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WILLIAM SHATNER: You know,
I've been around for a while.

Met some interesting people,
done some crazy things.

So you just might think
that there's not much that

can take me by surprise.

You'd be wrong.

[♪]

The world is full of
stories and science and

things that amaze and
confound me every single day,

incredible mysteries
that keep me awake at night.

Some I can answer.

Others just defy logic.

[♪]

NARRATOR: Are
aliens among us?

In Colorado, a farmer
makes a gruesome discovery.

A cow is mutilated
by technology

beyond human comprehension.

MIKE DURAN: My first
thought was uh they're back.

NARRATOR: Did aliens
commit this ghastly crime?

Across the world,
thousands of people are

being dragged from their beds
in the middle of the night.

Are they being abducted
by extraterrestrials?

JIM SPARKS: There was nothing
normal about these beings.

NARRATOR: And in the USA,
an astronomer makes

a remarkable discovery -

a cryptic message
from outer space.

Could this be the first
scientific evidence

of alien contact?

WILLIAM SHATNER: Yeah,
it's a weird world.

And I love it.

[♪]

WILLIAM SHATNER:
Aliens exist.

And what's more, they not only
aim to take over our planet,

they're already here -

and they're breeding with us.

Do you think I'm crazy?

Well, maybe but
think twice.

More than fifteen million
Americans claim they've

seen a UFO and let's face
it, most of us believe

that aliens are
somewhere out there.

But now, all over
the planet weird,

unexplainable and
sometimes horrific events

are telling us
something else.

They're not only
right here,

they're up to no good.

Weird - or what?

NARRATOR: The San Luis
Valley is a beautiful

corner of Colorado and
home to hundreds of cattle

ranchers just
like Mike Duran.

MIKE DURAN: I grew up
in the area here,

lived here all my life.

NARRATOR: But on March
8th, 2009, Mike's perfect world

was shattered when one of
his prized cows went missing.

MIKE DURAN: The last time we
saw her was Friday for sure.

Sunday when I came to
feed, I noticed her little

baby was by itself.

NARRATOR: It's not unusual
for cows to get separated from

the herd, but farmers must
find these valuable animals

- and fast.

MIKE DURAN: So I went
around the property

looking for her and I did
not find her so I went on

a ridge and on the ridge
I could see the whole

property very, very good.

NARRATOR: Finally, Mike
finds what he's looking for -

but it's
not good news.

MIKE DURAN: I figure well
she came down and she just

fell and she just died.

I thought to myself well,
she's been a good cow.

NARRATOR: But on closer
inspection, Mike makes

a horrifying discovery.

MIKE DURAN: And that's
when I noticed that her

udders had been removed.

And then I looked and also
noticed that the female

organ around the vaginal
area had also been cut out

and it's weird because
there's no blood around,

there are no tracks.

NARRATOR: It appears
Mike's cow has been

brutally mutilated.

But remarkably, this senseless
crime isn't the only one.

[♪]

REPORTER (ARCHIVE): In the
dead of night someone or

something crept onto the
Martins' property and

removed the sex organs and
other parts from a

seven hundred pound steer.

GARTH LAM (ARCHIVE): I don't
see anything on this side.

REPORTER (ARCHIVE):
Garth Lam had never seen

anything like it.

GARTH LAM (ARCHIVE): It appears
to be something very sharp.

NARRATOR: During the last
century, cattle mutilation

has been reported
all over the world.

The incidents are all
chillingly similar.

The animal's sexual
organs, tongue, eyes and

ears are often missing.

Its blood has been drained
and there is no evidence

to identify the attacker.

Mike believes he knows
what is responsible for

these vicious mutilations.

MIKE DURAN: The cuts are
something that uh you

cannot just make with
a knife or anything.

It looks like it's cut and
cauterized at the same

time, like a laser cut.

My first uh thought
was uh they're back.

I believe that it's not
something from this world.

People may think I'm
crazy, but I think it's

likely that it's something
extraterrestrial or aliens.

WILLIAM SHATNER: It's
horrific, isn't it?

