazing facility.

It's possible that this is an
underground military facility,

not unlike cheyenne mountain
or, perhaps,

even an annex
of cheyenne mountain.

vaughn: Satellite images are not
going to solve this mystery,

so I'm driving there to see
if I can find some clues.

Narrator: Scientist don vaughn
has discovered

that the site doesn't appear on
any official military records.

He wants to know why

and is heading to
the rockies to investigate.

As he ventures deeper
into the mountains,

he's struck by
the area's suitability

for clandestine activity.

Vaughn:
I am in the middle of nowhere.

It's completely uncharted.

All I'm seeing over here
is some brush, trees, rocks.

narrator:
Vaughn's gps sends him off-road
towards the mystery site.

I don't know how
I feel about turning off

onto a pretty much unnamed road
in the middle of nowhere.

"danger. Keep out."
I got to be honest.

My heart is beating
a little faster.

It's just -- there's something
unnerving about this place.

narrator: The condition
of the road suggests

that whatever is up here,
it's no longer in use.

There's a 200-foot drop
and no guardrails,

and this road hasn't been
maintained in decades.

this is it!

This is what I saw in the image.

narrator:
The mystery structure is not
what vaughn was expecting.

I thought it was concrete,
but it's bunch of rocks.

Seems to be some kind
of volcanic basalt rock.

Why would someone put tons of
rocks in the middle of nowhere

and surround it
with barbwire fence?

Narrator: The massive
fenced-off mound of rocks

covers an area
of 700,000 square feet

and appears to be
several feet thick.

vaughn:
Something has been buried here.

It's the only explanation for
an industrial-scale rock field.

Why would anyone bury
something here?

narrator: As vaughn explores
the perimeter of the site,

he finds a shocking clue to what
lies buried behind the barbwire.

is this
a radioactive-waste dump?

Narrator:
Records reveal that the last
official major radioactive leak

in the u.S.
Was almost two decades ago

and over 1,300 miles
away in ohio,

yet whatever lies
buried here is huge

and appears to have been
covered up in recent years.

Vaughn:
Why would you dump something
here in the middle of colorado?

It doesn't make any sense.

Narrator:
Even buried under this mound,

radioactive materials could pose
a serious threat.

vaughn retreats.

Heading west, he finds a town...

And stops to question locals
about the eerie site.

What vaughn hears
seems incredible.

The site in the image is
an entire town entombed in rock.

And she knows the history
of this place?

She knows everything
that --

he learns a former resident
lives nearby...

Yeah, okay, okay.

Yeah,
we could do that.

vaughn:
This is just incredibly bizarre.

Maybe she'll be able to tell me,

why would an entire set
of buildings disappear

and a huge concrete structure
appear in their place?

narrator:
Coming up, what lies beneath?

Vaughn:
This is one big gravestone.

Narrator:
And a message from the past
rises from the earth.

The pattern that was found
in this field was binary code.

narrator: High in colorado's
rocky mountains,

a satellite image
has lead scientist

don vaughn to a town buried

and barricaded with signs
warning of radiation.

he's tracking down
a former resident...

I think this is it.

...Who he hopes can shed
some light on the mystery.

-Well, hey there!
-Hi! How are you?

-I'm good! You must be marie.
-I am.

Marie templeton reveals
that the town buried

under the rubble
is called uravan.

She and her family moved there
around 70 years ago,

lured by the promise of work
in the local mine.

My husband was a miner,
and my father was a miner,

and you get mining in the blood,
and it just doesn't go away.

The miners extract a mineral
from the rockies

called carnotite,

but after several years
working with the ore,

marie's father falls sick.

He had cancer.

They did a bunch of tests

and said there wasn't nothing
they could do for him, you know?

"go home.
Get ready to die."

marie's loss provides
the first clue

to the fate of the buried town
in the image.

The carnotite ore
contains radium,

a radioactive element
that glows in the dark,

but the first miners
at uravan are unaware

that they're effectively
digging their own graves.

When my family was mining,
you bought a jackhammer,

some dynamite
and some fuse.

You got a lease from somebody
and went and mined.

Lester:
It wasn't understood that radium

could be damaging
to your health.

