Original subtitles

WILLIAM SHATNER: An incredible discovery

buried deep beneath the lunar surface.

An ancient cataclysm

that changed the planet Mars forever.

And thousands of Earth-like worlds

that hold the potential for life

elsewhere in the universe.

It's fascinating to think about what lies in outer space.

Just gazing up at the night sky sparks curiosity and wonder.

For centuries, scientists and scholars could only imagine

how our solar system works.

But now that technology offers us a closer look

at the planets around us,

will we be surprised or even shocked

at what we may soon find beyond Earth?

Well, that is what we'll try and find out.

♪ ♪

Each fall, the people of this city gather

along the banks of the Qiantang River

to see something extraordinary.

A massive wave that barrels upstream

and keeps surging for miles and miles up the river.

The wave's rapid speed,

loud roaring sound, and white crests

have earned it a fitting nickname:

the Silver Dragon.

A hundred miles southwest of Shanghai,

every year there is

this really interesting tidal phenomena that happens,

that's very much related to the Moon.

The Silver Dragon is

a 30-foot-tall, 25-mile-an-hour wave,

so it draws a massive crowd.

Over 100,000 people

annually come out to watch this wave,

and people even surf on it.

MICHAEL DENNIN: It's huge, it comes down and it can flood to the side

and it's actually quite dangerous

and people often get way too close.

TEITEL: We're used to seeing tides at beaches on the ocean,

they go in and out, but it's never this dramatic.

This is an extremely tangible thing

you can point to and say,

"This is the Moon's effect on the Earth

happening now as we see it."

MICHIO KAKU: The gravity of the Moon lifts the water up

to give you high tide,

and when the Moon passes, it drops, giving you low tide.

Think of that-- the entire planet Earth's water

being lifted several feet,

and that tremendous cosmic energy comes

from the gravitational pull of the Moon.

♪ ♪

SHATNER: Today, the process by which the Moon generates

Earth's ocean tides is widely understood.

But what is less commonly known

is how the Moon causes a phenomenon

like the Silver Dragon.

Well, scientists have a name for this kind of strange occurrence.

It's called a tidal bore.

One of the most amazing things the Moon does,

from my perspective, is create tidal bores.

And the way to think about it is

the tide rises the oceans a certain height,

and if you have the right combination

of the shape of the connection of the ocean into a river,

you can actually funnel all of that height

into a narrow, extra high, massive wave.

And then that will run up a gorge or a river.

It's kind of a fascinating interaction

between Moon, water, nature and then people,

and what we do in response to it.

SHATNER: Tidal Bores are a striking example

of the power that the Moon exerts on the Earth.

But according to scientists,

creating tides is just one of many effects

that the Moon has on our planet.

For instance, as the Moon circles the Earth,

its gravitational force causes

molten liquids deep within the Earth's core to swirl--

a process which some experts refer to as churning.

We now realize that the orbit of the Moon

creates churning inside the Earth.

The Moon churns the inside of the Earth by tidal forces,

causing currents in the form of electricity,

which creates the Earth's magnetic field.

We depend upon a magnetic shield

to protect us against solar flares from the Sun.

And we think that's where the Moon comes in.

If it wasn't for the presence of the Moon,

you go outside, you get a sunburn

within just a matter of a few minutes.

SHATNER: A sunburn within a few minutes?

It's enough to make you wonder

what else could happen

if the unimaginable occurred and the Moon

just disappeared?

One of the questions I get asked a lot is,

you know, can we survive without the Moon?

If the Moon suddenly disappeared, I think not.

The result on Earth would be catastrophic

and very, very rapid.

The tides would stop working.

The Earth would start slowing down.

As the Earth slows down,

it can start wobbling on its axis.

If it wobbles very far,

this would melt the polar ice caps

and sea levels would rise radically.

Also, a place like Las Vegas could be freezing in winter

and yet boiling in summer.

There's all sorts of things

that could cause trouble for life on Earth.

BRIAN KEATING: The Moon is sort of the Earth's bodyguard

because the Moon has protected us

from asteroid impacts.

All the craters that we see on the Moon are

the result of impacts of asteroid fragments.

