All language subtitles for Weird Or What S02E06 Freaks Of Nature 1080p WEB-DL DDP5 1 H 264-squalor_track3_[eng]

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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 we living
on a hostile planet?

In Newfoundland, a small
community is devastated by

a mysterious explosion.

DARRIN BICKFORD: It really
looked like a bomb had gone off.

NARRATOR: Was it a secret
weapon or a freak of nature?

On Lake Michigan, a yacht
vanishes into thin air.

KATHY DOORE: This is the
most extraordinary thing

I have ever, ever witnessed.

NARRATOR: Was it
swallowed by an evil fog?

And in the Indian Ocean,
two giant flashes of light

send a nation into panic.

JEFFREY RICHELSON:
Everybody knew for sure

this was something to be
very concerned about.

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

[♪]

[birds chirping]

WILLIAM SHATNER: Listen.
Nature. Isn't it wonderful?

You know, Mother Earth
- she's all we have.

Over six billion of us
occupy possibly the only

planet in the universe
that sustains life but yet

we take everything from her
and give very little back.

Is she getting mad at us?

Are killer tsunamis,
quakes and tornados the

earth's way of saying
enough is enough? Maybe.

But there's something else
going on with our planet -

freaks of nature that are
impossible to explain and

can strike you
out of the blue.

[birds chirping]

NARRATOR: Sunday,
April 2nd, 1978.

Twelve-year-old Darrin
Bickford was making his

way home on Bell Island,
a small community in

Newfoundland on the
east coast of Canada.

DARRIN BICKFORD: I was
outside riding my pedal bike

and I knew one of my
favourite shows came on

television at eleven so I
was pedaling back home.

NARRATOR: But Darrin
wouldn't get to watch TV

that morning.

Instead, he would witness
one of the world's

greatest unsolved
mysteries.

DARRIN BICKFORD: As I
approached the end of our

driveway, all the birds
stopped chirping, all the

dogs stopped barking,
it just went so still.

And then it was boom like
a shotgun blast, followed

immediately by another
boom and then followed

immediately after the
second boom the ground

shook underneath me.

It was the biggest noise
I have ever heard in my life.

NARRATOR: Suddenly,
something unbelievable appears

right in front of Darrin
- a glowing ball of light.

DARRIN BICKFORD: It was
hovering off the ground

when it appeared out of
thin air and the beautiful

colours of blue made up
most of the centre of the

ball and outside of the
blue, it was orange and

yellow mixing together.

And then just like that,
the ball of light just

disappeared into thin air.

It was all over in four or
five seconds, but those

four or five seconds are
burnt into my brain just

like a roll of film.

NARRATOR: The massive
explosion was heard over

sixty kilometers away.

Its impact wreaked havoc.

People reported exploding
TV sets, blue flames

shooting from electrical
outlets and a strange beam

of light coming
from the sky.

This bizarre event was
dubbed 'The Bell Island Boom.'

DARRIN BICKFORD: After
this happened, everyone

was in bewilderment.

NARRATOR: One house seemed
to catch the brunt of the boom.

It belonged to Darrin's
grandfather James Bickford.

[♪]

DARRIN BICKFORD: Fuses in
his fuse panel were glass

fuses that were screwed
into the panel.

These had come out like
bullets and went about

twenty-odd feet, the
length of their hallway

and buried theirselves
in the wall.

NARRATOR: Grandpa's
chicken coop is demolished

- the chickens inside
killed instantly.

DARRIN BICKFORD: It really
looked like a bomb had

gone off in his shed.

NARRATOR: It's a bizarre
scene, but even more

baffling are three large
holes blown into the ground.

DARRIN BICKFORD: It was
a cone shaped hole going

three or four feet down.

We didn't know
what it was.

NARRATOR: This weird and
mysterious incident soon

generates massive interest
around the world.

DARRIN BICKFORD: A lot of
people came, the media came.

The television news crew
had me describe to them

what I had seen.

DARRIN BICKFORD (ARCHIVE):
Myself I thought something

happened to the world or someone
dropping bombs or something.