Innocent cows, farmers'
friends, sliced and

seemingly dissected,
mutilated beyond

recognition by something
and besides - what a waste

of delicious steak.

Can we simply blame aliens
every time something weird

like this happens?

Why should they
take the rap?

But if aliens aren't
beating up our beloved

bovines, who or what is?

NARRATOR: Arkansas State
Police officers

Sergeant Rick O'Kelley and
Sergeant Doug Fogley are

cow mutilation experts.

They personally
investigated nearly forty

identical cases in
Washington County in 1979.

RICK O'KELLEY: We
started having a rash of

mysterious deaths of
livestock and our job is

to determine whether
a crime has occurred.

DOUG FOGLEY: I got to
review most of the cases

in Arkansas, look at their
photographs and go to

a few scenes.

There were a
lot of theories.

A lot of people crawled
out of the woodwork.

NARRATOR: But this was a
crime they had never seen

the likes of before.

They decided to use detective
work to try and solve it.

RICK O'KELLEY: Sheriff
Herb Marshall come into my

office and outlined an
experiment he wanted to do

to determine, you know,
what might be causing

these cattle mutilations.

NARRATOR: Using
surveillance cameras to

study sick and dying cows from
the moment of their death,

they hoped the experiment
would reveal how

injuries in the mutilated
animals might occur.

RICK O'KELLEY: What we
were seeing within just

a couple hours, these
animals would start to

bloat from the gasses
inside and that would

force all their
organs on the outside.

The eye that was turned
up, that was exposed to

the air, it was
missing, it was gone.

The tongue was missing and
the sexual organs of the

animal, they were,
they were all gone.

NARRATOR: But could
escaping gasses account

for other classic
signs of mutilation?

Could they produce the
precise laser-like cuts

Mike Duran found
on his dead cow?

RICK O'KELLEY: There was a
lot of talk about surgical

incisions and things like that
but this was all done by flies.

The flies would lay the
eggs in the carcass and

within just a very short
period of time,

they'd hatch out into maggots
and these things would,

they're great surgeons.

I mean they, they took
care of it very quickly.

We were able to produce
that in our experiment.

DOUG FOGLEY: There's no
difference in the classic

mutilation photos and the photos
taken by Washington County.

RICK O'KELLEY: I'm
absolutely positively

convinced that our
experiment proved it

beyond a shadow
of a doubt.

NARRATOR: It's a
compelling experiment,

but questions remain.

What killed seemingly
healthy animals in the

first place?

And what about
the lack of blood?

NARRATOR: Christopher
O'Brien is an

investigative journalist.

He's been independently
researching livestock

mutilations since 1992.

CHRISTOPHER O'BRIEN: I
find it very hard to

believe that aliens are
coming light-years to

harvest parts for
lip-and-eye stew or

udder soufflé, or for
whatever reason.

Somebody somewhere knows
what is behind these

perpetrators' agenda.

NARRATOR: Chris believes the
answer is far more sinister.

CHRISTOPHER O'BRIEN:
We have 350 reports,

very good documented reports,
of helicopter activity

in and around cattle
mutilation sites and since

then we've had about
a hundred more.

They are monitoring what I
think is a scourge in the

food chain, which is
known as Mad Cow disease.

NARRATOR: Mad Cow is a
highly infectious and

deadly disease that can
spread from cows to humans

with horrific results.

When it's discovered
in livestock,

all hell breaks loose.

CHRISTOPHER O'BRIEN:
Because of the pervasive

spread of this disease in
England, six million head

of livestock were
slaughtered.

NARRATOR: Chris believes
this deadly disease and

the cattle mutilations
are linked.

CHRISTOPHER O'BRIEN: The
first outbreak in '67

occurred right when the
first publicized cattle

mutilation case occurred.

Now I find it interesting
that Mad Cow disease

should break out in, in the
environment and then we have

uh these unusual livestock
death cases commencing.

And if we do have Mad Cow
loose in the food chain,

it stands to reason
that there's some

quasi-military, possibly a
government group, that's

going around lifting these
cattle from the pasture,

doing environmental
monitoring to find out how

pervasive this is sweeping
through cattle herds.