And all those craters-- they could have been

impacts on Earth.

KAKU: So we have this cosmic coincidence--

all the characteristics to the Moon are just so

that we have life on the planet Earth.

So, in other words, we hit the jackpot.

We have this cosmic lottery and we hit the jackpot,

we got a moon that makes possible conditions on the Earth

compatible with life.

SHATNER: The fact that the Moon is so vital

to life on Earth raises some intriguing questions.

Such as, is there something special

about our moon that enables it to make life on Earth possible?

And if our moon is unique, what makes it different

from the more than 200 other moons in our solar system?

KEATING: A moon is just what we call a natural satellite,

a satellite that's not human-made

that orbits around a planet.

Other planets-- such as the massive gas planets

like Jupiter and Saturn-- have many, many dozens of moons.

We're the only planet in the solar system

that has only one moon.

And our moon is, actually,

the fifth largest moon in the solar system.

It's quite large.

TEITEL: It's really big compared to the planet.

It's a very unique setup.

Usually, moons are significantly smaller,

but our moon is relatively large compared to our planet.

MIKE BARA: It's very bizarre.

It's basically a double-planet system.

The Moon is so big and so close

and there is no other example

anywhere in the observable universe like this.

LYNN PICKNETT: Because it's so big and it has so many effects

on the Earth, the Moon is always fascinating.

There's something inherently amazing

and mesmerizing about how big

and how powerful it is.

I mean, there it is, hanging in our skies,

this extraordinary spherical object,

just this amazing orb in the sky.

SHATNER: Scientists have observed

that there is another strange aspect

of the Moon's dimensions.

It is precisely the right size and distance from the Sun

to occasionally create a total solar eclipse.

If you look at the Moon and you look at the Sun,

the Sun is actually 400 times the diameter of the Moon,

but the Moon happens to be 400 times closer to the Earth.

This means that the Sun and the Moon

look as if they're the same size in the sky.

That means that when the Moon goes in front of the Sun,

it totally blocks off the Sun.

I've been very lucky,

and I've seen two total eclipses of the Sun,

and they are magical.

They literally blew my socks off.

BARA: The fact is, the Moon is exactly the right size

and exactly the right distance from the Earth

to create perfect solar eclipses.

Some people think that's a coincidence.

I don't think it's a coincidence.

There has to be something very special

and very mysterious about the Moon itself.

SHATNER: The unique size relationship between the Moon and Earth

may help explain why the Moon has

such a strong impact on our planet.

Could even more intriguing secrets lie

not just on the lunar surface

but deep inside the Moon itself?

SHATNER: A group of scientists publish the results

of a remarkable study on the Moon.

By analyzing information collected by NASA space probes,

the team discovered that an enormous mass of metal

is buried beneath the surface of the Moon.

This mysterious mass is 1,200 miles in diameter

and, because it's hidden deep underground,

before this paper was published,

scientists had no idea the metal was there.

KAKU: What happened is we have satellites

that go around the Moon,

and it turns out

that the gravitational pull increased,

indicating the presence

of a massive, dense object

underneath the surface of the Moon.

KEATING: According to the scientists who made this discovery,

it's made of metals, very dense, very heavy metals

like iron, cobalt, nickel,

which are also highly magnetic.

ADERIN-POCOCK: Now, the question is how did it get there?

How did this blob of iron get to the moon?

There were sort of a few theories afoot,

but I think the one that makes most sense

is that it was an asteroid strike.

And it seems quite likely that a metal asteroid

came and hit the moon's surface with huge impact.

It sort of melted into the moon's surface,

and then magma from the moon covered it over,

so that's why we hadn't discovered it before.

SHATNER: One reason why the discovery of metal on the Moon

came as such a surprise is because it's easy

to assume that we already know

most of what there is to know about the Moon.

After all, we've photographed it,

studied it, and sent astronauts to walk on its surface.

But despite everything we've learned,

the Moon still holds many secrets.

The Moon is so fascinating because it's mysterious.

It's close to us and yet it's very inscrutable.

There are places and parts of the Moon

we know almost nothing about

that are completely unexplored and unexplained.

