All language subtitles for Ancient.Aliens.S20E14

NARRATOR:
For thousands of years,

humankind has attempted
to make contact

with beings from beyond Earth.

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS:
Even our ancestors

tried to send messages
to the sky,

and we're still doing it today.

NARRATOR:
Now, in the 21st century,

the search for extraterrestrial
intelligence is ramping up

like never before.

TRAVIS TAYLOR:
We might find life
on another planet

in the next few years.

We might even find
civilizations.

We're that close.

NARRATOR:
And powerful new technologies

are allowing us
to explore trillions of stars

all across the universe.

ROD PYLE:
We've never had this many eyes,

this many lenses,
this many radio dishes

looking for things
at the same time.

NICK POPE:
It's now only a matter of time

before science finds
other earths,

and where there
are other earths,

there'll be other life
and other civilizations.

NARRATOR:
There is a doorway

in the universe.

Beyond it is
the promise of truth.

It demands
we question everything

we have ever been taught.

The evidence is all around us.

The future is
right before our eyes.

We are not alone.

We have never been alone.

French Guiana, South America.

December 25, 2021.

At the Guiana Space Center,

NASA launches
the James Webb Space Telescope,

which is 100 times more powerful

than any telescope
that's come before.

It represents an ambitious,

ten-billion-dollar effort
by NASA

to see into the deepest parts
of the universe.

To many,
this highly sophisticated device

will finally enable scientists
to answer an age-old question:

Are we alone in the universe?

The James Webb Telescope
is our latest

and greatest space telescope,

uh, which has
two basic missions.

One is to understand
how stars and galaxies began,

and its other mission
is to understand

whether there's life out there.

WILLIAM HENRY:
The James Webb Telescope
has the ability

to detect chemical signatures
on planets

that suggest
that life is, in fact,

present in those worlds.

TSOUKALOS:
We can now look into space

with more clarity

than in all
of our previous human history.

And with the new
James Webb Telescope,

scientists are looking for
extraterrestrial intelligence,

not just extraterrestrial,
you know, biology.

The fact
that we are investigating is

something very exciting
because the search

for extraterrestrial
intelligence

is the ultimate quest

of humanity to find out,

how did it all begin?

NARRATOR:
With the launch of
the James Webb Space Telescope,

astronomers are now able
to examine thousands of planets

outside our own solar system,

often referred to as exoplanets.

And they are discovering
more and more

that are located within
the so-called Goldilocks zone.

There's something called
the Goldilocks zone

where everything is just right.

You're just right from the Sun
in terms of distance,

in terms of heat,
in terms of ecology.

And that's where to find life.

TAYLOR:
Now we're discovering

many tens of planets
that seem to be

in the Goldilocks zone,

where it-it can have water

and an atmosphere
that's warm enough for life.

MICHIO KAKU:
We now realize
there could be hundreds,

thousands of twins
of the Earth in outer space.

This is big news 'cause it
may mean that life could be

much more readily abundant
in our galaxy

than we previously thought.

DAVID CHILDRESS:
These new discoveries

by the Webb Telescope
are pretty amazing.

They're finding these exoplanets
that can hold life.

And now the search
for extraterrestrials is on,

like, steroids.

We've got NASA involved in it.

We've got Chinese

and Japanese scientists
who are looking at this.

We have a wide array
of international players

who are searching
for extraterrestrials.

NARRATOR:
As far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,

our willingness to devote

so much time,
energy and resources

towards the search for
extraterrestrial intelligence

is firmly rooted
in the distant past.

Since the very beginning
of human civilization,

we have been looking for signs

of extraterrestrial
intelligence.

You go back to the most
ancient civilizations--

the Sumerians, the Babylonians,
the Egyptians, the Mayans--

they all track the stars,
they track the planets.

They built incredible monuments
like the pyramids

that were in alignment
with various star systems.

TSOUKALOS:
You have multiple
ancient megalithic structures

that are in the form
of constellations,

mainly Sirius,
Orion and Pleiades.

Why those three?

Well, we are suggesting

that that is where
the extraterrestrials

who taught us
a long time ago came from.

NARRATOR:
Could it be
that our earliest ancestors

had encounters
with otherworldly beings?

And did they align

their most important structures
with the stars

because they hoped
this would be noticed

by the extraterrestrials
who had visited Earth?