NARRATOR: Covert
government choppers

dragging cows away to be
tested for Mad Cow disease?

It might explain why there
were no footprints at the

scene, but does it tell us why
their organs were removed?

CHRISTOPHER O'BRIEN: The
soft tissue organs that

are most commonly removed
in, during these cattle

mutilation experiments are
the organs that humans

develop cancer
in most often.

I think that there's
a connection there.

NARRATOR: It's a
remarkable claim,

but why keep it secret?

CHRISTOPHER O'BRIEN: If
the government ever let

word out that they were
doing this and that the

food chain had been
compromised, you can just

imagine what the panic
would be in the red meat

eating public.

And that's not
gonna happen.

WILLIAM SHATNER: So
let's think about this.

What have we
learned so far?

Horrific cattle
mutilations are taking

place all over the planet.

These mysterious and
unthinkable crimes have so

far been blamed on
choppers kidnapping

mystified animals in the
middle of the night - part

of a mad mad cow
conspiracy and if you

think that's hard to
follow, others believe the

culprits for these heinous
crimes are, are flies.

Maybe the idea that these
were encounters with

aliens isn't so crazy.

Have I killed an alien?

[♪]

NARRATOR: Worldwide,
cattle are being

mysteriously mutilated.

Is ET responsible?

PHILIP HOYLE: The evidence
that we have is that alien

intelligences are actually
sampling the environment

through the removal of
tissue and glands of

animals on a global scale.

NARRATOR: Philip Hoyle is
the director of the

Animal Pathology Research
Unit in the UK.

He believes that not
only are aliens guilty,

they are more advanced
than we can imagine.

PHILIP HOYLE: Some of the
weirdest stories we hear

from farmers that actually
have these mutilations is

they see spheres of light
and within those lights

what clearly can only be
described as UFOs and they

operate completely differently
and unconventionally

to any helicopters
or any known aircraft.

We have some evidence
that the perpetrators are

actually taking the
animals from the farms,

are using special what we
call transference beams.

These beams are an
anti-gravity beam and as

soon as the animal is
placed in the beam they

are taken onboard the
craft where the animals are

obviously dissected and then
placed back onto the ground.

NARRATOR: Transference
beams might account for the

lack of evidence surrounding
the cows on the ground.

But does Hoyle have an answer
for the precision surgery?

Yes.

PHILIP HOYLE: Some of the
actual injuries that we've

investigated, the
technology that's been

used is quite frightening
because some of the actual

injuries would indicate
the tissue has been

unzipped, totally
different to when a

scalpel would be used.

So it's obviously far in
advance of anything we

have at the moment
on planet Earth.

NARRATOR: Philip Hoyle is
not only convinced he's right,

he thinks the other
theories are crazy.

PHILIP HOYLE: If maggots
have caused these injuries

what happens um when an
animal's found within

minutes or hours of the
last time it's been seen?

What's responsible
for that? Super maggot?

NARRATOR: So if aliens are
abducting and mutilating

our innocent, beloved cows,
what do they want with them?

PHILIP HOYLE: I think
there is a number of alien

intelligences with a
vested interest in planet

Earth and humanity and
they are monitoring the

food chain and the
environment through the

sampling of genetic
materials and tissues

taken from animals.

So I think that they're
not hostile and they've

really got our interests
at heart because if they

didn't we wouldn't
be here today.

NARRATOR: In the end,
we are left with more

questions than answers.

Are cows being mutilated
as part of a government

conspiracy?

Are their injuries the
result of natural causes?

Or are aliens plotting
to take over the planet?

CHRISTOPHER O'BRIEN:
This is a true mystery.

This is weird,
people. This is weird.

NARRATOR: Or what?

[♪]

WILLIAM SHATNER: You
know, I love my sleep.

I sleep like a baby.

In fact, there's nothing
that can wake me up save for,

well, never mind.

But across the world, for
hundreds, indeed thousands

of people, sleep is
a living nightmare.