WILLIAM SHATNER: Now this
is really weird or what?

A little kid is riding
his bike, minding his own

business when - boom!

His town is suddenly
smashed by some mysterious

explosion, turning fuses
into lethal weapons,

exploding TV - and what
about those poor chickens?

Awful!

What could have caused
something like that?

[zap]

Was that me?

NARRATOR: Jim Farrell was
a local fire investigator

and one of the
first to the scene.

After being asked to
investigate, he sends his

report to the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police.

The RCMP officially concludes
that it was lightning.

Farrell begs to differ.

JIM FARRELL: I said
I don't believe it's lightning.

I've never encountered
anything so great as this force.

NARRATOR: But Jim isn't
the only one who wants answers.

Soon, Darrin gets
a surprise visit.

DARRIN BICKFORD: There
were these strange men.

I was told they were
scientists from

Los Alamos, New Mexico.

NARRATOR: The Los Alamos
National Laboratory built

and tested the
first atomic bombs.

Could there be
a connection?

The men interview
everyone involved,

including Darrin and Jim.

JIM FARRELL: I told them
everything I knew and next

thing I was more or less
ordered to turn over my

exhibits to the gentlemen.

NARRATOR: The three
strangers leave without

giving any
concrete answers.

What were they
looking for?

What did Darrin Bickford
and the residents of

Bell Island witness?

And what could have
created the Bell Island boom?

Science journalist Brian
Dunning believes the

answer isn't so earth
shattering after all.

BRIAN DUNNING: There was
actually about six hundred

booms between starting in late
1977 going through mid 1978.

Nobody could really
localize exactly what was

happening but it was,
it was heard from South

Carolina all the way
up through Canada.

NARRATOR: Could the Bell
Island boom be part of

a bigger phenomenon?

What could be responsible
for this rash of strange booms?

BRIAN DUNNING: What
started happening in

December of 1977 is that
the Concorde was flying over.

It was making its
supersonic flights between

New York and Europe, and
that created sonic booms

coming over the land.

NARRATOR: When planes fly
through the air they make

waves, just like a
boat in the water.

The faster you fly, the
closer the waves build up

at the tip of
the airplane.

And when a plane actually
goes faster than the sound

waves can move, they pile
up into one big sonic

shock wave that can cause
damage to the areas on

land below it.

Could the Bell Island boom
just have been the effect of

a sonic boom from the world's
first supersonic passenger jet?

BRIAN DUNNING: Because it
was a sonic aircraft and

made a big sonic boom, it was
supposed to go way out to sea.

However, on hot days,
because of fuel expansion

issues, it would have to
take a short cut route

and it would go over
Nova Scotia.

For all the six hundred
mystery booms that we

heard, most of them were
correlated with sonic

booms from the Concorde
and other aircraft.

NARRATOR: Could the
world's fastest passenger

jet have caused the
tomb on Bell Island?

Or was it something
far more deadly?

KARL STEPHAN: It may be
something that science

doesn't know about yet.

NARRATOR: A small
Newfoundland community is

thrown into chaos by an
earth-shattering boom.

Was it caused by a
supersonic airliner?

Karl Stephan is a
professor of engineering.

His theory is
very - electric.

KARL STEPHAN: What I've
read of the Bell Island

boom sounds consistent
with a super lightning bolt.

NARRATOR: Super lightning
bolts are extremely rare

but freakishly powerful
bolts of lightning.

KARL STEPHAN: Most lightning
has a negative charge.

However, about ten percent
or less of lightning bolts

are positively charged.

The current is about ten
times what your typical

lightning bolt would have.

So it would make a
much louder boom.

NARRATOR: Superbolts
almost always occur in the

upper atmosphere
over oceans.

Very rarely do
they hit land.

But do they explain the
weird things seen that day

on Bell Island, like glass
fuses acting like bullets?

KARL STEPHAN: Strange
things happen when very

large currents flow
through wires that aren't

designed to carry them.

Tremendous forces are set
up, magnetic forces that

can cause ordinary objects
to fly like projectiles.