Ancient astronaut theorists
suggest

that support
for this notion can be found

by examining the theories

of a prominent 19th-century
German scientist

named Carl Friedrich Gauss.

In 1820, Carl Friedrich Gauss
was on the cutting edge

of our science and technology.

He's a mathematician
and a physicist.

But he has one question:

Can we communicate
with extraterrestrials?

He thought
it was entirely possible.

Gauss proposed
an incredible idea.

He said we need to go out
into the Siberian tundra

and create a giant Pythagorean
triangle that would be so big,

it could be seen from the Moon

and an extraterrestrial
civilization would see it

and know that we were
mathematically advanced

and make contact with us.

NARRATOR:
While most scientists

regarded Gauss's idea
as fanciful,

ancient astronaut theorists
suggest there is evidence

that our ancestors
used this exact method

to try to communicate
with otherworldly beings.

In the 1930s,

more than a century
after Gauss proposed his theory,

pilots flying over southern Peru
reported seeing enormous shapes

carved into the earth--

the Nazca Lines.

TSOUKALOS:
The Nazca Lines are the animals,

the hummingbird, the monkey,

all these different things
from the animal kingdom.

And straight lines,

some of which go up to 15 miles.

The Nazca Lines
clearly were created by humans

to signal somebody up there,
not on the ground.

Why? Well, according to
the ancient astronaut theory,

the local population was visited
by extraterrestrials,

but at some point, they left.

And so the local population
wanted them to come back.

And that is why the Nazca Lines
were created on a bigger scale.

The Nazca Lines
are a giant signal

to someone up in the sky.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible
that ancient people

created the Nazca Lines

to attract the attention
of intelligent beings,

like Gauss proposed in 1820?

Today, scientists believe

that we will soon have
the technology

to see surface features
on distant planets ourselves,

and the James Webb Telescope
is already allowing astronomers

to observe the universe
in greater detail

than ever before.

Our current technology
isn't such that we can

truly image Earth-sized planets
around other stars.

But we can look at what elements

and what chemical compounds are
in that planet's atmosphere.

CHRISSY NEWTON:
The James Webb Telescope

has found
multiple different exoplanets

that have markers of life,
that have markers of carbon.

We see that some of these
exoplanets have water in them,

and water is a major marker
for life.

So it's exciting to see what the
James Webb Telescope is doing

and what else it will find.

NARRATOR:
Could it be that in searching

for extraterrestrial
intelligence,

we are carrying on the work
of our earliest ancestors,

as ancient astronaut theorists
suggest?

And might new technology

like the James Webb
Space Telescope

help us to finally succeed
in achieving this goal?

Many experts believe it will

and suggest there is evidence

that Earth has already
received communication

from an alien race.

NARRATOR:
Colorado Springs.

July 1899.

Famed scientist
and inventor Nikola Tesla

is conducting radio experiments
at his laboratory

when he receives an unusual
repeating transmission

from an unknown source.

Nikola Tesla believed that

extraterrestrial communication
was possible.

And this signal
was exactly the type of signal

he would've expected
to have seen

from an extraterrestrial
civilization

if they were trying
to make contact.

And Tesla himself believed

he had received radio signals
from Mars.

NARRATOR:
More than 5,000 miles away,

Italian radio pioneer
Guglielmo Marconi

observed similar seemingly
extraterrestrial transmissions.

Marconi was the first to really

broadcast radio
across long distances.

And he, of course,
was also listening.

And he also thought
that he might have heard

some radio signals
from-from the planet Mars.

HENRY:
Nikola Tesla and Marconi
were on the cutting edge

of this new frontier
of discovery,

believing in their hearts,
in their minds

that radio waves
would lead to our connection

with an extraterrestrial
civilization.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that
the mysterious transmissions

detected by both Nikola Tesla
and Guglielmo Marconi

came from an extraterrestrial
intelligence?

While the answer
will likely never be known,

the observations
of these early radio pioneers

had a major impact on humanity's
search for alien life.

Marconi and Tesla

kind of got the ball rolling
when it comes to

trying to find the aliens by
eavesdropping on radio signals.

And it turns out
radio waves would be a great way

to communicate
over very long distances

from one star system to another.

They're better even
than ordinary light,

because there are dusty,
dark clouds in the universe

and they can...
they can block the light.

So the point about radio waves

is that they would go
right through the dust and gas

that hangs between the stars.