There's so many mysteries about our nearest celestial neighbor.

For example, what's inside the moon?

What's on the far side of the Moon?

It's amazing that we've sent space probes

to Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune,

even past Pluto.

And yet there's so many things we don't know about the Moon.

SHATNER: The detection of metal on the Moon

was followed by an even more extraordinary discovery.

In October of 2020, NASA's Stratospheric Observatory

for Infrared Astronomy announced that they had detected

water on the sunlit surface of the Moon.

And in other studies,

scientists have found evidence of ice

on the north pole of the Moon.

ADERIN-POCOCK: Many people assumed that the moon was dry.

And looking at the environment, it wasn't so surprising

that they sort of concluded this.

But one thing we have got confirmation of

is large volumes of frozen water

in these craters, which never see sunlight.

These craters are some of the coldest places

in the solar system.

And so substances like water can condense.

DENNIN: When you look at the water on the moon,

there's a shockingly large amount of water

compared to what we think of it.

Now, it's water in frozen form, it's ice.

But it still was fascinating just to know

that there was something we were wrong about the moon.

SHATNER: As a result of these findings, scientists have been compelled

to reexamine the belief that the Moon is inert.

And to ask whether it can harbor life.

Whether or not we can have life on the Moon,

that's, of course, a big question mark.

Today, when you think of the Moon,

you think of a lifeless environment.

But that's not always true.

We think that in the early days of the Moon,

perhaps there was a thicker atmosphere to the Moon,

and that's what's required to create life on a planet.

So, if we drill deep into the lunar soil,

perhaps we'll pick up evidence

of ancient microbial life that existed

billions of years ago,

when the atmosphere was quite different on the Moon.

SHATNER: Was the Moon a place in which life

could actually thrive in the distant past?

Well, according to some researchers,

there is photographic evidence

not only of life on the Moon,

but of something

much more profound.

NASA launches Ranger 7,

a lunar probe designed to take

the first close-up photographs of the lunar surface.

The landmark images fascinated the world.

And since that time, other nations have sent probes

to capture more images of the Moon.

Over the years, researchers have identified

strange anomalies in these photographs.

Anomalies that look an awful lot like...

artificial structures.

BARA: In one picture, you see a rectangular structure

with some structure on top of it

that looks almost like the spires of a roof,

as if there was a glass dome over this at one time

that has a few girders left that used to hold it up.

Now, there's nothing in natural lunar geology

that can account for that

as a real extant possibility on the surface of the Moon.

And in another image taken is a gigantic spire or tower.

It almost looks exactly like a gigantic Egyptian obelisk.

The way this thing is sticking up

simply defies explanation.

The fact that it even exists in the image

is absolute de facto proof

that there is ancient extraterrestrial technology

on the lunar surface.

SHATNER: Giant structures

left behind by an extraterrestrial civilization?

It's certainly a provocative theory,

and one that is hard to prove.

But if these anomalies

are the ruins of an advanced civilization,

is it possible

they were intentionally left there for us to find?

KEATING: The Moon has properties that make it ideal

for conducting research into the deep past

and even, potentially, very speculatively,

uh, for the presence of, uh,

potentially finding alien artifacts,

which is a very fascinating prospect,

that an alien civilization might want to leave a marker,

a time capsule, attesting to their existence for us to find.

And it would be perfectly preserved for billions of years.

SHATNER: Could there really be artificial structures

and time capsules from an unknown civilization

left on the Moon?

And if so, what could have happened

that would cause these inhabitants

to disappear?

Perhaps clues can be found

by examining another celestial neighbor,

one whose surface bears the markings

of a cataclysmic event with the power

to wipe out life as we know it.

♪ ♪

SHATNER: The United Arab Emirates

becomes the first Arab nation to send a space vehicle

to the Red Planet.

The state-of-the-art satellite named Hope

will spend two years collecting information

on how sunlight, dust and temperature

have affected the Martian atmosphere in the past

and present.

Astronomers hope this mission will bring answers

to one of the most enduring mysteries of Mars:

how did it become the Red Planet?

When you look at Mars tonight in the night sky, for example,

you see this red dot.

Why red?

Ferric oxide.