NARRATOR: Okay, but what
about the poor chickens

that were roasted
in their coop?

KARL STEPHAN:
Chickens are susceptible

to being electrocuted.

What can happen with any
kind of animal that are in

a place where lightning
hits the ground is the

current running along the
ground can actually run up

through the legs and through
the body and kill the animal.

NARRATOR: Stephan's
superbolt theory seems to

help answer some of the
mysterious incidents on

Bell Island, but does it
explain the weird glowing

ball of light witnessed
by Darrin Bickford?

Stephan believes the
answer lies in an

incredibly rare
natural phenomena.

KARL STEPHAN: The ball of
light hovering sounds

a whole lot like
ball lightning.

Ball lightning is
sometimes seen to form

right after a lightning
strike and it either

disappears silently
or it can explode.

We suspect that it is an
electrical phenomenon.

It may be something that
science doesn't know about yet.

NARRATOR: Did lightning
make fuses explode and act

like bullets?

Did it roast
those chickens?

Questions persist.

If scientists don't even
know what ball lightning is,

how can they think that
that's what Darrin saw?

If it was a superbolt, why
did high-level personnel

from a top-secret lab
show up to investigate?

And finally, what caused
the three craters at

James Bickford's place?

Lee Tizzard is an
electromagnetic weapons

researcher.

He thinks Mother
Nature shouldn't take

the rap for this one.

LEE TIZZARD: I believe the
evidence indicates that it

was caused by something manmade
and not something by nature.

It was uh an accident.

NARRATOR: But what could cause
an accident on this scale?

What kind of accident
blows holes in islands?

LEE TIZZARD: During that
timeframe the Russians

were pounding North
America with a very

powerful and disruptive
signal called the

Woodpecker Signal.

NARRATOR: The Woodpecker
Signal was a radio signal

used by the Soviets in the
1970s to provide early

warning of an enemy
weapons launch.

By bouncing radio waves
off the earth's upper

atmosphere, the
ionosphere, they could

analyze the returning
waves for disruptions

indicating a
missile attack.

LEE TIZZARD: It was a
ten hertz signal,

ten vibrations per second
and it sounded like this,

it sounded like
[imitates noise]

and just extremely
powerful.

NARRATOR: According to
Tizzard, the Woodpecker

Signal was a
ticking time bomb.

He believes its use
accidentally created

a column of electromagnetic
energy, known as

a standing columnar wave,
over North America.

Despite being invisible to
the eye, this huge energy

field had the potential
to be disastrous.

LEE TIZZARD: I believe
that the standing columnar

wave that was established
collapsed and when the

standing columnar wave
collapses, it creates

these vortices of
electromagnetic energy

that have to dissipate.

It sent down three spinning
vortices of electromagnetic

energy and that's what
we believe struck,

explaining
the three holes.

NARRATOR: Did a Russian
radio signal create an

electromagnetic column
over North America, which

accidentally collapsed?

If so, why did it happen
on a remote island off

the coast of Canada?

And does it explain the
glowing ball of light?

LEE TIZZARD: It's believed
that the standing columnar

wave that was created by the
Woodpecker Signal was attracted

to Bell Island because
of the iron ore content.

It was a former
iron ore mine.

NARRATOR: Did the
iron-rich Bell Island act

as a giant magnet for
a massive burst of

electromagnetic energy
caused by the Soviets?

Or was it struck by a
superbolt with a side dish

of ball lightning?

Whatever the truth, Darrin
Bickford and the other

survivors of the Bell
Island boom may never know.

Weird or what?

[♪]

NARRATOR: A mysterious, deadly
fog haunts Lake Michigan,

swallowing ships and planes
and bending time.

Is this a true
freak of nature?

Is it weird or what?

GPS: In three
metres, turn right.

WILLIAM SHATNER: You know,
modern technology is amazing,

isn't it?

GPS: Turn right.

SHATNER: I mean with
nothing but this tiny

gadget I can navigate to
within an inch of wherever

I want to go. Look.

GPS: Prepare to turn left.

SHATNER: [laughs]

GPS: Turn left. Go
straight ahead.