NARRATOR:
Tesla and Marconi may not
have found definitive evidence

of alien intelligence,

but they were foundational in
establishing the primary means

by which scientists search

for extraterrestrial
civilizations today.

This effort is led
by the SETI Institute,

established in 1984.

SETI is the Search for
Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

And a lot of it has been done
by the SETI Institute

based in California.

It is primarily the use
of radio telescopes

to listen for a signal
from another civilization.

SETH SHOSTAK:
The SETI Institute,

its flagship program
is to use big antennas,

point them in the direction
of other nearby star systems

and, you know,
tune over the radio dial to see

if there's any transmission
coming from those planets.

POPE:
The thinking is that we have
been a detectable civilization

for years through our television
and radio broadcasts,

and almost any conceivable
advanced civilization

will be using that technology

or will have used it
in the past--

maybe they've gone on
to more advanced things now--

but that will be detectable.

And people look
for a beacon, maybe,

to just draw our attention
to the fact

that there's life out there.

But also a message.

Maybe there's scientific
and technical knowledge encoded

in a signal being sent to us.

Well, if we don't listen,
we'll never get it.

NEWTON:
The work of the SETI Institute
is so important

for the fact
that they are a pioneer.

They're a pioneer
in the world of academia,

in the world of science

and have pushed the boundaries,
I would say,

in the understanding
and the acceptance

of looking into
extraterrestrials.

NARRATOR:
But not all scientists
were content to merely listen

for alien communication.

A decade
before the establishment

of the SETI Institute,

one of its founders,
famed astronomer Carl Sagan,

was part of an effort to send
a message out into the cosmos.

♪ ♪

Arecibo Observatory,
Puerto Rico.

November 16, 1974.

Scientists, dignitaries

and other public officials
gather to watch

as astronomers send out

the first official
radio communication

directed to extraterrestrials

using the largest, most powerful
telescope in the world.

SHOSTAK:
The message was just
a series of, you know,

dots and dashes, if you will.

But you could order them
into a-a matrix

and actually get a picture

as a way of sending a greeting
card, if you will, from Earth.

NARRATOR:
Designed by renowned scientists
like Carl Sagan and Frank Drake,

the Arecibo message contains
binary-encoded information,

including the numbers
one through ten,

an image of human DNA,

a human figure

and a graphic
of the solar system,

highlighting
the position of Earth.

POPE:
This was a calling card
from planet Earth.

It was really reaching out
across the galaxy

and saying, "We're here."

Now, some scientists
condemned it.

And, in fact, SETI
has been very controversial

when it moves into active--
what's called METI--

"messaging to
extraterrestrial intelligence."

Some people have said it's like
a suicide note to the universe,

because if there's a super
predator species out there,

you were saying,
"Come and get us."

Now, SETI scientists say,
"Well, it's too late.

"We've been a detectable
civilization for decades

because of our radio
and television broadcasts."

But it's still controversial.

NARRATOR:
In August 2001,

almost three decades after
the Arecibo message was sent,

there was
an extraordinary development.

Workers at
the Chilbolton Observatory

in Hampshire, England,

discovered a mysterious
crop circle in a nearby field

that was an almost exact replica
of the Arecibo message.

It's actually called sometimes
the Arecibo reply,

because it-it's
essentially very similar

to the Arecibo message
but with some subtle changes.

For example, the DNA
swaps out carbon for silicon.

And also, there's
a-a representation of a figure,

but it's not a human.

Looks like an alien.

Instantly, the astronomers
proclaimed this a hoax.

And as people started
to investigate this,

they realized
that maybe it was possible

that it came
from extraterrestrials.

One reason why was
that the message was so perfect.

How likely is it
that some crop circle hoaxer

could have duplicated
that message in a crop circle?

Crop circles are
a very important potential way

that an extraterrestrial
intelligence could use

to communicate with us.

They're very public,

and they have caught
the curiosity of humanity.

NARRATOR:
Was the so-called Arecibo reply
a message sent to Earth

by an extraterrestrial
civilization?

While its origin
continues to be debated,

some scientists suggest

that the best evidence
of intelligent life

that the best evidence
of intelligent life

can be found by simply
looking deep into space

for what aliens may have built

in the stars.

