- 10 minutes ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Mysteries can be buried anywhere, under the earth, beneath the sea, or even right under
00:14our own feet. And when we stumble upon them, sometimes what we find can change history.
00:22Tonight, secrets from the skies, like a flying predator that dealt death from above.
00:32This was a massive killer.
00:35They've never seen anything like this.
00:38To a mysterious rock that fell from the stars.
00:42It turns out to be really heavy. He's shocked, and he thinks that maybe this stone is full of gold.
00:49But this is not made of gold. It's something even better and more rare.
00:54To a strange skull found in a cave.
00:58It's abnormally large and bulbous. The eyes seem to be set far apart. I mean, this is right out of a horror movie.
01:06Join us now, because nothing stays hidden forever.
01:19It's 2014 in Cincinnati, and a widow named Carol Knight is going through her late husband's
01:28belongings in his office. Much of what she's finding is exactly what you would expect. Some papers,
01:35an old, well-worn pair of sneakers, that kind of thing.
01:38And as she's looking in the back of the closet, she comes upon this white bag.
01:42She lifts it up, and she can hear it make a loud clank.
01:46She opens it, and inside, it's loaded with this technical equipment.
01:51There are these metal coils that run to these odd-looking sensors.
01:55There's, like, straps and tools and a small 1960s film camera.
02:00Usually, stuff like this might just get tossed in the trash, or maybe donated to Goodwill or something.
02:07But these aren't just random items. They belong to Carol's late husband, legendary astronaut,
02:13Neil Armstrong.
02:15Obviously, in the astronaut hierarchy, Neil Armstrong sits at the very top.
02:22He's the first person to set foot on the moon.
02:24And in July 1969, 650 million people huddled around their television sets
02:31to watch that moment happen.
02:33Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.
02:39Obviously, any artifact associated with him or the Apollo 11 mission
02:44is going to be extremely valuable.
02:47After he dies in 2012,
02:50Carol gives curators from the National Air and Space Museum
02:53access to his office.
02:55They come in, and they collect anything
02:57that they think might be important for the museum.
03:00Two years later,
03:02when Carol finds this bag in the closet,
03:04she doesn't know what to make of it.
03:06So before throwing it all away,
03:08Carol calls the museum again
03:10and sends curator Alan D. Dale
03:13a photograph of the contents of the bag.
03:15When Alan sees the photos,
03:17he can't believe his eyes.
03:19This looks like stuff from the Apollo 11 mission.
03:24And this means that these items
03:26have been to the moon.
03:29That's one small step for man,
03:33one giant leap for mankind.
03:37Everybody knows the Westinghouse TV camera
03:40that took this famous shot.
03:41But there was a second camera,
03:44a 16-millimeter,
03:46mounted on top of the lunar module.
03:48Armstrong and Aldrin used this camera
03:50to film themselves
03:52while they're tearing around the moon,
03:54taking samples of moon dust and moon rocks
03:56and planting the American flag.
03:59So how did this priceless piece of history
04:01end up buried in a closet
04:03for more than 40 years?
04:05It seems that nobody but Armstrong
04:07knew that this camera was in the closet
04:10because it wasn't supposed to even
04:12come back to Earth in the first place.
04:15When it comes to space travel,
04:16there is no more valuable commodity than mass.
04:20They even have a saying,
04:21every ounce matters.
04:24When Apollo 11 returns to Earth,
04:25they come back with 50 pounds of moon rocks
04:28that they didn't leave Cape Canaveral with.
04:30So they had to leave an equivalent weight
04:33of items behind to compensate for the rocks.
04:36But Armstrong didn't want to leave
04:38the prized camera on the moon.
04:39It seems that Armstrong makes an executive decision
04:44to take the 16-millimeter film camera back.
04:48And he keeps this secret.
04:49He doesn't tell NASA.
04:50He doesn't even tell his wife for decades.
04:53And now Armstrong's secret camera
04:56could turn out to be worth a fortune.
04:58Buzz Aldrin's Apollo 11 jacket
05:00sells for $2.8 million in 2022.
05:04And bags used to collect rock samples
05:07sell for $2 million at auction.
05:10And they don't even have moon rock in them anymore.
05:12So can you imagine
05:13what this camera would sell for?