SHATNER: [laughs] It
even talks to you.

What a, what a nice lady.

And it's so accurate.

GPS: Turn right.

Turn right. Turn right.

WILLIAM SHATNER: I can't
turn right you stupid thing.

There's a wall here.

GPS: Go straight ahead.
Go straight ahead.

Calculating route.

WILLIAM SHATNER: But have
you ever felt yourself

disoriented like you're
lost in the woods?

Well I am.

GPS: Go straight ahead.

WILLIAM SHATNER: No!

GPS: Calculating route...

WILLIAM SHATNER: It's not
a pleasant experience,

I can assure you.

NARRATOR: The Great Lakes
of North America hold

a fifth of the
world's freshwater.

They're also one of the
most popular areas for

sailing in the world.

But on a summer night
nearly two decades ago,

Kathy Doore discovered
these gentle waters aren't

quite what they seem.

KATHY DOORE: The events of
that night challenged

my conventional
view of reality.

NARRATOR: It's a warm July
evening when Kathy sets

off for a leisurely sail.

KATHY DOORE: Clear
sky, light chop.

It was beautiful out.
And it was hot.

NARRATOR: Just around
nightfall, her calm journey

is upended by something
mysterious and alarming.

KATHY DOORE: Very abruptly
we encountered fog,

a very strange fog.

It just descended on us.
Poof - just like that.

NARRATOR: In minutes, the
fog engulfs the boat.

KATHY DOORE: We feared
that we might have a crash.

At that point I became
very, very, very cold.

In fact, I was freezing.

NARRATOR: Blinded and
cold, Kathy and her yacht

have seemingly
disappeared into a void.

KATHY DOORE: The boat began
a strange aquatic dance.

It began to turn, almost
as if it were pirouetting

on its axis.

There was no movement of the
sea, this was not a whirlpool.

I looked at the captain
and I said who's steering

the vessel?

And he said nobody.
It's steering itself!

NARRATOR: Amazingly, the
vessel does three complete

360-degree turns.

Then as quickly at it appeared,
the fog suddenly vanishes.

They regain control of the
boat and head for home but

when Kathy looks at
her watch she makes a

startling discovery.

KATHY DOORE: I've gone
over this a hundred times.

We should have been back by ten
pm and it was after midnight.

We cannot account
for two hours.

I don't know what
happened to that time.

NARRATOR: Kathy's
pleasure cruise had

somehow become a nightmare.

KATHY DOORE: I just
remember thinking this is

the most extraordinary thing
I have ever, ever witnessed.

NARRATOR: What happened
to Kathy and her yacht?

Remarkably, her experience
isn't the only weird event

to occur on Lake Michigan.

Numerous unexplained
mysteries have occurred

here: passenger airplanes
vanishing without a trace,

legends of ghost ships
appearing out of nowhere

and thousands of
UFO sightings.

Could the mysterious fog
Kathy encountered be

linked to these
strange events?

Was it a natural phenomenon,
or something unknown?

Pilot Bruce Gernon
believes he has the answer.

BRUCE GERNON: When I first
heard Kathy's story,

I immediately realized that
she had experienced what

I call electronic fog.

NARRATOR: Bruce believes
that sometimes different

magnetic fields from the
earth collide in powerful

freak thunderstorms over
remote bodies of water

such as Lake Michigan.

The result is a metallic,
highly charged fog.

BRUCE GERNON: It's been
known to actually chase

vessels and try
to capture them.

NARRATOR: Once formed,
the electronic fog is

magnetically attracted to
metal objects like ships

and airplanes, wrecking
havoc on their

navigational controls
and displaying other

incredible properties.

BRUCE GERNON: It has an
electromagnetic energy

within it that can become
so powerful that it can

affect the fabric
of time itself.

NARRATOR: Time
warping fog?

An interesting notion, but
is there any science that

can back it up?

BRUCE GERNON: NASA has
just recently announced

that they have discovered
something new in certain

types of thunderstorms and
it appears at the top of

the storm - emitting
antimatter.