NARRATOR:
At the Murchison
Radio-astronomy Observatory,

one of the world's most powerful
telescopes detects a signal

that catches
the attention of scientists

from multiple institutions.

They discover
interstellar radio waves

that are reaching Earth
every 22 minutes.

Even stranger,

the signals have been sent,
like clockwork,

for more than 30 years.

HENRY:
Astronomers in Australia
made an amazing discovery--

a timed pulse,
a radio wave pulse

that went completely undetected.

This was a milestone,
a benchmark

in our search for
extraterrestrial intelligence.

SHOSTAK:
The thought is, it turns on
and off every 20 minutes--

a little too regular
to be due to nature.

And, uh, you know,

when you find
something unexpected,

of course you're excited.

PYLE:
Now, normally when you see
a repeating signal like that,

you think of either a pulsar,

which is a rotating star
that's sending out a radio burst

on a regular schedule,

or a magnetar,

which is a similar kind of star
that is...

has a very intense
magnetic field that's rotating.

And so you get spikes of a
signal from that magnetic field.

The problem is, this signal
doesn't match either of those.

TAYLOR:
We don't know
what this signal is,

but we do know
that it seems interesting

and possibly artificial,

which means
it was broadcast by someone.

We may find that there's a, uh,

natural phenomena
that explains it.

We may not.

POPE:
Some people have speculated

that this could mean
that extraterrestrials

have been signaling to us

for a very long time.

Now, there's still a lot
that we don't know about this,

but there's something
very odd about it.

CHILDRESS:
This is the kind of thing
that we've been searching for

for decades.

It's tremendously important,
this discovery.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible

that the strange radio pulses
detected in 2023

are signals being sent out
by alien life-forms?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

by examining another discovery

that some scientists believe

is evidence of an
extraterrestrial civilization.

Astronomer Tabetha Boyajian
publishes a paper

in the Monthly Notices of
the Royal Astronomical Society

that captures the attention
of the scientific world.

Using data gathered by
NASA's Kepler space telescope,

Boyajian documented strange
behavior in a distant star.

GIBOR BASRI:
The Kepler telescope
was searching for exoplanets

by waiting for them to cross
in front of their star

and block a little bit of light.

Well, she found a star

where the amount of light
that was blocked kept changing.

It was much more light
than a planet could block.

So Tabby's Star
was-was kind of a...

a surprising discovery
at the time.

KAKU:
Tabby's Star suddenly diminished
in terms of its intensity,

uh, by quite a bit,
and then flared up again

and has been doing this
for years.

What could cause that?

What is big enough

to diminish starlight
by that much?

It must be huge.

NARRATOR:
The bizarre dimming
led some astronomers to consider

a profound possibility:

that the dimming was caused

by an extraterrestrial
megastructure

known as a Dyson sphere.

This hypothetical technology

was first proposed by Princeton
physicist Freeman Dyson

in a 1960
Science Magazine article.

TAYLOR:
One of the Manhattan Project
scientists,

Freeman Dyson, had the idea that
a really advanced civilization

could build a sphere
around their star

at about an Earth orbit distance
from that star.

And it could capture
all of the energy

from that star
on the surface of this sphere.

SHOSTAK:
This idea
that advanced societies

will build stuff
that they put into orbit

around the star, their sun,

you know,
that makes perfect sense.

There's a lot of reasons
why you might want to do that.

Maybe just collecting
solar energy. I mean, who knows?

But if they built
anything like that,

then we would see a star
that gets dimmer,

then it gets brighter,
it gets dimmer.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible that
Tabetha Boyajian discovered

an enormous alien spacecraft?

One so big it could block out
the light of a star?

It's an idea that seems ripped

from the pages
of science fiction.

But not only do NASA scientists

believe such structures
could exist,

they are actively
searching for them.

The effort that I lead at SETI

is a search for what we call
alien megastructures.

These are large
panel-like objects

that may have been put in orbit
around other stars

by civilizations,
um, well beyond Earth.

It would immediately
indicate to us

that there are beings
out there in the universe

that are more advanced than us.

Alien megastructures
should not be that hard to find.

I mean, if they're out there,
there are various telltale signs

that a big enough telescope,
especially a space telescope,

should be able to spot

if we have an idea
what we're looking for.

The problem is going through

hundreds and thousands
of hours of data.

So, Ann Marie Cody
started a project

specifically targeting
alien megastructures

with artificial
intelligence, A.I.