It's the rusty planet.

It's iron rust.

But it wasn't always that way.

Billions of years ago,

it was very similar to what the Earth looks like today.

The data coming from the Hope weather satellite

could be essential for us to piece together

this jigsaw puzzle.

We had a lush planet,

a blue planet teeming with the possibilities of life.

And then we have this dead, barren planet of today.

What happened in between?

SHATNER: Scientists have theorized that Mars was changed

by some kind of massive cataclysm in the distant past,

causing it to become barren and lifeless.

But it's well-known that Earth has endured

numerous global catastrophes,

and our planet is still teeming with life.

So, what was different about Mars?

KAKU: Natural disasters happen

rather regularly on the planet Earth.

We have volcanic activity,

gigantic earthquakes,

meteor impacts blanketing out the Sun,

collapsing agriculture, causing chaos.

So, in other words, planet-killing events.

-(insects trilling) -But we are here.

-(birdsong) -The Earth is teeming with life.

And Mars turned out to be a dead planet.

We don't know for sure,

but we think the culprit is

Mars has a very low atmospheric density--

only one percent the atmospheric density

found on the planet Earth.

KIRSTEN SIEBACH: Mars once had that dense atmosphere.

But somewhere around three billion years ago,

that atmosphere was stripped away.

And as the atmosphere thinned,

liquid water became less and less stable

and would have evaporated.

So, if there was life on Mars,

it lost one of the key ingredients for habitability.

ROBERT SCHOCH: We think the atmosphere on Mars

was initially eroded by impact,

that is, meteorites, asteroids.

Physical impactors on the Martian surface

stripped away the atmosphere of Mars.

TAYLOR: When you look at Mars, you realize

that the northern hemisphere looks more like plains,

and it's very flat.

But the southern hemisphere of Mars is heavily cratered,

and that suggests that there were a lot of impacts there

that could actually have destroyed the atmosphere

and everything else on Mars.

KAKU: Without the atmosphere

to preserve the integrity of the planet,

as the solar wind from the Sun hits Mars,

water would boil by itself,

would vaporize by itself

and be lost into outer space.

And as a consequence,

liquid water cannot remain liquid on the surface of Mars.

SHATNER: Did ancient asteroid impacts destroy the atmosphere of Mars?

Perhaps.

But some scientists suggest

there was an even more powerful disaster that was responsible.

And as evidence, they point to a curious feature

of the planet's surface known as the Valles Marineris

or, as many like to call it,

the scar on Mars.

TAYLOR: Valles Marineris looks as if

something just gouged out of the surface of Mars,

and the question is did it occur naturally?

Because we don't really understand what happened.

SCHOCH: One theory that I've been exploring recently

is that the Sun has major solar outbursts

that spread out throughout the solar system

traveling at very high speeds.

Plasma, electrically charged particles,

protons, electrons, other charged ions,

and when these hit planets,

you can imagine them as huge lightning bolts

hitting the surface of the planet.

And this can gouge out what look like canyons.

And this may have been a major contributing factor

to the loss of the atmosphere.

KAKU: We have lots of theories as to the geologic

and atmospheric profile of Mars,

but, to be certain, we have to go there

and actually touch and feel and analyze these things.

From a distance, from millions of miles away,

we can only speculate about what could be causing

these unexplained surface features on Mars.

Asteroid impacts, solar winds,

and a scar six miles deep.

Despite its hostile environment,

Mars is destined to be explored by humans one day.

But astronauts may want to be careful,

because there is evidence that an object

orbiting Mars may not be what it seems.

Its name is Phobos, the Greek word for fear.

And some believe that it's not a moon,

it's a machine.

SHATNER: 140 million miles from Earth.

After a perilous five-month journey through space,

NASA's Perseverance rover gently lands

on the planet Mars.

A big part of our interest in Mars

has always been looking for life.

Whether it's some kind of small fossilized life in the rocks

or biochemical signatures in the soil

that prove that there might have been life

on that planet at one time in its history.

SHATNER: Ever since the NASA spacecraft Mariner 4

made the first flyby of Mars in 1964,

more than 40 additional missions have been launched

to search the Red Planet for signs of extraterrestrial life.