NARRATOR: Created by
massive lightning within a

storm, antimatter produces
10,000 times more power

than nuclear energy.

Some scientists speculate
that this sort of power

could open doors to new
dimensions of time and space.

BRUCE GERNON: And this is
a critical discovery that

relates to the
electronic fog.

NARRATOR: Incredibly,
Gernon says that he knows

what it's like to
be enveloped by the

electronic fog.

He claims one of them
captured his plane over

the Bermuda Triangle and
that he traveled 300 miles

in only ten minutes.

BRUCE GERNON: And that
would be impossible to do

in a small
plane like this.

You'd have to be going
close to two thousand

miles an hour.

NARRATOR: Could a mystery
fog have sucked Kathy

Doore forward in time?

Do we need to rewrite
our science books?

DAVID CHILDRESS: This is
a very real phenomenon.

NARRATOR: A woman and her
yacht suddenly disappear

while sailing on
Lake Michigan.

Were they taken by a
freak of nature known as

electronic fog?

Dr. Donadrian Rice
doesn't think so.

DONADRIAN RICE: Human
beings are not always

reliable uh witnesses uh
to our own experiences.

NARRATOR: For him, the
explanation is far more

straightforward.

DONADRIAN RICE: I think
what the person was

experiencing was
sensory deprivation.

NARRATOR: When
our senses are deprived,

say with a blindfold, our
brains try to fill in the gaps,

often with strange results.

DONADRIAN RICE: Typically
they began to either

hallucinate visually,
they could have auditory

hallucinations or they
could have kinesthetic

hallucinations
with the body.

NARRATOR: Could a regular
fog cause Kathy Doore to

hallucinate and mistake
an ordinary event for

something fantastical?

Maybe, but how could it explain
those two missing hours?

DONADRIAN RICE: You're
having a great time at a

party or some place, you
know, time seems to go by

very quickly.

If you're sitting in a meeting,
[laughs] time goes very slowly.

And of course uh
objectively the clocks are

moving exactly the same
but that's not your

experience of it.

NARRATOR: Dr. Rice is so
convinced that sensory

deprivation is the culprit
he's offered to recreate

the weird events of an
electronic fog in his lab.

All he needs are
headphones, a set of

goggles and
ping-pong balls.

That's right,
ping-pong balls.

DONADRIAN RICE: The
experiment itself is one

where an individual is
deprived of visual uh

information by uh having
goggles with ping pong

balls cut out placed over
the eyes, which lets in a

little light, but
otherwise the person is

deprived and at the same
time we'll have them

listen to white
noise sound.

NARRATOR: The participants
are not told how long

their senses
will be deprived.

DR. RICE: Tell me a little bit
about what you experienced.

MAN: Uh I seen sort of
outlines of things, almost

like looking at clouds.

You see shapes in
them a little bit.

WOMAN: The darkness around
my eyes was growing as

though one was being
lowered into the ground,

a little bit unsettling.

NARRATOR: Dr. Rice has
proved that depriving the

senses affects perception.

But did they also
lose track of time?

[♪]

MAN: I was thinking
about five minutes.

I wouldn't have been
surprised if it was

actually two minutes.

NARRATOR: Incredibly,
the experiment lasted

for twenty minutes.

WOMAN: I don't know
where that time went.

WILLIAM SHATNER: Wow,
that's an incredible theory.

The fog caused a
severe case of sensory

deprivation, which made
Kathy hallucinate.

But you know what?

I'm sick of watching all
these wonderful experiments.

I want to try this
and see for myself.

Great.

Hello? Hello?

Okay, here we go.

Just wait, wait a minute.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

I'm definitely
seeing something.

I think Dr. Rice might
be really onto something here.

Yeah. Yeah. Ah
I can see -

white.

I can definitely see
white and I am very

disoriented but I have
to ask - can this explain

how an entire yacht could
get swallowed up by a fog?

Hello? Hello? Are you there?

[crash]

Can someone call a doctor?

NARRATOR: American author
David Childress disagrees

these strange occurrences are
simply tricks of the mind.

DAVID CHILDRESS: This is
a very real phenomenon.