It wasn't recognized as a cancer
producer in the early 1900s.

It was simply a magical element.

Narrator: People used
the lethal radium produced

from the uravan ores
in toothpaste,

drinking water, jewelry,
and other everyday products.

They put this stuff
on the numbers in the clocks.

Mm-hmm.

And the clocks glowed
in the dark.

Yet vaughn learned
that it's the discovery

of another mineral
in the carnotite

that leads to uravan
being buried under this mound.

During world war ii,
scientists find uranium oxide,

known as yellowcake, in the ore,

and the us military
takes control of the mine.

They produced yellowcake that
was then ultimately refined down

to become weapons-grade
fissile material.

Narrator: Uravan becomes
a feeder mine

to the manhattan project,
the top-secret program

to develop nuclear bombs
during the war.

The uranium dug out
by marie's father

helps create some
of the first atomic weapons.

Do you think your dad
and husband

knew what the uranium
was being used for?

I don't think
any of them.

They just knew
it was very, very important

to the war effort.

Morgan:
The word uranium was banned
from the official reports,

and so the people
working at uravan were unaware

that that's what
they were doing.

Narrator:
On August 6 and 9, 1945,

american planes dropped
two nuclear bombs

over hiroshima and nagasaki,

killing 110,000 people
and ushering the war to a close,

yet the japanese aren't
the only victims of uranium

from the buried town.

My dad was the first one
that they absolutely pinned

that to uranium mining.

I was losing my beloved dad
when he wasn't really even old,

you know?

Hundreds of uravan miners
subsequently developed cancer.

Despite this, many choose
to continue working day in,

day out
with the radioactive rock.

So everyone knew that uranium
could cause health problems?

Yeah.

Well, and, you know,
everybody knows you might get

run over by a tractor,
but people don't stop farming.

The women the dying miners
leave behind

are known
as the uravan widows,

yet marie isn't convinced
the uranium posed a threat

to the rest of the townsfolk.

My husband had some real
high-grade samples of uranium

that were in our living room
for 40 years.

Your husband had
uranium samples in the house?

Yeah,
and I'm 89 years old!

Vaughn learns that what sounds
the death knell for the town

isn't the sky-high cancer rates

but an accident
1,700 miles away.

In 1979, a leak at three mile
island nuclear power plant

in pennsylvania exposes
2 million americans

to radiation.

Marie reveals
that in the aftermath,

the government turns
its attention to uravan.

Officials decide
not only to shut down the mine

but also raze the entire town
to the ground.

They called us up one night
and said,

"if you want to see
your buildings burn,

be down here at 8:00
in the morning."

that was very emotional,
very emotional.

Marie templeton's incinerated
hometown is encased in concrete

and covered with
thousands of tons of rock

visible from space.

They didn't have to take
all those houses out

and destroy them.

I'm still mad about it.

today, while nagasaki
and hiroshima have been rebuilt,

has been erased from history.

Vaughn: I would be devastated
if my entire childhood

were buried under thousands
of tons of concrete and rocks.

This is one big gravestone.

It's like uravan never existed.

narrator: Coming up --
et answers the phone.

Major: If this is a reply
from an alien civilization

that received our message,

this is probably
the biggest news, ever.

Narrator:
And pimp my ride to jail.

Kourounis: Because they are
so many super and hypercars,

you need a police force
that can catch the speeders.

Narrator: April 26, 2008 --

aerial images taken
over the county

of hampshire, southern England,

reveal an unusual pattern
in the landscape.

I see a crazy shape
in the middle of the field.

It looks like
an infinity symbol.

Kourounis: From the ground,
you wouldn't be able to tell

that these markings are there.

It makes me think, perhaps,

these were intentionally
put there to be seen from above.

Narrator: Local news reports
reveal this isn't the first time

something weird
has appeared here.

During the night
of August 19, 2001,

this pattern materializes
in the same field.

Kourounis:
The pattern that was found
in this field was binary code.

That's not just a symbol
or a pattern.

That's a message.

Narrator: Space journalist
jason major recognizes

the message.