TSOUKALOS:
The fact that Dr. Cody
is getting funding

to investigate this
is unheard of.

And the fact that
it is happening means

that a paradigm shift
has happened.

CODY:
We need to know
who is out there possibly

so that we can learn more
about ourselves

and what sort of course
humanity is going to take.

Right now, we are dealing with

unprecedented problems on Earth.

If we found beings
out there that were

more intelligent than us,

they may offer
useful information

if we were ever
to learn from them.

NARRATOR:
Might strange radio pulses

and the mysterious
dimming of stars

be evidence that we are not
alone in the universe?

According to some scientists,

the best evidence
of alien technology

the best evidence
of alien technology

can be found closer to home,

right here on Earth.

NARRATOR:
Ever since
the first radio telescope

was invented in the 1930s,

astronomers have listened
to the heavens

for signals from
extraterrestrial beings.

But in 2021,

Harvard professor Avi Loeb
breaks with tradition

and sets out to find alien life

not by scanning for radio waves

but by looking
for physical evidence.

He calls it the Galileo Project.

KAKU:
Professor Loeb says,
why not monitor

meteors and things
in outer space?

Perhaps one of them is remnants
of an advanced civilization.

For example, if an advanced
civilization is like us,

they would leave
Coke bottles everywhere,

and why not search for them?

The previous paradigm was:
sit, wait, open your telescope,

open your computer
and cross your fingers.

That's the way science
is usually done in astronomy.

Now he's saying,
"Why not reach out?"

LOEB:
All we need to do
is search around

and we might find objects

that were sent by civilizations.

Those civilizations,
they could have launched probes

to interstellar space
that would have populated

the entire
Milky Way galaxy by now,

and the only question is:
Do we live in such a reality?

NARRATOR:
According to Dr. Loeb,

if alien civilizations
do exist...

...their spacecraft
might appear to us

as something as simple
as a meteor.

POPE:
The Galileo Project
involves the idea that

alien probes may have visited
our solar system

and possibly crashed on

the Earth's surface
or the oceans in the past.

NARRATOR:
If extraterrestrial craft
have landed on Earth,

is it possible that the
Galileo Project could find them?

While the idea
of a Harvard scientist

searching for a crashed UFO

struck many in the scientific
community as laughable,

in 2023,
Dr. Loeb shocked the world

when he announced he found one.

June 2023.

100 miles north
of Papua New Guinea.

Dr. Loeb and members
of the Galileo Project

are combing the Pacific Ocean
in search of a meteor

that exploded over the region
ten years earlier.

LOEB:
I came across a meteor catalogue

that the government compiled

using its missile
warning system.

The meteor, uh, burned up

about 100 miles off the coast
of Papua New Guinea,

and it released
a few percent of the energy

of the Hiroshima bomb
when it exploded.

The government released data
of the explosion,

and from that,
we inferred that the object

has material strength
that is very unusual.

It's made of some alloy
that is much tougher

than iron meteorites,

and that raises the possibility

that it may have been
a spacecraft.

NARRATOR:
For two weeks, Dr. Loeb
and a team of scientists

drag a large magnetic sled
along the ocean floor.

And then they make what could be
an extraordinary find.

PYLE:
Loeb did find a number of beads,

little spherules,
not much bigger than a BB,

that they were able
to dredge up.

Upon first glance,
they look kind of exotic.

They have little swirls in them.

They're almost perfectly round.

HENRY:
The spheres
are sub-millimeter size.

When they get back to the lab
and they put these spheres

underneath a microscope,

they describe them
as beautiful metallic marbles.

This suggests,
in a preliminary way,

that we're dealing with perhaps
an extraterrestrial technology,

something that was not
made by nature.

PYLE:
Just finding little metal beads

isn't proof that
they're ball bearings

for an alien spaceship
or something,

but they could be,
and that's the exciting part.

You can't prove it yet, but
you can't disprove it, either.

NARRATOR:
Initial testing showed
that some of the spherules

had an unusually high
concentration of beryllium,

lanthanum and uranium
in a composition

that is unlike anything found
in our solar system.

CAROLINE WHITEHILL:
That composition

does not exist in any known

mineral or rock that we know of,

which would imply something
about the conditions

under which it was formed--
the temperatures, the pressures.