It's not just something
that's a psychological

aberration or hallucination
on their part.

NARRATOR: For Childress, the
answer lies in ley lines -

a matrix of
magnetic pathways

crisscrossing the earth,
connected by ancient

ceremonial sites.

He believes they can
create vortexes of energy

and manifest as the
paranormal fog.

DAVID CHILDRESS: It's my
view that these vortexes

of energy occasionally are
activated, become alive

and become portals
or doorways to other

time/space dimensions.

And this is what people
get caught up in, in the

Bermuda Triangle or in
the Great Lakes Triangle.

NARRATOR: Incredible.

But does it explain
what happened to

Kathy and her yacht?

DAVID CHILDRESS: What may
have happened to Kathy on

Lake Michigan was that
she was in one of these

vortexes when it became
activated and suddenly

a mist or fog starts to
come in and surround you.

You're not in the same
place that you were.

You feel you're in
another dimension.

NARRATOR: If, as Childress
believes, Kathy really

traveled to a new
dimension, how in the

world did she get back?

DAVID CHILDRESS: Many of
the people who have gone

through these bizarre
vortex areas and survived

are probably very lucky.

We'll never know how many
people have been in these same

vortex areas and situations
and they never came back.

NARRATOR: Does this
solve the mystery?

Did Kathy Doore sail into
a patch of fog or into

another dimension?

Was she merely
hallucinating as a result

of sensory deprivation?

Or had she entered a time
vortex created by ley lines?

Whatever the answer, it's
most definitely weird or what.

[♪]

NARRATOR: A blinding
double flash of light

is detected over
the Indian Ocean.

Did it nearly cause
World War Three?

JEFFREY RICHELSON:
Everybody knew for sure

this was something to be
very concerned about.

WILLIAM SHATNER: When it
comes to the mysteries of

Mother Nature, there's a
lot of things that aren't

quite as they seem.

It's all a matter
of perspective.

What on one hand can look
perfectly normal -

on another could look like
the end of the world.

That's exactly
what happened in 1979.

NARRATOR: Jeffrey Richelson
is a U.S. security analyst.

He knows lots of secrets,
but he's yet to solve one

of the biggest - the truth
behind a mysterious

event known as the
Vela Incident.

JEFFREY RICHELSON: It's
a fascinating anomaly.

It's a mystery that reads
like a techno thriller.

NARRATOR: The tiny Crozet
Islands lie in the Indian

Ocean over one thousand
miles south of Africa.

Around 3 am on
September 22nd, 1979,

something extraordinary
happened there.

Without warning, two giant
blinding flashes of light

lit up the sky.

JEFFREY RICHELSON:
Everybody knew for sure

this was something to be
very concerned about.

NARRATOR: Incredibly,
seventy thousand miles away,

the flashes were
also detected by a

U.S. satellite called
Vela 6911.

JEFFREY RICHELSON: That
triggered a very high

level of alert and from
there word went to the

White House that something
might have happened.

They started
calling in advisors.

NARRATOR: They took it
very seriously, rushing

CIA agents to the area
in military planes.

But what triggered
this extreme response?

JEFFREY RICHELSON: In
1979, the United States

had concluded a series of
arms control treaties with

the Soviet Union.

NARRATOR: The Cold War
rivals had just agreed to

stop nuclear tests but the
flash detected by Vela 6911

could mean the Soviets
were just playing games.

JEFFREY RICHELSON: The
Vela satellite's prime

purpose was to detect
nuclear detonations.

What they saw was
something that's very

indicative of a
nuclear explosion.

NARRATOR: Had the
Soviets broken faith?

Had they really violated
the new treaty and set off

a nuclear bomb?

Each side had thousands of
nuclear warheads pointed

at the other.

The stakes
couldn't be higher.

JEFFREY RICHELSON: At
first the administration

tried to keep wraps on the
story and it was a full

court press of
intelligence activities to

try to determine what
was actually going on.

NARRATOR: With a potential
global crisis on its hands,

the U.S. tries to confirm
its suspicions by sending

CIA sniffer planes to
the Indian Ocean.