But some researchers claim that,

if Mars is indeed harboring life,

we won't find it on the planet itself.

Instead, they believe there is evidence

of an extraterrestrial intelligence

on a Martian moon that is known as Phobos.

Phobos is just plain weird.

It's only about seven miles in radius,

which is, uh, very, very small.

And it's a really bizarre and surreal looking shape.

It's all sorts of odd angles,

a mixture of sharp and curved edges,

a real jumble.

HAAS: In the 1950s,

a Soviet Union astrophysicist,

Joseph Shklovsky,

noticed that Phobos may not be a moon at all,

and he was approached by Carl Sagan in the 1960s.

The two of them worked on a book together,

Intelligent Life in the Universe.

And in that book, they both talk about Phobos possibly being

an artificial structure.

TAYLOR: In 1998, the Mars Global Surveyor

took a picture of Phobos that has this strange

three-dimensional cubic-looking monolith structure on it.

And geologists have looked at it,

and they can't quite explain it,

although they come up with some theories.

But there's no real explanation as to why it's there

and what its purpose is or how it was formed.

That's really intriguing. What is it?

HAAS: NASA scientists claim that this monolith

is the result of a crumbled rock

that fell from a-a nearby mountain ridge.

There's no such surface feature in the area.

The surface of Phobos is very smooth,

which was vindicated in later images

taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

It's very shiny, very flat surface.

It's littered with small craters,

and there's no surface features sticking up.

There's no mountains, there's no ridges,

and we have this weird obelisk sticking out of the ground,

which doesn't belong there.

MARC D'ANTONIO: In looking at the monolith on Phobos,

we can't tell whether it's a perfectly square object

or it's just a rocky protuberance,

but it is seemingly out of place on what looks like

the smooth surface of this moon.

That means it might be artificial.

SHATNER: Could the Phobos monolith

really be an artificial structure

built by extraterrestrials?

Some researchers think so, and for further evidence,

they point to the fact that Phobos

is mysteriously hollow.

TEITEL: The European Space Agency's Mars Express mission

in 2008 explored Mars' moon Phobos.

Using radar sounder technology,

it found that the moon isn't actually solid.

There are large subterranean voids in this body.

KAKU: We have detailed photographs of Phobos,

and it turns out that Phobos has a slightly irregular orbit

that deviates from Newton's laws of motion,

and this is because of the fact

that it's actually a hollow moon.

So, some people say, "Aha,

"maybe it's a piece of alien technology

in orbit around Mars."

POPE: When you look at Phobos,

when you look at its comparatively small size,

odd shape and apparent partial hollowness,

Phobos could be not a natural satellite

but an artificial satellite,

perhaps put there by an extraterrestrial civilization

to hide some sort of monitoring device,

listening station, whatever you call it.

SHATNER: There are those who believe that the best evidence

that Phobos is an extraterrestrial outpost

was an incident that occurred in 1989,

when a Soviet satellite known as Phobos 2

was sent to investigate the moon

and it mysteriously vanished.

TAYLOR: In 1989,

the Russians sent the Phobos 1 and 2 probes to Phobos.

And when it got there,

Phobos 2 took a couple of photos,

sent them back,

and then it quit working. It disappeared.

We don't know what happened to it,

but one of the images is really strange.

There's a cigar-shaped thing in the middle of the image.

And I find that quite interesting

that a lot of the UFO sightings are cigar-shaped objects.

Is that just a coincidence? I don't know.

HAAS: Some people speculate that there's some type

of defensive mechanism on the moon

that was defending itself against approaching spacecraft.

And when this probe approached Phobos,

it was activated,

and it destroyed the probe.

SHATNER: Officially, the loss of Phobos 2

was blamed on a malfunction of the onboard computer.

But the authorities never came up with a good explanation

for the strange, cigar-shaped object.

And it makes you wonder:

was Phobos 2 actually shot down,

as some believe?

POPE: If Phobos really is some sort of extraterrestrial artifact,

is it something that's been put there from a civilization

that's come from much further away as a sentinel?

We can't rule out the possibility,

and there's no getting away from the fact that Phobos 2 was lost.