And when you combine that
with the spheroidal shape,

it does speak to his hypothesis

that they were manufactured
extraterrestrially.

NARRATOR:
Could the strange spherules
found on the ocean floor

really be of alien origin?

While more tests are underway,

Dr. Loeb continues to recruit
experts to the Galileo Project

like renowned UFO researcher
Jacques Vallée,

retired intelligence officer
Christopher Mellon

and former British Ministry
of Defence UFO investigator

Nick Pope.

POPE:
Now, I'm not a scientist,

but I'm one of a number
of people who are involved

and actually part of
Galileo Project

as a research affiliate.

So, people like myself,
with government backgrounds,

who can perhaps help
the science team with this,

we've come on board,
and-and it's fascinating work.

And think about this--
Harvard alien hunter?

This represents an enormous
step forward in humanity's quest

for extraterrestrial
intelligence because

we're-we're seeing signs and
signposts of academic acceptance

of the reality
that we are not alone.

Just the fact
that Harvard University

has the Galileo Project,

this shows that we're
in a brand-new era

where prestigious universities

and scientists
associated with them

are trying to find
extraterrestrial life.

NARRATOR:
Will the Galileo Project
find irrefutable proof

that we are not alone
in the universe?

Only time will tell.

But while researchers
like Avi Loeb

are making great strides
in the search

for extraterrestrial
intelligence,

some believe even more
exciting evidence

is being discovered
by NASA scientists,

is being discovered
by NASA scientists,

who recently found
strong indications

of a planet
inhabited by alien beings.

NARRATOR:
A team of astrobiologists

at Washington State University

complete an analysis
of more than 4,500 exoplanets.

After combing through the data,

they are surprised to find
24 planets

that fit the classification
of "superhabitable."

TAYLOR:
Very recently,
we have discovered many planets

that might be better for life
than Earth is.

Earth is still in an ice age
right now.

We have polar caps
on both sides of the planet.

So, these planets might be
even more habitable

or-or better for life to
spring up on than here on Earth.

PYLE:
For the most part,
they're larger than Earth.

They tend to be older.

The longer you give life
to evolve,

the more likely you're gonna
see advanced life-forms there.

NARRATOR:
The first exoplanets
were discovered in the 1990s,

and since then,
scientists have been astounded

by the number of
potentially habitable planets

they have found
throughout the universe.

Before 1995,
we didn't know whether

there were other
planets out there.

Today, we know
that the majority of stars

have planets orbiting them.

And, you know,
one in ten of those

have a planet that's at
the right distance

from that star
so that the temperatures,

you know,
are agreeable for life.

And there might be
liquid water on the surface

and that sort of thing.

So what we're finding
is that the Earth

may not be unique,
that there are other planets

that also have things
like atmospheres and oceans.

And if you're looking for E.T.,
well, it's good to find

that there are other locales
that might at least have life.

NARRATOR:
It's only recently,

with the launch
of the James Webb Telescope,

that scientists have been able

to study nearby planets
for signs of life.

The James Webb Telescope
is now powerful enough

to pick out
some of those planets

and actually measure
their atmospheric composition.

And then we'll-we'll be
a step closer

to-to actually knowing
whether there's life out there.

HENRY:
The James Webb Telescope
has the ability

to peer into the infrared level,

where it can detect
heat signatures

and also chemicals
on exoplanets that

previously have gone undetected.

Early results are astonishing.

It's already made
major discoveries

on two planets that are
suggestive that life

might actually be present
on these planets.

PYLE:
The Webb allows you
to see things that tell you

whether or not
there might be life there.

And more excitingly,
might tell you

that there's been
technology there.

When you start seeing
radioactive isotopes,

now you've got a better idea
that there might be technology.

It's probably high technology,

and that's what
we're looking for.

NARRATOR:
In September 2023,

scientists found
what many consider to be

the best evidence yet that life
is not unique to planet Earth.

In the atmosphere of a planet

124 light-years from Earth
called K2-18 b,

the James Webb Telescope
detected the presence

of a molecule
called dimethyl sulfide.

TAYLOR:
Dimethyl sulfide
is created through

organic processes only,
as far as we know.

Meaning some living creature,

during its life cycle, secretes
or excretes this material.

KAKU: The very fact that
that chemical is there

indicates there's
a high probability

that a life-form
was responsible for creating it.