In 1974, the arecibo observatory
in puerto rico beams

an almost exact copy
of it into space.

The arecibo message was designed

by astronomers frank drake
and carl sagan.

Their attempt was to send
a message to a star system

that potentially could
have inhabitants.

Narrator: The arecibo encoded
radio message contains

a detailed explanation
of life on our planet,

the human race,
our dna and directions to earth.

Major: It's kind of like
a message in a bottle.

Write the note.

You stick it in there, put the
cork in and throw it out.

Narrator:
27 years after astronomers

beamed the message
into deep space,

an apparent copy appears
in this field,

but it has
one crucial difference.

In our outgoing message, it said
that we were made of carbon.

The reply was identical,
except it said that,

"we are made of silicon."

major: The identification of
silicon is significant

because we're always talking
about life as we know it,

which is carbon-based life,

but there potentially could be
other life in the universe

that's based off of
other elements like silica.

Narrator: Many suspect
the so-called message is a hoax,

yet the appearance of a second
weird shape in the same field

may be more than a coincidence.

Could this new pattern
in the field

be some other coded message?

Narrator: When amanda marchetti
turns to digitalglobe's

securewatch technology,
she discovers the strange symbol

has not come from the heavens
but from underground.

Marchetti: As I look at this
image using our infrared bands,

I can actually see
how the plants forming

the infinity symbol
are being influenced

by something beneath
the earth's surface.

Morgan: These things look like
they're here on purpose

and may be the vestiges

of some structures
that were buried over.

Narrator: British land registry
records offer a clue.

This wasn't always
open farming fields.

During the second world war,

this was
a functional aerodrome--

raf chilbolton.

Narrator: The records confirm
the royal air force's facility

in chilbolton
becomes operational in 1940.

It's a date that corresponds
with one of the most important

battles of world war ii --
the battle of britain.

The battle of britain is
so critical to understanding

the way that the
second world war develops.

Adolf hitler set his sights
on an invasion of England.

The first stage in the german
attempt to invade britain

was for the german air force,
luftwaffe,

to knock out
the british air force.

Narrator:
On July 10, 1940,

british fighters engaged
70 nazi planes

attacking a ship convoy
in the english channel.

The first battle in history

fought exclusively
in the air commences.

Anchorman:
Very impressive and threatening,
their look in the air,

bombing a ship,
but when you see them like this,

they're not quite as formidable.

What then begins in 1940
and continues all the way

into may 1941
is this day-by-day at first

and then night-by-night
after that air battle.

narrator: The luftwaffe have
more experienced pilots

and four times as many planes.

For the british to succeed,
they must quickly target

and intercept the waves
of german aircraft.

experts think the mystery
pattern is one of the tactics

the british developed
to avoid defeat.

Janulis: What these
figure eights represent

are a special type of runway.

Narrator:
The so-called spectacle loop

allows multiple hurricane
and spitfire fighter planes

to simultaneously
prepare to engage the enemy.

These figure eights
allowed the airplanes

preparing to take off
to change direction

and get into different
lanes for takeoff

and landing without being
in the way of other aircraft.

Narrator: With help from
the spectacle loop design,

it takes the fighters
just 6 minutes to take off,

climb to 15,000 feet
and engage incoming nazi planes.

Janulis:
The key was efficiency.

Get as many planes up as quickly
as you can because any plane

that's on the ground
is potentially a dead plane.

narrator: After 112 days
and nights of intense fighting,

the british prevail, yet victory
comes at a huge cost.

More than 500 pilots
from air bases

such as chilbolton
never return home.

Pilots who flew
from this airfield

contributed to that victory,

making it possible,
creating the circumstance

whereby the luftwaffe
ultimately abdicates

and surrenders
the skies to the raf.

Narrator: In 1961, chilbolton
is officially shut down,

but the shadow
of its pivotal role

in the greatest air battle
in history

remains visible from the skies.

coming up, is this the world's
weirdest racetrack?

There are millions of dollars
being spent on the racetracks

and the races themselves.

Narrator: And aerial armageddon
in the desert maze.

You're disoriented.
You can't see out of it.

You can get killed.