SHATNER: Could a Martian moon really be an artificial structure?

It sounds like something

straight from a science fiction movie,

and yet,

how do we explain the strange anomalies

that Phobos exhibits?

Well, let's hope future explorations

don't get lost in space,

especially if they involve manned missions to Mars.

NASA announces a series of bold new technologies

they are actively developing to help astronauts

eventually reach Mars,

including cutting-edge propulsion systems,

next generation spacesuits,

and nuclear fission generators.

This is such an exciting time to be working on Mars.

There is unprecedented interest.

There are more government space agencies

and scientists around the world

working towards space exploration

than there have ever been before.

We have new rockets, different instruments,

and we're at a time when technology is getting closer

to sending people to Mars.

It's-it's really fun.

It's really exciting.

SHATNER: In addition to NASA,

numerous space agencies from around the world have also

stepped up their efforts to send people to Mars.

There are many who believe that this increase in activity

echoes the space race from the 1960s,

when humanity strived to land men on the Moon

for the first time.

ROD PYLE: July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 lands on the Moon,

and this is one of the proudest moments in human history.

NEIL ARMSTRONG: That's one small step for man,

one giant leap for mankind.

Two men down on the surface,

600 million people watching around the world,

more listening to their radios, people can barely believe it.

They stayed on the Moon's surface for a day,

they achieved all their goals.

And it was just a watershed moment

in Western civilization.

(applause, cheering and whistling)

And the next big question is, "What are we gonna do

after the Apollo landings?"

Wernher Von Braun, the famed rocket scientist

of German origins, published a book called The Mars Project,

where he actually laid out the first real,

technically-accurate engineering plan

on how we could do this.

And they wanted to do it by the mid-1980s.

But by the time Richard Nixon came into office,

we realized it was gonna be a much bigger job

to send humans to Mars than we thought.

But we continued to think about it,

and it continues today.

We want to go beyond, to Mars,

and find out what's happening on that world, because

a human being can do in about 15 minutes

what it takes a robot six months to do.

So you have to send people.

SHATNER: It's not just NASA and other space agencies

that have their sights set on Mars.

Ordinary people are also quite eager

to travel to the Red Planet.

In fact, when it was announced in March of 2020

that NASA would begin recruiting a new generation of astronauts

for its first-ever manned mission to Mars,

200,000 people submitted applications.

RICHARD ZARE: I think it's the nature of human beings

to try to expand further.

There's a sense of exploration, of being an explorer,

of being the first to go somewhere,

and that really motivates a lot of people.

This is a great time in space exploration.

SIEBACH: We're at a time when we have pictures

of Mars in our living rooms.

We have pictures of Mars on our computer screens.

We're seeing that... that, yes,

we can reach out to Mars.

We can see it. We can touch it. We're so close.

And that's really exciting to see.

SETH SHOSTAK: When are we gonna go to Mars?

I get that question a lot.

You know, people who are in the rocket business say,

"Well, certainly, within ten years,

we could send somebody to the Red Planet."

And you might say, "But why do that?"

Right? It's dangerous.

Getting them there, bringing them back.

There are all sorts of technical problems,

not the least of which is the fact

that the Sun occasionally burps high-speed particles into space,

and those particles would zip right through the skin

of any rocket,

and give everybody inside instant cancer,

that kind of thing.

I mean, these are... these are serious problems.

SHATNER: Why are so many people

willing to put their life on the line

for a perilous journey to Mars?

Well, there are those who believe

that we are motivated to go to Mars

because there is a profound connection

between humans and the Red Planet.

And that evidence of this connection can be found

in the human body.

TAYLOR: The human body produces good fat and bad fat.

And the good fat, it turns out, we produce more of,

if we're held at an average temperature of 67 degrees,

or a little bit lower than that on a regular basis.

I find that an interesting correlation

that the temperature in the summertime on Mars

is 67 degrees Fahrenheit.

Does that suggest that humanity is more suited

to be healthy on Mars than they are on Earth?

I don't know.

There are other aspects of Mars

that is interesting with the human physiology.

When astronauts spend a long period of time in micro gravity,

their internal biorhythm clock resets.