05:16Carol Knight, however, does not cash in.
05:19Instead, she donates the camera
05:21to the Space Museum for public display.
05:23You can still go see it today.
05:26And it helps to ensure
05:28that Armstrong's legacy will carry on.
05:32Uncovering a priceless NASA relic
05:35in a closet is one thing.
05:37But imagine literally stumbling over
05:39something even more valuable
05:41that fell from the sky.
05:45The Maryborough Park in Melbourne, Australia
05:48is right in the middle of the Goldfields region,
05:51which is where the 19th century gold rush boomed.
05:55Its golden age is over,
05:57but amateur gold rushers and tourists
05:59still try their luck,
06:00hoping to get the odd nugget.
06:03In 2015, David Hole is walking around the park
06:06not expecting to find much.
06:09He digs here and there for fun,
06:12but as he's walking through some thick red clay,
06:15he practically trips over a medium-sized rock.
06:19He wonders if something might be under it.
06:22He tries to move it out of the way,
06:24but it turns out to be really heavy.
06:26He's shocked,
06:28and he thinks that maybe this stone is full of gold.
06:32David excitedly lugs the stone back home,
06:35and once he's there,
06:36he breaks out his angle grinder
06:38to crack it open and get to the prize inside.
06:42But as he goes to cut it open,
06:44the angle grinder can't even make a dent.
06:47Then he tries smashing it with a sledgehammer,
06:51but the sledge just bounces right back off.
06:55He tries acid, but again, no dice.
06:58He's never seen anything like it.
07:00This thing has not a scratch on it.
07:03Whatever it actually is,
07:04it's clearly no gold nugget.
07:06Unlike the rock itself,
07:08David's dreams of a big payday are shattered.
07:10So he brings it to the Melbourne Museum
07:14to see if anyone can figure out what exactly it is.
07:18Museum scientists examine the indestructible lump
07:21and have both good and bad news for David.
07:25The bad news is that, as David suspected,
07:28this is not made of gold.
07:29But the good news is that it's something even better
07:33and more rare.
07:35It's a meteorite.
07:38Over the last 37 years,
07:39this museum curator has examined thousands of rocks
07:43people thought were meteorites.
07:45But so far, only two had delivered on that promise.
07:49So finding a meteorite is extremely rare.
07:52To unlock the secrets inside,
07:55scientists need to look deeper.
07:57Carbon dating puts the rock's arrival on Earth
08:00somewhere between about 100 to 1,000 years ago.
08:05But to get the full story,
08:06the lab has to crack this rock open,
08:09which is easier said than done.
08:12The outer shells of meteorites are hardened
08:15by their passage through the Earth's atmosphere,
08:18which generates an enormous amount of heat.
08:21It's like putting them in a super forge,
08:24the same way we would harden steel.
08:26To crack it open,
08:28they need the hardest tool they have.
08:30It takes a diamond blade saw
08:32to finally cut into the rock.
08:34And what they find inside
08:36is a blend of rare minerals
08:38and a high concentration of iron.
08:41Based on its makeup,
08:43experts believe that it came from
08:45the huge asteroid belt
08:46that sits between Mars and Jupiter
08:49and may have even been part of a core
08:52of a planet that failed to form.
08:55Incredibly, David's rock turns out
08:58to be far more valuable than gold.
09:01Because they're so rare,
09:03meteorites can be worth
09:04anywhere between $10,000 to $1,000 per gram.
09:08This one weighs 37 pounds
09:11or about 17,000 grams.
09:15So it could be worth millions.
09:17For now, David's meteorite is on display
09:19at the Melbourne Museum.
09:21Time will tell if David decides
09:23to finally cash in on his find
09:25or keep it in the museum
09:27as the world's most indestructible nest egg.
09:30On Earth, dig up planes lost in World War II.
09:36They uncover a mystery no one expected.
09:43In the spring of 1991,
09:46explorers from the scientific search project
09:48of New York City
09:49are scouring the ocean floor
09:52off Fort Lauderdale
09:54looking for gold from old Spanish galleons.
09:56Graham Hawks is leading a search
09:59using a small submarine with a remote camera.
10:03But as he patrols the seafloor,
10:06he sees something that distracts him.