Equipped with sensitive
radiation detectors,

they get an unsettling
surprise.

JEFFREY RICHELSON: There
was no radiation detected.

It was a mystery.

They even sent people, CIA
officers into West Africa

to get the leaves off
trees to see if there was

a residue from a
nuclear explosion.

NARRATOR: So what
had Vela really seen?

JEFFREY RICHELSON: Maybe
they didn't know what

actually happened.

It's been such a mystery
for so many years.

In terms of strange events
I think it's, you know,

at the top of the list.

NARRATOR: What happened
over the Indian Ocean?

What could cause a giant
flash of light so powerful

it could be seen seventy
thousand miles away?

Tom Reed is an expert
in nuclear weapons.

TOM REED: I've
fired them. I built them.

I've seen them go off.

NARRATOR: He believes
there is only one explanation.

TOM REED: I believe
it was a nuclear test.

A nuclear detonation is
kind of hard to hide.

I mean it's not some
pin drop in the night.

It's a very major event.

NARRATOR: But if no one
witnessed the explosion,

how can he be sure that
Vela detected a nuclear blast?

TOM REED: A nuclear explosion
has this sort of fingerprint.

It is unmistakable.

NARRATOR: This fingerprint
is caused by the way

a nuclear bomb explodes.

First, it blasts out
deadly gamma radiation

at the speed of light,
186,000 miles per second.

TOM REED: Technically it's
a flash but to the human eye,

uh uh, it's this ball
of fire and the sun has

come to earth.

NARRATOR: Then, as the
explosion grows,

the shockwave produces
a second flash.

TOM REED: It's
very mind boggling and

it's very frightening.

NARRATOR: Does the data
from Vela confirm the

signature double flash
of a nuclear bomb?

The recorded flashes are
shown as curves on a graph.

TOM REED: These curves,
those are like fingerprints.

This first peak is
the device going off.

As the bubble expands the
energy releases again

and so you get this
second rise.

NARRATOR: But if Vela
really saw a nuclear

blast, where was the
other fingerprint -

the radioactivity?

TOM REED: They decided to
put it in a part of the

world that's mostly water.

You then pick a weather
condition like a typhoon.

A really serious typhoon
would wash all the

radioactive debris right
back into the ocean.

The best solution to
pollution is dilution.

NARRATOR: Incredibly,
weather records confirm a

typhoon was in the area
just before the flash,

but who would take such
elaborate precautions to

conceal a nuclear test?

TOM REED: People don't
develop nuclear weapons

just because
it's Thursday.

There has to
be some reason.

Every nation that has
gone nuclear has gone in

response to a very clear
and present threat.

NARRATOR: Did some nation
have a reason to feel

threatened in 1979?

Reed believes the
answer is obvious.

TOM REED: Israel has very
clear and present dangers

on its borders.

The Israelis have
technology, they know

weapons, but they
didn't have uranium.

NARRATOR: Israel could
only make the bomb if it

had a supplier, but who
else was threatened enough

to upend the test
ban applecart?

TOM REED: At the same
time, the Soviets were

pouring troops
into Africa.

South Africans mine uranium
as a byproduct of gold.

They got so much of it they
don't know what to do with it.

NARRATOR: With Soviet
forces in nearby Angola,

did South Africa have
reason to partner with

Israel and build
a nuclear bomb?

Does this explain why a
flash occurred in the

remote regions of
the Indian Ocean?

TOM REED: It is quite
clear to me that this was

a test by the Israelis
with logistical support by

the South Africans.

WILLIAM SHATNER: Why is it
that whenever someone sees

something weird, they
always assume the worst?

I mean honestly, is the
world is so paranoid?

Are we really looking at a
massive Cold War cover up?

Was the Vela incident
nothing more than a crazy

conspiracy theory, or is
there another way to solve

this mystery?

NARRATOR: Nuclear testing
- it's a plausible theory,

but not everyone agrees.

RICHARD MULLER: Vela never
recorded a secret nuclear test.

NARRATOR: A giant flash
of light over the Indian

Ocean puts the world
on nuclear alert.