Not to a day that's as long as a day on Earth,

but in fact it resets precisely

to the time a day is on Mars,

which is a little bit different by a few minutes.

Why does this happen?

Is it telling us that there's something

in our DNA, in our genetic code

that is more suitable for Mars than it is for Earth?

We don't know, but that is a possibility.

SHATNER: Astronomers from the University of Geneva

announce an incredible discovery

in the pages of the journal Nature.

They reveal that by analyzing slight changes

in the light generated by the distant star

known as 51 Pegasi,

they were able to confirm the existence

of an exoplanet around another star in our galaxy

for the very first time.

An exoplanet is just a planet around somebody else's star.

It's not orbiting the Sun.

Before 1995, we thought there might be

a lot of planets out there, but we didn't know it.

And since then, there are a lot of exoplanets

that have been found, in fact, thousands of them.

That's a lot of planets.

KAKU: Right now, we have catalogued

about 5,000 exoplanets

orbiting other stars, and that's just

in our own vicinity of the Milky Way galaxy.

And we have encyclopedias documenting the size

and the characteristics of these planets.

Every day we discover a new planet out there

that, potentially, could carry life.

SHATNER: Since it's true that our galaxy is teeming with planets,

could some of them be home to extraterrestrial life?

According to astronomers,

the answer is yes.

And they claim that these planets can be found

in what is known as the Goldilocks zone.

COUGHLIN: In terms of the Goldilocks zone, that's the right distance

from the star where you're not too hot and you're not too cold.

You're just right.

If you're on the Goldilocks zone, you can have liquid water

on your surface without it freezing

or without it boiling off.

And where there's liquid water,

there could be life.

SHOSTAK: Earth is obviously

in the Goldilocks zone for the Sun.

Those are the kind of planets you want to find.

Because you probably need water for life.

And, thanks to telescopes, we know

that every second or third star

has at least one planet, more or less the same size

as our own, in the Goldilocks zone.

SHATNER: Will we ever be able to prove that planets located

in the Goldilocks zone are, in fact,

home to other life-forms?

Well, some scientists believe

that we may soon find out.

Today is a historic day.

SHATNER: At an event at the White House,

President Joe Biden unveils the first image taken

by NASA's James Webb space telescope.

BIDEN: It's a new window into the history of our universe.

We can see light from the oldest galaxies,

the oldest documented light in the history of the universe,

from over 13 billion years ago.

SHATNER: The ten billion-dollar instrument

is armed with the most powerful

infrared imaging technology ever created.

And what's even more remarkable

is that the telescope was specifically designed

to analyze planets that lie

in the Goldilocks zone

for evidence of life.

SHOSTAK: The James Webb Telescope--

it's an infrared telescope, so it's sensitive to heat.

But that's really not the big deal.

The big deal is that it can look,

for example, at a planet around another star

and actually see it.

It might only look like a dot on a photo,

but you take the light from that dot,

put it through a prism,

and you could tell what's in the atmosphere of that planet.

The James Webb Space Telescope is like a magnifying glass.

It's gonna look in extreme detail.

And the great thing is, for the first time,

we can actually start to study the atmospheres

of Earth-size planets.

If we look at a planet and we can see chemicals

that we know don't occur naturally in its atmosphere,

that's a really good indication that they're produced

by industrial processes.

So if we see those in an exoplanet,

that's a good sign that they're produced

by some alien industry.

It tells you there's very likely

an intelligent civilization like our own

on that planet producing those chemicals.

KAKU: Given the fact that we have now the Webb Telescope

up there giving us even more information,

given the fact that we keep on cataloging more

and more exoplanets, we are now flooded

with information about potential life-forms in the galaxy.

Perhaps even intelligent life.

And so this is a game changer.

Since the James Webb Space Telescope was launched,

its ability to capture images of far-off galaxies

is nothing short of miraculous.

Which makes you wonder

what other mysteries

are there to discover beyond Earth?

Will we colonize the Moon?

Construct a base on Mars?

Or finally identify a planet

that harbors evidence of life itself?

The possibilities seem as vast

as the universe and, for now,

remain...

unexplained.

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