10:09What Hawks and his team have just found
10:11is the wreckage of a World War II-era
10:13TBM Avenger torpedo bomber.
10:17And it's not alone.
10:18They find not two, not three,
10:21but five Avenger bombers
10:23all on the bottom of the Atlantic
10:25and all within about a mile of each other.
10:27They seem too close together
10:29for it to be a coincidence.
10:31The only logical conclusion seems to be
10:34that they were flying together
10:35and then all went down at the same time.
10:39To the crew's historians,
10:41the clues point to a single infamous case,
10:44the disappearance of Flight 19.
10:48In December 1945,
10:50three months after the end of World War II,
10:52five Avenger bombers take off
10:55from the Fort Lauderdale naval base
10:57on a routine training mission.
10:59The lead plane starts experiencing compass trouble
11:03and the pack gets disoriented.
11:07Radio contact with the naval base in Fort Lauderdale
11:10becomes fainter and fainter.
11:13The base is struggling
11:15to track the position of the planes.
11:17It's almost as if something is interrupting
11:20or interfering with the signal.
11:23Eventually, radio contact
11:24with all five planes is lost.
11:33Nightfalls and the pilots and planes
11:36of Flight 19 are never heard from again.
11:39The planes vanish without a trace
11:41in a vast, merciless area of ocean
11:44known as the Bermuda Triangle.
11:48No other incident fuels the mystique
11:51of the Bermuda Triangle
11:52more than the loss of Flight 19.
11:54So solving that mystery
11:56while looking for Spanish gold
11:57could be the only thing luckier
11:59than actually finding Spanish gold.
12:02The find is too compelling to ignore,
12:05so Hawks' team takes a closer look
12:08at the planes.
12:08They need to look for identifying markers.
12:12So they comb through the videos
12:13and first they make out the letters F and T,
12:17which means that these planes
12:19did take off from Fort Lauderdale,
12:21just like Flight 19.
12:22They also make out the number 28
12:25on the tail of one plane,
12:27which partially matches up
12:29to one of the missing Flight 19 planes.
12:31So at this point, they're very excited.
12:34Then they find more tail numbers,
12:36but these do not line up with Flight 19.
12:39And at least some of these planes
12:41are underarmed,
12:42which suggests that they're actually older planes
12:45than the ones who flew in Flight 19.
12:48As Hawks and his team uncover more evidence,
12:51it starts to tell a different story,
12:53one that only deepens the mystery.
12:57So it turns out that not only
12:58is this not the Flight 19 group,
13:00but these planes,
13:01which crashed basically on top of each other,
13:03didn't even crash at the same time.
13:06These crashes span years,
13:08going back to 1943.
13:10So now, instead of solving
13:12one Bermuda Triangle mystery,
13:15researchers now have two unsolved mysteries.
13:21The Bermuda Triangle
13:22isn't the only place famous aircraft vanish.
13:26Sometimes they turn up
13:27in the last place you'd expect.
13:29It's the fall of 2023,
13:34and business partners Dustin Riach
13:37and Jason Rivas
13:38have just popped the lock
13:40on a storage unit
13:41in Van Nuys, California.
13:43They won an online auction
13:45for the contents of the unit,
13:47sight unseen.
13:49Rivas calls the gamble
13:50shooting dice in the dark.
13:51These storage units
13:52can come packed with old clothes
13:55or holiday decorations
13:56or sometimes even hazardous materials.
13:58On occasion, though,
14:00they might actually have something valuable.
14:02They pop open some boxes
14:03and they find some nitrate film rolls
14:06from the 1800s and the 1900s,
14:08which might be worth a couple of bucks,
14:10but it's really not anything of profound value.
14:14Then they start opening some garbage bags,
14:16and Jason pulls out a model of a spaceship.
14:21They realize that this is a model
14:23of the USS Enterprise
14:24and figure that it might have some value
14:27to Star Trek fans.
14:29Dustin and Jason decide to list it on eBay
14:32to see how much they can get for it.
14:34As soon as the auction goes live,
14:36people start freaking out
14:38because the base of this model
14:40has a business card
14:41with the name of the model maker,
14:43Richard C. Dayton.
14:44Richard C. Dayton is nothing short
14:47of a legend in the Star Trek community.