These chosen ones are
being woken up in the

middle of the night,
dragged from their beds

and taken to ...
somewhere ... strange.

Where are
they going?

And who?

[Screams]

No, no, not
there, not there!

Oh please not there!

NARRATOR: Jim Sparks is a
very down-to-earth kind of guy.

JIM SPARKS: I've always
been considered to be an

honest, logical,
straightforward person.

NARRATOR: But in 1969, he
experienced a string of

events that would threaten
his hold on reality.

JIM SPARKS: I kept having
the same reoccurring dream

where some things were
coming into my bedroom,

escorting me out of my
bed, uh through the

hallway and across the
yard into the woods.

NARRATOR: At first, Jim
tries to dismiss the

dreams as nothing out
of the ordinary,

but they soon turn into
something far more sinister.

JIM SPARKS: I would be
asleep and I would be

instantly paralyzed and I
would hear this uh loud uh

whipping, whirling sound
inside my head and then you

feel a sense of acceleration
and it scared me to death.

So you scream inside your
head: I don't want to die.

I don't want to die.
And then you black out.

NARRATOR: When Jim
eventually wakes up,

he can't believe where he is.

JIM SPARKS: I was in this
room um and light was

emanating from everywhere
but nowhere specifically.

Try to imagine yourself,
this average person,

finding yourself in a
room, not knowing where

the heck you are and
why you're even there.

NARRATOR: But the one
thing Jim does know

is he's not alone.

JIM SPARKS:
Everything was weird.

There was nothing normal
about these beings.

JIM SPARKS: They did a
variety of experiments.

There were mental
experiments, physical

experiments, uh
medical experiments.

It was horrifying.
It was scary.

Uh I didn't know
what was going on.

I had no clue that
they were aliens.

All I was doing was
yelling and screaming is:

Where am I?
Where am I? Why am I here?

Who's doing this to me?

NARRATOR: Suddenly, Jim is
no longer an ordinary man.

He now has an
extraordinary claim.

JIM SPARKS: I've been
abducted many dozens and

dozens and dozens of times
in the, over the

last twenty-three years.

I understand that there's
going to be doubters

but this is real.

NARRATOR: After a series
of bizarre events,

a man claims he is being
removed from his bed at night

and experimented on by aliens.

Could this be true?

NARRATOR: Susan Clancy is a
Harvard psychology researcher.

She believes alien abductions
are easily explained.

SUSAN CLANCY: Could it be
aliens came into your room

and took you or touched
you or performed sexual

experiments?

It could be, but it's far
more likely that it's an

episode of sleep
paralysis.

NARRATOR: Sleep paralysis
is a little known medical

condition that affects
one in five Americans.

SUSAN CLANCY: Sleep
paralysis is one of the

weirdest things that can
happen when you're sleeping.

NARRATOR: During sleep,
neurotransmitters in the

brain send out signals
that shut down major

muscles and prevents us
from acting out our dreams.

SUSAN CLANCY: So
essentially you're

paralyzed when you're
sleeping, which is very good.

Otherwise, you'd be
thrashing around and

beating up your partner,
etcetera, etcetera.

NARRATOR: But this
self-defense mechanism can

backfire when your brain
wakes up before your body.

This behaviour has been
shown in clinical trials.

SUSAN CLANCY: When you
experience sleep paralysis

and you wake up, you're
still experiencing the

paralysis that accompanies
sleep so it really is this

limbo state where your
two sleep cycles,

sleep and awake, have
temporarily overlapped.

It is a terrifying
experience.

NARRATOR: In this bizarre
limbo state, terrifying

images from the dream
world can take over.

SUSAN CLANCY: You can feel that
there's something in the room.

You open your mouth to
scream but you can't

because you can't move.

If these are people that
are familiar with movies

about alien abduction or
have read books about

alien abduction, many of
them will think wow,

is it possible that I
was abducted by aliens?

They're searching
for meaning.

That's perfectly natural.

NARRATOR: Are thousands
of people who claim to be

abducted by aliens simply
victims of sleep paralysis?