Was it a freak of nature
or something more sinister?

Professor Richard
Muller is a physicist.

U.S. president Jimmy Carter
appointed him to

investigate the
Vela incident.

RICHARD MULLER: It was an
important international

issue with diplomatic
consequences and they

needed good scientific
review of the data.

NARRATOR: Muller has
analyzed the same

information as the nuclear
experts, but he's come to

an entirely different
conclusion.

RICHARD MULLER: When we
began our study, we were

all convinced this really
looks like it was a

nuclear explosion but when
we did a scientific review

of the data there was
something new and different.

NARRATOR: They discovered
that Vela had connected

its data with two light
sensors called bhangmeters.

RICHARD MULLER: Bhangmeter
was a relatively simple

device designed to
detect flashes of light.

NARRATOR: But remarkable,
the double flash recorded

by each of the two
bhangmeters was different.

RICHARD MULLER: The two
pulses from the two

bhangmeters didn't
match each other.

That was a real mystery
but it indicated that this

thing just didn't
look right.

NARRATOR: But if there was
no blast, what could have

caused a signal that almost
caused a nuclear crisis?

The experts are mystified,
until Muller has

a flash of insight.

What if it wasn't
anything on earth at all?

RICHARD MULLER: The
Vela satellite is at

a medium earth orbit.

It's far away in space.

NARRATOR: Seventy thousand
miles above the planet,

Vela wasn't protected
by earth's atmosphere.

It was bombarded by tiny
bits of rock and metal

called micrometeorites.

RICHARD MULLER: These
micrometeorites don't

reach the ground because
the atmosphere slows them

down and absorbs
their energy.

A satellite, such as
the Vela satellite,

is frequently hit by
micrometeorites.

NARRATOR: But even if
micrometeorites smacked

into Vela, how could
specks of space dust

replicate the massive
double hump shockwave of

a nuclear explosion?

RICHARD MULLER: If a
micrometeorite hits the

surface of the satellite,
it knocks off dust.

Dust reflects sunlight
differently into

the two bhangmeters.

This could be the signal.

NARRATOR: Is it possible
the whole world was

freaked out by a fleck of
space dust knocked loose

by a microscopic
space pebble?

After running more tests,
Muller and his team

finally reached
a conclusion.

RICHARD MULLER: What we
thought was a bright flash

thousands of miles away
was actually just a dim

flash that's only
a few inches away.

Vela never recorded a
secret nuclear test.

It was micrometeorites.

That's almost certainly
what we saw back on

September 22nd, 1979.

NARRATOR: Could this whole
mystery be solved by

something as simple
as space dust?

After all, no one actually
ever saw the flash.

Muller's theory became the
official explanation of

the U.S. government.

But not everyone
is convinced.

TOM REED: Clearly to me
from a political point of

view he had every reason
in the world to try to

not talk about this.

Form a committee and kick
the, kick it downstream.

NARRATOR: Incredibly, in
2010, declassified South

African documents revealed
nuclear discussions with

Israel in the years leading
up to the Vela incident.

Could the space dust
explanation just be a cover-up?

RICHARD MULLER: There are
conspiracy theorists who

keep these things alive
despite the fact that they

were pretty much settled
by people who understood

the arguments at the time.

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

Was the Vela incident proof of
a secret nuclear weapons test?

Or was it merely some
space dust that nearly

took the world to the
brink of disaster?

Weird or what?

[♪]

NARRATOR: So there we have
it, stories of mysterious

freaks of nature from
all over the world.

On the east coast
of Canada,

an earth-shattering boom
stuns a community and

leaves scientists
scratching their heads.

On Lake Michigan, a
mysterious fog terrorizes

a sailor and alters the
very fabric of time.

And over the Indian Ocean,
a blinding double flash of

light creates a
nuclear crisis.

[♪]

Are these stories evidence
of mysterious forces at

work within the world?

Do we dismiss those who
claim they are true?

You decide.

WILLIAM SHATNER: Join me
next time for more stories

that will undoubtedly
be weird or what?

[♪]