14:49In fact, he built the original model
14:53of the Starship Enterprise in 1966.
14:56He built the one that goes soaring across the screen
15:00in the opening credits
15:01of Gene Roddenberry's series.
15:03But that original piece of Trekkie treasure
15:06has been missing for decades,
15:09and fans online think this could be
15:11the original prototype.
15:12Back in 1979,
15:15the makers of Star Trek The Motion Picture
15:17borrowed the model from Gene Roddenberry,
15:20the show's creator,
15:22and never gave it back,
15:23even though Gene would send letter after letter
15:26begging for its return.
15:28Dustin and Jason pull the item from eBay
15:31and bring it to the Heritage Auction House
15:33for verification.
15:34Sure enough, this is the original Enterprise model
15:38that's been missing for over 40 years,
15:42and its value is estimated at $800,000.
15:46To this day, nobody knows how the model
15:49ended up in the storage unit,
15:51but the discovery sends shockwaves
15:54through the Star Trek universe,
15:55and it doesn't take long
15:57for the original creator's family to step in.
16:00Now, even though the show's creator, Gene Roddenberry,
16:03died in 1991,
16:04his son, Gene Jr.,
16:06hears about the model,
16:07and he wants it back.
16:08I mean, his dad didn't give it away.
16:10His dad loaned it out.
16:11He feels it should definitely be part of his estate.
16:15Revis and Reoc strike a deal
16:17to return the model to Roddenberry's son
16:19in exchange for $500,000.
16:22It's not $800,000,
16:24but it's a lot more than they expected
16:25to get out of the model
16:26when they posted it on eBay.
16:30Exploring the ocean can reveal strange things.
16:36In 2022, divers uncovered
16:39a tragic piece of space history.
16:45It's 2022.
16:47An underwater explorer, Mike Barnett,
16:49and rec specialist, Jimmy Godomsky,
16:52are diving off the coast
16:53of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
16:57They're part of a documentary crew
16:59searching for a downed rescue plane
17:02that went missing in the 1940s.
17:04The particular aircraft
17:05that they're looking for
17:06is a PBM Mariner flying boat.
17:09It's got a large superstructure,
17:11and it'll be easily recognizable
17:12because of its top-mounted,
17:14inverted gull wings.
17:16On the ocean floor,
17:18Mike spots a shape
17:19that's buried under coral sand,
17:20and his gut is leading him
17:23to believe that it's part of a wing
17:24of that PBM Mariner plane,
17:26so he decides to check it out.
17:29They use blowers
17:30to delicately remove
17:32sand and coral fragments
17:34from the object.
17:36But as the sand blows off,
17:38they see something
17:39that doesn't make sense.
17:41They uncover what appears
17:43to be a series of white bricks
17:45or cobblestones
17:46mounted to the object.
17:48Now, even though it appears
17:49to have been buried
17:50for a long time,
17:51these bricks are still
17:52very white
17:54with no signs
17:55of any rust or oxidation.
17:57They seem to be made
17:58of a composite
17:59that neither of them recognize.
18:02Mike realizes
18:03this isn't a World War II plane,
18:06but the location of the wreck
18:07gives him another idea.
18:10They're just offshore
18:12from Cape Canaveral,
18:13which launches rockets
18:14all the time.
18:15And parts of rockets
18:16like boosters
18:17are designed
18:18to fall back
18:19into the ocean
18:20from 50 miles up,
18:22but this thing
18:23is flat and wide,
18:24and so it can't be
18:25a rocket booster.
18:27As he heads back to shore,
18:28Mike calls
18:29a former astronaut friend
18:30named Bruce Melnick
18:32to look at the video.
18:33It takes Melnick
18:34all of two seconds
18:35to recognize
18:36those white bricks.
18:38These are heat tiles
18:39of the type
18:40that were used
18:41on the space shuttle
18:41to protect it from heat
18:43during reentry.
18:44Then Melnick says
18:46something that stops
18:47everyone in their tracks.
18:49Melnick is sure
18:51that if there's
18:52a big piece
18:53of a space shuttle
18:54just off the coast
18:55of Florida,
18:56it belonged
18:57to Challenger.
19:02Challenger,
19:03go with throttle up.