Or can these bizarre stories
be explained by something else?

Neuroscientist Dr. Michael
Persinger believes he has

solved the mystery with a
remarkable invention known

as the God Helmet.

MICHAEL PERSINGER: The
helmet has little devices

that generate
magnetic fields.

They are pulsed through
the brain at very weak

intensities, very much
like putting your face in

front of a
computer screen.

NARRATOR: The God Helmet
was designed to discover why

our brains are so receptive
to religious experiences.

But during a series of
experiments in 2005,

Persinger discovered
it produced something

unexpected - and weird.

MICHAEL PERSINGER: You
said you felt the presence

of something.

GIRL: Yeah there's like
other things around me.

MICHAEL PERSINGER: I would
say the vast majority say

it's an alien thing of
something, it's not theirs.

NARRATOR: These volunteers
claimed they were seeing

alien entities in the room.

Persinger believes these
visions were produced when

electricity from the God
Helmet stimulated the

temporal lobes on one
side of the brain.

MICHAEL PERSINGER: So
here's a human brain,

it's shrunk a bit
because it's been fixed.

But you can see that
you'll have a, a left side

and a right, two
hemispheres.

It's only when we stimulated
the right hemisphere

that people started
to report these entities.

NARRATOR: So what is it
about the right side of

our brains that can
create life like aliens?

WILLIAM SHATNER: Let's
see if I can explain.

The left and right
sides of our brains are

noticeably different.

If I asked the left side
of my brain, who am I,

it would answer with words
smart, charming, handsome,

all those obvious things.

But if I ask the right
side of my brain, who am I,

it couldn't answer.

You see, the right
hemisphere doesn't

understand language.

It only recognizes and
stores shapes and images.

Fair enough, but what's
this got to do with aliens?

NARRATOR: Many of the
images stored in the right

hemisphere of the brain
represent ourselves.

Persinger believes
stimulating this area

causes them to be
projected, seemingly

outside of the
body, as aliens.

MICHAEL PERSINGER: When
you're aware of it,

it feels like an alien
type of sense of self and

it could be described
depending upon the culture,

everything from an incubus
or a succubus to a,

an angel to a demon,
to even in terms of

contemporary context,
in our space oriented

society, an alien.

NARRATOR: But there's
just one problem.

People like Jim Sparks
weren't sleeping with

brain-bending helmets
on their heads.

So how did they
see aliens?

MICHAEL PERSINGER: Some
people are more prone to

it than others.

These individuals pick
up all kinds of small

alterations in the
environment and what

triggers it can be
something as minor as

simply a single neuron.

NARRATOR: Are alien
abductions simply a trick

of the mind?

Or could they be true?

One man believes we
should be very afraid.

DAVID JACOBS: I fear for
my kids and everybody

else's kids.

NARRATOR: Thousands of
people worldwide claim

they're being
abducted by aliens.

Is this simply a sleep disorder
or a trick of the mind?

Temple University
professor David Jacobs

has spent his life
studying alien abductions.

He's come to an
incredible conclusion.

DAVID JACOBS: I was
not a great believer in

abductions when I began
this work and now the

evidence has persuaded me
that alien abductions are real.

NARRATOR: Over three
decades, Jacobs' research

has stacked up numbers
which are impossible to ignore.

DAVID JACOBS: I have
looked at approximately

eleven hundred different
abduction events.

People are abducted with
their families, they are

abducted with strangers,
they're abducted in groups.

People can verify each
other's abductions.

NARRATOR: Should we
believe the claims of

thousands of victims of
alien abduction and,

if so, why is ET
coming to earth?

DAVID JACOBS: You know,
lots of people believe

that this is a benevolent
phenomenon, that these are

loving, caring light beams
who are concerned with

our wellbeing.

NARRATOR: But Jacobs
believes the aliens have

a much more
sinister purpose.

DAVID JACOBS: People
have unusual experiences

related to UFOs and they
can't remember what

happened to them.

There might be a two,
three, four hour missing

time period that they
cannot, they can't account

for and nobody else around
them can account for it either.