Narrator: July 28, 2016 --
a satellite passing

over the united arab emirates
in the middle east spots

a distinctive pattern.

It's two perfectly symmetrical
teardrop shapes,

one inside the other
in the middle of the desert.

Narrator: Scale analysis reveals
these oval etchings cover

about a square mile.

Kourounis:
This thing is massive!

Clearly made intentionally
by man, but why?

Narrator:
Closer study of the features
reveals a detail on the surface.

When I analyze this image
a bit more closely,

I'm immediately drawn
to these arrows.

It's strange
because for every teardrop,

they're all pointing
the same direction,

which makes me think
this is a racetrack,

but who's racing
around here and why?

Narrator: A look at the roads
in these parts offers a clue.

Thinks to the uae's
90,000 millionaires,

this small country
is supercar central.

One of the ways that
the super-rich in the uae love

to spend their money is on cars.

We are talking some of the most
ridiculous supercars imaginable.

Ferraris, lamborghinis,

aston martin, bugattis,
gold-plated porsches.

Narrator:
Yet any fast-and-furious drivers

on the streets of the capital,
dubai, are in for a surprise.

The cops have a 1,000-horsepower
trick up their sleeves --

super cop cars.

The police force
have aston martins,

bugattis and bentleys
of their own.

Narrator:
The uae's pimped-up police cars
have pushed entrepreneurs

to open up private raceways
across the country.

Could this be a track
for some of the most

extravagant cars on earth?

Yet others think
this racetrack is more

"driving miss daisy"
than "days of thunder."

sanford: The straightaway
on this teardrop

isn't long enough for a supercar
to get up to top speed.

It just wouldn't be worth it.

Narrator: Analysts consider
if this cluster of buildings

is significant.

Schuttler: If you look at
the bottom right of the image,

you see a building,
and it's very reminiscent of,

like, holding facilities
for animals.

Narrator:
The structures appear to open

onto a section of earth
between the tarmac strips.

I think I'm actually looking
at the wrong thing.

The lines that make up
the teardrop

may not be
what I should be cueing into.

It looks like there's something
being released onto the dirt

in between the two teardrops.

Narrator: Horse racing is big
business here.

The dubai world cup carries
a purse of $10 million,

yet the track in the image
is three times longer

than those
usually used in horse racing,

suggesting it's for animals
with a little more grit

but a little less grace.

Camel racing has been big here
for a very long time.

Maybe that's what happens
at this track.

Narrator:
Although as old as history,
camel racing has exploded

in popularity here
in the last few decades.

tens of thousands flocks
to the uae's 15 racetracks

to watch these
ungainly creatures

reaches speeds
of 40 miles per hour.

camel racing in the uae
is like horse racing

here in the united states.

You can compare it to something
like the kentucky derby.

There are millions of dollars
being spent on the racetracks,

the animals
and the races themselves.

Narrator: But behind the riches,
camel racing has a dark history.

Schuttler: To keep the weight
on the camel light,

you're going to need
a really light human,

so children were actually
used as jockeys,

and sometimes, these children

were even stolen
from other countries

and used against
their will in camel racing.

Narrator: Observers estimate
the uae traffickers

smuggled thousands
of child jockeys from asia,

some as young as 5.

Sanford: They didn't take care
of these kids.

They would give them the minimal
amount of food that they needed.

They wouldn't give them
any medical support if they fell

and broke their arms.

Narrator: In 2002, a law banning
the use of child jockeys

forces racing-camel owners
to get inventive.

The alternative to child jockeys
for camel racing,

believe it or not,
is actually robots.

They look like regular jockeys.
They're wearing silk jerseys.

They've got their colors.

Narrator: Locals fashion these
robo-jockeys from drill motors.

Owners remotely brandish whips
from the comfort of their cars

as they follow the camels
around the track

on the teardrop pattern
in the image.

Sanford: You have fleets of suvs
that are chasing the camels

with people inside with remote
controls flicking switches

to make those robots
hit the camels' bumps.

Narrator: There are more than
160 words in arabic for camel,

but only one for giddyup.

coming up --
when war games get real...

It's very dangerous, but it's
a key to survival in combat.