19:04When space shuttle
19:10Challenger detonates
19:11in the skies above
19:12Cape Canaveral
19:13in January 1986,
19:15it sends the entire
19:16country into mourning.
19:19It kills all seven
19:20crew members,
19:21including schoolteacher
19:23Krista McAuliffe,
19:24who was supposed
19:25to be the first
19:26civilian in space.
19:28Obviously, there's a scramble
19:30to see what caused
19:31this horrific tragedy,
19:32so the Navy undertakes
19:33the biggest salvage
19:34operation in history.
19:36But it's an incredibly
19:37difficult mission
19:37because debris
19:39is spread
19:40across 500 square miles
19:42of ocean.
19:44They collect over
19:44100 tons of wreckage.
19:48And that wreckage,
19:50combined with film footage,
19:52reveals that the fault
19:53is an O-ring,
19:54a little rubber gasket
19:55in a rocket booster
19:56that was responsible
19:58for triggering
19:58the explosion.
20:01Mike brings footage
20:02from his dive
20:03to NASA program director
20:04Mike Cinelli,
20:06hoping to confirm
20:07that what they found
20:09truly is a piece
20:10of the Challenger shuttle.
20:12And I'm always
20:13a little cautious
20:13because, as you know,
20:14we've launched rockets
20:15for over 70 years,
20:16so there's a lot
20:17of objects out there.
20:18But after looking
20:19at the object
20:21in greater detail,
20:24you've discovered Challenger.
20:28I certainly can't
20:29thank you enough
20:30for showing me this.
20:32Yeah, it's powerful.
20:35Everyone who was alive
20:36and conscious at the time
20:37remembers where they were
20:39when it happened.
20:42Seeing this artifact
20:43is enough to bring you
20:45right back to that moment
20:46in history.
20:47Lots of deadly things
20:52can descend from above,
20:53but few are as frightening
20:55as one giant predator
20:57that once ruled
20:59over Canada's skies.
21:03In 1992,
21:04a professional nature photographer
21:06explores the snow-covered terrain
21:08in Alberta, Canada.
21:09As she scans the blank white canvas
21:12and contemplates her next shot,
21:14she spots something odd
21:15on the ground.
21:16And as she gets up close,
21:17she realizes it could be a fossil.
21:20She's curious.
21:21She gently chips away
21:23at the frozen soil
21:24all around this object.
21:26And sure enough,
21:27she begins to see
21:28a massive form take shape.
21:31It looks like a long neck,
21:34gigantic wing bones,
21:35and a rib cage.
21:36Now, she's no dinosaur expert,
21:39but she does feel like
21:40she stumbled onto something special.
21:42She calls the Royal Tyrell Museum,
21:45and once their paleontologists
21:46look at the specimen,
21:48they determine it's a kind of pterosaur
21:50known as Quetzalcoatlus,
21:52a giant flying reptile
21:54that once ruled the skies
21:5577 million years ago.
21:57It's a magnificent find.
22:00But in the fossil world,
22:02this is old news,
22:03since the species
22:04was already discovered
22:05in Texas back in 1972.
22:08So the fossils are exhumed
22:09and basically forgotten about.
22:11Sometimes, however,
22:13even the experts
22:14can miss something.
22:15In 2019,
22:16another team of paleontologists
22:18pulls the fossils
22:19out of mothballs
22:20to take a second look.
22:22But this time,
22:22looking at the morphology,
22:24they see something
22:24doesn't add up.
22:26The neck on this specimen
22:28is shorter and wider
22:30than the Quetzalcoatlus
22:31from Texas.
22:32They've never seen
22:33anything like this.
22:34This is a new,
22:36badass species
22:37of a super predator.
22:39Like her Texas cousin,
22:40this was a massive killer.
22:43We're talking
22:44a 32-foot wingspan,
22:46which is equivalent
22:46to a four-seater Cessna plane.
22:49The head was huge,
22:51about three times longer
22:53than the actual length
22:54of its body,
22:54in fact,
22:55one expert described it
22:56as a giant flying murder head.
22:59This ancient flying
23:01eating machine
23:01is dubbed
23:02Cryodrachon boreas,
23:04Greek for frozen dragon
23:06of the north wind.