NARRATOR: Are aliens
erasing the memory of

their victims? Why?

Jacobs believes he can
find the answer using hypnosis.

SARAH: I feel I'm
sliding out of the bed.

DAVID JACOBS: Are you
alone at this time?

SARAH: No. I feel like
there's something around me,

beings, and they're on either
side of me. I'm scared.

SARAH: When I'm under
hypnosis, I remember being

examined, some sort of
medical exam or some sort

of medical procedure.

DAVID JACOBS: All
abductees say the same thing.

They are required to lie
on a table and when they

do that a series of
physical, reproductive and

mental uh procedures are
performed upon them.

If it's a man,
sperm is taken.

NARRATOR: Why would aliens
perform these brutal acts?

When Jacobs digs deep, he
uncovers something bizarre.

SARAH: There was one
experience I can remember

um with um a small baby.

I don't know what
you would call it.

The baby that I was holding
was very pale coloured,

seemed very weak to me and
didn't have a lot of hair.

DAVID JACOBS: They all
describe unusual looking

babies or children who
look sort of like a cross

between alien and human.

There was a spectrum.

Some looked more human and
others looked more alien.

NARRATOR: Jacobs believes
there can only be one answer.

Aliens are breeding
with humans.

DAVID JACOBS: Why are all
sorts of people describing this?

We think that this is an
integration program

into the society.

It's adding up to the
exploitation of one

species over another.

I fear for my kids and
everybody else's kids.

I fear for the, for the
generations coming up.

I, I don't think that
they're gonna be leading

the lives that they think
they're going to be leading.

NARRATOR: Are aliens
abducting innocent people

in order to create a
breeding program and take

over the planet?

Are they walking
amongst us?

Whatever the answer, this story
is definitely weird or what?

[♪]

NARRATOR: August 1977.

A mega telescope records
what could be the most

important broadcast
in history.

[beeping]

Could this be the first proof
of contact with alien life?

Weird or what?

WILLIAM SHATNER: If we're
to believe that not only

do aliens exist but
they're here and breeding

half-human,
half-alien children.

Most sane, normal people
are going to want

something more concrete
than some theories by uh,

sorry, nut jobs.

We're looking for
something a little more

substantial like
scientific proof, right?

Well here it is.

NARRATOR: In
1977, Jerry Ehman was

a university professor
with a unique hobby:

hunting for alien life.

JERRY EHMAN: I was
actually a volunteer at

the Ohio State University
radio observatory.

NARRATOR: Jerry's job was
to study data from a

giant telescope called
the Big Ear.

Acting like a giant radio
antenna, Big Ear hoped to

receive a message
from outer space.

But finding a needle in a
cosmic haystack wasn't easy.

JERRY EHMAN: I had been
looking at the printouts

for many months but seeing
nothing significant.

NARRATOR: After years of
little more than radio silence,

at 10:16 pm on
August 15th, 1977,

the Big Ear suddenly
came to life.

For the next 72 seconds,
it would pump out

a message that could
ultimately change the world.

JERRY EHMAN: I looked at
the computer output and

just within two or three
pages I saw the signal.

This was so unusual.

NARRATOR: Normally,
printouts from the Big Ear

contained a few ones and
twos, representing weak

signals from the lifeless
vacuum of space, but what

Jerry saw could only
be described as weird.

JERRY EHMAN: I saw 6EQUJ5,
a sequence of numbers and

letters representing a
signal that was rising,

reaching a peak and
then falling off.

I called the director of
the radio observatory.

We decided to start
looking up known sources

of radio waves - planets,
satellites, anything we

could think of.

Nothing matched,
not a thing.

So I circled it and
wrote the word wow.

Since we couldn't identify
it with anything else,

we just started calling
it the Wow signal.

WILLIAM SHATNER: A 72
second message sent to

earth from someone or
something deep in outer space?

Jerry's right - wow!

Is this what we've
been waiting for?

Is the wow signal the
first indisputable

scientific proof that
we are not alone?

If so, who sent it
and what did it say?