Narrator:
...And a country on fire.

If these fires can be seen
from space,

they must be blazing infernos.

July 21, 2013 --

eyes in the sky
over nevada capture

a striking image.

It's barren.
There's nothing going on there.

And then suddenly
in the center of it,

you've got these
rectangular blocks.

Major: This looks like
three lines of code.

They're oddly symmetrical.

Narrator:
The mystery feature covers
900,000 square feet of desert.

A search of the wider area
yields a clue.

This structure is located
only 60 miles

from tesla's new
giant gigactory.

This strange symbol
in the desert

doesn't look dissimilar
from one of tesla's projects,

the hornsdale power reserve
in australia.

Narrator: South australia's
hornsdale power reserve,

a 100-megawatt power plant,

consists of dozens
of storage units,

each containing thousands
of lithium-ion battery cells.

It's the brainchild
of billionaire elon musk.

It's actually
the world's largest battery.

Nelson: Elon musk is
pioneering technology

and is basically taking science
to the next level

and making it economically
viable for people

to utilize this cool tech.

Narrator:
Designed to tackle the region's

frequent life-threatening
power shortages,

it can fire up
and power 30,000 homes

with 1/2 a second's notice.

What's more,
the $50 million facility

is the result
of an audacious bet.

Talk about putting your money
where your mouth is.

Elon musk boasted on twitter
that if he could not build

this battery facility
in australia in 100 days,

it would be free,

and he pulled it off.

Narrator:
Yet further image analysis
suggests the desert feature

might not be
a musk mega-battery 2.0.

Looking at the satellite image,
we can see the structures,

but when I pull back
the satellite image

to see the map,
there's nothing here.

It's just plain white desert.

Whoever built these structures
is trying to hide it.

This is not a tesla construction
because elon musk probably would

have put this in the news by now

because he's constantly
all over pr.

Narrator: Military analysts
think this extreme remoteness

provides a clue.

The military has a long history
of using very isolated areas

in the southwest part
of the united states

to conduct secret tests,

classified programs,
things of that nature.

Narrator:
Carlo munoz thinks he recognizes

the regular structures.

Munoz:
I suspect that this structure
was made out of ship crates.

The us military uses ship crates
to do training facilities

all the time
because they're highly mobile.

You can just use a simple crane
to move them around.

Narrator:
The military uses shipping
containers as portable barracks,

offices and for storage,
but munoz reveals they also make

for the perfect diy metropolis
for urban war games.

Munoz: Fighting in the city
is a lot different

than fighting on a open plain
or anywhere else.

You have to be able to develop
certain skills

to move around these areas
and be able to survive.

Now, the way to learn
these things

are at facilities like this.

Narrator:
Like "sim city" for gun nuts,

military brass
arranges the containers

to replicate urban training
environments around the world,

from a fake fallujah
to a counterfeit kabul.

Munoz: You can basically make
them look like

whatever you want them
to look like.

It could be anything from
a mosque to a market

to an actual downtown area.

Narrator: This is the nevada
test and training range,

but grunts call it gotham city,

and you'd have to be
bat-crazy to live here.

On any given day, f-15s,
a-10 warthogs,

and apache helicopters

unleash an aerial apocalypse
during live-action exercises.

Albertson: And it's all done
in very tight quarters.

It's very dangerous, but it's
a key to survival in combat.

Narrator: On the ground, troops
rehearse rescue missions,

ambushes and assaults in
preparation for the real thing.

Albertson: You're disoriented.
You can't see out of it.

It's like a maze.

People could be
firing down on you,

from around corners as well,
out of windows and buildings.

It's a really confusing kind of
situation you're going to be in,

and it teaches you to keep
your eyes open all of the time.

Narrator: At night, the nevada
skies light up

with tracer rounds traveling
at 3,000 feet per second,

turning the containers
into colanders

and the local wildlife
into insomniacs.

In many ways, you learn
on facilities like this

like you would in a video game.

But you could get killed,

and your buddies
could get killed.

It's very real, and you learn
that out in these facilities

because being out in the
real world is no video game.

narrator: Coming up --
the unstoppable infernos.

They could destroy
everything in their path.