In other words,
this could be the first sign

of life in outer space.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible that NASA
has finally discovered

life on an alien planet?

While scientists
need more evidence

before they can be certain,
the presence of dimethyl sulfide

suggests this is
a strong possibility.

If proven true,
the next question is:

Are these life-forms
intelligent?

Could it be
that planet K2-18 b is home

to an extraterrestrial
civilization?

TSOUKALOS:
The fact that they've discovered
DMS on a planet out there,

and if this can be corroborated,
well, there you go.

And now the next step will be,
we now know E.T. exists.

Number two will be,
not only are we not alone,

but they've been here.

TAYLOR:
We are right on the edge

with our modern-day technology
that we might find

life on another planet
in the next few years.

We might even find
civilizations that have

sprung up on these planets
in the next few years.

We're that close.
Our technology is there.

NARRATOR:
Could advances
in human technology,

like the James Webb
Space Telescope,

be the key
to finally discovering life

and maybe even intelligent life
beyond Earth?

Some scientists predict
our search will end

with direct contact from
advanced alien civilizations

not at some distant point
in the future

but any day now.

NARRATOR:
Astronomers at
the University of Toronto

announce that they are using
artificial intelligence

to search for evidence
of extraterrestrial technology

from 820 nearby stars...

...and have detected
some highly intriguing signals.

HENRY:
Astronomers have used
a machine-learning algorithm

to sift through
480 hours of tapes,

and they found eight signals

that they believe potentially
could be a techno signature.

A signal suggesting an advanced
extraterrestrial civilization

might even be inhabiting
these planets.

NARRATOR: While more research
needs to be conducted

to determine
exactly what is producing

these mysterious signals,

many experts believe
the use of A.I.

will astronomically accelerate

the search for
extraterrestrial intelligence.

CODY:
Artificial intelligence
is playing

an increasingly important role

in the search for
extraterrestrial technology

and intelligence,

simply because there is
so much data

coming through astronomers'
telescopes nowadays

that we need help with our
needle-in-the-haystack searches

to find the most
unusually behaving

stars and signals
embedded in that starlight.

BASRI:
What A.I. is
particularly good at

is it's really good at
recognizing patterns,

and patterns are really
what we're looking for in SETI.

So, we want to find
patterns that we don't think

nature would produce.

Feeding all the radio signals
that we...

that we receive from the stars

into the right A.I. system
would help enormously

in identifying patterns
that humans might not find.

NARRATOR:
While scientists are excited

by the prospect
of humankind's first encounter

with an advanced
alien civilization

in the near future,

ancient astronaut theorists
view this possibility

through a different lens.

To them, such an event
would not be first contact

but a reunion.

TSOUKALOS:
Does official contact mean

a signal that has been
received through SETI?

Or will it be, you know,

a validation of
the ancient astronaut theory?

That, you know, hey, not only
are we not alone in the universe

but they've visited in the past
and they've been here.

In my opinion,

the E.T.'s are here,
they're observing us,

and SETI is one way

with which to prepare
the masses.

POPE:
It may be at the moment
that civilizations

are aware of us, visiting us,
but don't make open contact.

But all that secrecy will end
the day we find out about them,

because the cat
will be out of the bag

and we'll have
open first contact.

Up close and personal
interaction between

extraterrestrials and humanity.

And that will tell us
something interesting

about the extraterrestrials,
but it may also tell us

something rather interesting
about ourselves.

MAN:
Look at it fly!

TAYLOR:
It's very likely that we're
right at the edge

of the next era for humanity

when we realize we're not alone
in the universe.

Extraterrestrials
make contact with us,

that's gonna change humanity
more than you can imagine.

HENRY:
We need protocols in place.

We need to begin to prepare

human civilization
for this reality

and the transformation
that will result

once contact is established.

CHILDRESS:
I think planet Earth
will be ready for it

and we will hopefully rejoice

in the fact that we are in
contact with extraterrestrials

and that we are not alone
in the universe.

NARRATOR:
Now that the search for
extraterrestrial intelligence

has been taken up
by top scientists

and academics
all over the world,

are we on the verge
of making contact

with an alien race?

Could powerful new technologies
detect life

and even civilizations
on other planets?

Or might we even uncover
an otherworldly presence

right here on Earth?

Perhaps one day soon,

we will learn the truth
that we have been seeking

since the beginning
of humankind.

We are not alone.

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