But, but, but, but let's
think about this for a minute.

If you were an alien
making contact with earth,

wouldn't you like to make
more of a grand entrance -

like they do
in the movies?

Why bother with
something low tech?

DAVID GRINSPOON: You
wouldn't put a record on a

spacecraft and send it out
in some random direction

at a relatively
slow speed.

Uh, you know, if you
really want to talk to the

neighbours on other star
systems you send a signal

at the speed of light.

NARRATOR: Dr. David
Grinspoon is an astrobiologist.

He believes the Wow signal
is something we should be

very excited about.

DAVID GRINSPOON: It seems
quite possible to me that

the Wow signal really is
a communication from an

extraterrestrial
intelligence.

NARRATOR: Did ET
really call us?

And what is it about the
Wow signal that makes

Grinspoon so sure?

DAVID GRINSPOON: It's a
narrowband signal, which

means all of that energy is
in one little radio frequency.

It's not spread out.

You go a little bit on the
dial one direction or

the other and there's
nothing there.

NARRATOR: Naturally
occurring radio waves

travel across space in a
wide range of frequencies.

Narrowband signals are
concentrated into one channel,

which lets them
travel vast distances.

But if the Wow signal
really is a message from

an advanced alien
civilization, where are they?

DAVID GRINSPOON: Well
we, we know what direction

it came from.

It came from um a uh
point in the sky in the

constellation Sagittarius.

NARRATOR: Sagittarius is a
group of stars we can see

from the earth
on summer nights.

If Grinspoon is right, it
could mean the Wow signal

came from somewhere close
within our own galaxy.

DAVID GRINSPOON: We're
now discovering all these

planets around other stars
so we know enough to know

that there are, are
billions of planets out

there in the galaxy.

There's gotta be life out
there and probably lots of it.

NARRATOR: Remarkably,
there's even more mystery

surrounding this
amazing event.

If an alien race did
send us a radio beam,

they only did it once.

JERRY EHMAN: We were
hoping that the signal

would repeat itself, so we
covered that strip of sky

close to a hundred times
and didn't see anything again.

NARRATOR: An American
radio telescope intercepts

a powerful and mysterious
radio wave from deep

in outer space.

Scientists call
it the Wow signal.

Could this be the first
scientific evidence

of alien contact?

Astronomer Dan Werthimer
has analyzed the Wow signal.

He thinks he
has the answer.

DAN WERTHIMER: It's an
interesting signal and

I'm very proud of
what these guys did.

They were pioneers
early on in the 70s but

I don't think they found ET.

NARRATOR: But if Jerry
Ehman didn't find proof

of extraterrestrial life,
what exactly did he find?

DAN WERTHIMER: A radio
telescope is very sensitive.

So anything passing over
the beam of the telescope

we can detect but it's
also unfortunately

sensitive to signals that
can come in from the side.

Radio pollution comes from
people with cell phones,

television transmitters,
radar, airplanes.

NARRATOR: Every second,
human technology produces

billions of radio waves.

On a radio telescope, most
of them are seen as random

energy, but the Wow signal
was a concentrated signal

over 72 seconds long.

Could anything man-made
produce something similar?

The answer is yes.

DAN WERTHIMER: And that
kind of thing can come

from a satellite
passing over the dish.

As it gets nearer to the
dish, it gets stronger.

As it goes right over the
dish, it's very strong and

then as it moves away from
the dish, it gets weaker.

We have a hundred of these
things that look very

similar to the Wow signal
but they're not ET.

NARRATOR: Did Jerry Ehman
mistake a satellite for

a message from aliens?

It's certainly a plausible
explanation but there's

just one big problem.

JERRY EHMAN: We
investigated, you know,

all known satellites and
none were in the area

at the time of our
observation.

NARRATOR: Could they
have missed something?

Could there have been a secret
military satellite in the area?

JERRY EHMAN: A satellite
closer in, three,

four hundred miles off the
earth's surface would have

moved so rapidly we
wouldn't have got the beam

shape that we observed.