Narrator: July 12, 2017 --

satellites use visible
and infrared technology

to map fires
blazing across the globe.

As they pass over
northern ireland,

they capture this image.

Nelson: This image is alarming

because it indicates
an entire country on fire.

Kourounis: If these can be
spotted from space,

we're not talking
little campfires here.

These are significant blazes
and lots of them.

Narrator:
75% of northern ireland

is dedicated to farming.

Analysts consider
if this offers a clue.

Nelson:
Swailing is a term used to
describe the farming technique,

where you basically
burn off all the dead,

dying organic material,
and that promotes new growth.

It clears the land, creates a
type of fertilizer for the soil,

and even thougit's not
the most sustainable type

of farming, it does work.

Narrator: In northern ireland,

much of this wild-weed layer
is gorse,

a spiny shrub
with bright yellow flowers,

traditionally used
to color and flavor whiskey.

The wood's high oil content

burns at
2,000 degrees fahrenheit,

the same temperature
as charcoal.

While swailing can have
a lot of benefits,

it can also
be kind of dangerous.

Kourounis:
Gorse fires in northern ireland

can be like the forest fires
that you see in california.

Under the right conditions,

they can destroy
everything in their path.

Narrator:
According to news reports,

in the first half of 2017,

firefighters put out
almost 2,000 gorse fires.

80% are started deliberately.

So maybe what we're seeing here
are swailing fires

that have gotten
out of control.

Narrator:
Yet when analysts study the
precise location of the fires,

the mystery deepens.

These are concentrated primarily
in highly populated areas

like belfast,
probably not a wildfire.

Narrator: Historian guy walters
takes a closer look.

What's quite striking
about this image

is that you see these fires
only burning in northern ireland

but not in
the republic of ireland.

Narrator: Walters thinks the
date of the fires

is significant.

July the 12th is a big day
for the protestant community

in northern ireland.

It's the date in 1690
when king william of orange,

a protestant,
beats king james ii, a catholic.

Narrator: In 1690, the armies
of protestant william of orange

and catholic king james ii
square off

on opposite sides
of the river boyne near dublin.

It will be the last time
the kings of England and ireland

face each other
on the battlefield.

Walters:
Now, they have this enormous
battle, which william wins.

This battle causes problems
in ireland for centuries.

The majority of the population
are catholic,

yet they're ruled
by protestants.

Narrator:
William of orange takes

immediate advantage
of his victory,

turning ireland into
a revenue-generating machine.

Horton: The majority catholic
population came to be dominated

by a protestant governing class
living in grand houses

with great estate walls
around them,

exploiting and taxing
and creating massive rents

out of the poor irish.

Narrator: In 1916, following
centuries of exploitation,

ireland's catholic
population rebels.

450 people die,
and 2,000 are injured in a week

of fighting known
as the easter rising.

In 1922, ireland declares itself
a free state.

Horton: However,
there remained a problem

because up in
the northeast of ireland,

the area known as ulster,

the population
was largely protestant

and were very unwilling to join

what would be the largely
catholic island of ireland.

Narrator:
Ireland's six northern counties,

where the fires were captured
by satellite,

opt out of the free state,

choosing to remain
in the united kingdom.

You might think
that splitting a country

like that would be a quick fix,
but it really isn't.

You've still got catholics
living in the protestant north,

and protestants living
in the catholic south.

Narrator: Investigators discover
that northern irish protestants

commemorate the battle
of the boyne by parading

and lighting hundreds
of massive beacon fires.

Horton: So what you see
on that satellite imagery

is not just that event
on the 12th of July

but also a map of where
the protestant populations

are located in ireland.

Walters: Clearly, these marches
are inflammatory.

It's protestants celebrating
their victory over catholics.

It's basically a big "up yours"
to your next-door neighbor.

Narrator: Reports from 2018 show
violent clashes

across northern ireland
during the commemoration.

In belfast, masked men
torch hijacked cars,

and a pipe bomb
destroys a bus.

It's not just bonfires
that are burning that night.

The streets are in flames.

This is evidence from space
that the troubles

and the divisions
in northern ireland

are still very much there.