WILLIAM SHATNER: So if
it's not a satellite,

if it's not some guy on
a cell phone or a

bad seventies rerun and if
it's not a broadcast from

aliens, what else could
possibly produce a signal

that makes us go wow?

NARRATOR: Caleb Scharf is
an astronomer who peers

into the deepest
regions of space.

He has seen things that
make him believe neither

man nor alien made
the Wow signal.

CALEB SCHARF: There's
a lot of weird stuff

happening in the universe.

The universe may look
quiet when you're standing

outside on a, on a
peaceful night but the

truth is, there are
phenomena in the universe

that are explosive,
violent and changing all

the time and sometimes we
see that energy as bursts

of radio emission, even
bursts of x-ray light.

NARRATOR: The space
weirdos Caleb refers to

are things like neutron
stars, the leftover cores

of once great stars, and
supernovas - the explosive

results of when even
bigger stars die.

But one of the weirdest
are black holes.

CALEB SCHARF: We think
that black holes form when

a really massive star
burns through all its fuel

and can no longer support
itself against

the force of gravity.

Its own weight crushes it.

The truth is, as material
drops into a black hole

and gets shredded by the
intense gravitational field,

it releases energy back
out into the universe.

And that energy can be
in the form of x-rays,

of light and of radio waves.

It's as if, after the black
hole has a meal, it burps.

And that burp can be heard
across the universe.

WILLIAM SHATNER: So the
Wow signal, the thing that

we thought might be the
first message from an

advanced intergalactic
civilization in one of the

greatest moments of human
history is just a

black hole belching after
gulping down a nebula too fast?

Is this guy for real?

And does it explain the
biggest mystery of all -

why we only heard
the Wow signal once?

I'm not sure it does.

[Burps] Excuse me.

CALEB SCHARF: There are
many phenomena out there

that may only happen once
in a human lifetime.

So imagine you're in a
big stadium and there are

20,000 people around you
and they all have cameras

with flashes.

You'll see a flash and
you'll try to locate it.

The problem is, it's
almost impossible to know

exactly who used their
camera at that moment

and the Wow signal is
kind of like that.

NARRATOR: Could the
Wow signal be made by

something so strange
science hasn't even

discovered it yet?

It may be the best
explanation yet.

But many believe this mystery
isn't solved so easily.

DAVID GRINSPOON: This
could be some natural

phenomena that we uh we
don't know about but people

have tried to sort of match
it up with natural phenomena

we do know about and
it just it doesn't work.

It doesn't have the
right characteristics.

NARRATOR: So if the Wow
signal wasn't something

natural, what was it?

Did we just get lucky and
catch an alien conversation?

And if we did, it raises
one last compelling question -

what were
they saying?

DAVID GRINSPOON: I think
of it as what I imagine

is a ship-to-ship
communication.

It almost seems
accidental, like maybe

we were eavesdropping
on something because

it's there and then
it's not there.

It's uh it's sort of haunting
that it's still out there.

The Wow signal now is, you
know, however many light

years away from earth still
traveling through space.

It's a beacon that's
saying hey, this is not

completely fruitless,
this search.

Keep, keep looking.

There are things
out here to find.

NARRATOR: In the end, we
are left with a mystery.

Is the Wow signal just
some freaky radio

transmission from earth?

Was it the bizarre
burp of a black hole?

Or could it be the first
real proof of alien life?

Whatever the truth, it's
definitely weird or what?

[♪]

NARRATOR: So there we have
it, strange and mysterious

stories of encounters
with aliens.

In Colorado, a farmer
discovers a cow

mysteriously mutilated
by unknown forces.

In Texas, a man is taken
from his bed night after night,

abducted and
experimented on by beings

he cannot comprehend.

And in Ohio, an astronomer
receives a cryptic message

from outer space.

Are these bizarre stories
evidence of human

encounters with aliens?

Can we dismiss thousands
of eyewitnesses who claim

they're true?

You decide.

WILLIAM SHATNER: Join me
next time for more stories

that will undoubtedly
be weird or what?

[♪]

[♪]

[♪]