23:07But around the lab
23:08and in the press,
23:10it becomes known
23:11as the ice dragon.
23:13It likely fed on a diet
23:15of lizards
23:15and baby dinos,
23:17but because this ice dragon
23:18had no teeth,
23:20it would swallow prey whole
23:22using its powerful neck muscles.
23:24But for this particular ice dragon,
23:27dinner didn't go as planned.
23:30The Alberta specimen
23:31is covered in battle scars.
23:34In fact,
23:34one of the leg fossils
23:36has a velociraptor tooth
23:38embedded into it.
23:40Experts can't tell
23:41if this is what killed
23:42the ice dragon,
23:42but what they can tell
23:43is that it died young,
23:45probably a teenager.
23:46It's the first of its kind
23:48ever found in Canada
23:50and one of the best preserved
23:52flying reptiles
23:53ever discovered
23:54on the continent,
23:55taken out before
23:56it had realized
23:57its full terrifying potential.
24:00For centuries,
24:06people have looked
24:07to the skies
24:08for answers,
24:09but in Mexico,
24:10one teenager
24:11finds something
24:12buried underground
24:13that seems
24:14to come from the stars.
24:17It's the 1930s
24:18and somewhere
24:19in Copper Canyon,
24:20about 100 miles
24:22south of Chihuahua, Mexico,
24:24a teenage girl
24:25on vacation
24:25stumbles across
24:27an abandoned mine.
24:28This area is littered
24:30with these old
24:31abandoned mine shafts
24:32and the girl's parents
24:33tell her to stay away
24:34from them
24:34because they could
24:35be dangerous.
24:36Naturally,
24:36her curiosity
24:37gets the best of her
24:38and she goes in
24:39and she's crawling
24:40through the dust
24:41and the dirt
24:41even though the ceiling
24:43of one of these mines
24:43could collapse in on her
24:45at any moment.
24:46At the end of one tunnel,
24:48she comes across something
24:49that stops her
24:50in her tracks.
24:51In the corner
24:52of this dark,
24:53dusty cavern,
24:54she makes out
24:55what looks like
24:56a body.
24:58And as she gets
24:59closer to it,
25:00she sees it is
25:01an adult skeleton.
25:05As she continues
25:06looking around,
25:07she notices
25:08something chilling.
25:10Next to that skeleton
25:11is a mound of dirt
25:12and sticking out
25:13from it
25:14is this small,
25:15misshapen skeleton hand.
25:17And that little hand
25:19is holding hands
25:20with the first skeleton.
25:22I mean,
25:23this is right out
25:24of a horror movie.
25:24Still unafraid,
25:28this 13-year-old girl
25:29starts uncovering
25:31the second skeleton.
25:33The first thing
25:34she notices
25:34is the body
25:36is the size of a child.
25:38But when she gets
25:39to the skull,
25:40she can tell
25:41that it looks strange.
25:43Compared to the rest
25:44of the body,
25:45the skull is
25:46unnaturally large
25:48and bulbous
25:49with wide,
25:50sad eyes.
25:52It's so strange
25:53that she just
25:54has to have it.
25:55She winds up
25:56taking both skulls
25:58home with her
25:58and tucks them away
26:00in a storage area
26:01where they stay
26:01undisturbed
26:02for decades.
26:03After the girl
26:05passes away,
26:07the skulls end up
26:08in the hands
26:09of family friends
26:10who turn over
26:11the specimens
26:12to a researcher
26:13named Lloyd Pye.
26:15Pye is not
26:16your typical biologist
26:17or researcher.
26:19He's an author
26:19and proponent
26:20of what's called
26:21the intervention theory,
26:23which basically argues
26:24that aliens
26:25visited the Earth
26:26and, among other things,
26:27genetically contributed
26:28to modern humans.
26:30As Pye studies the skull,
26:32he gets very excited.
26:33He remarks
26:34that the bulbous head
26:35and offset eyes
26:36are consistent
26:38with alleged eyewitness accounts
26:40of so-called
26:41gray aliens.
26:43Gray aliens
26:45are those
26:45stereotypical
26:47big-headed,
26:48big-eyed aliens
26:49often depicted
26:50in science fiction.
26:53Pye is convinced
26:54that the skull
26:55is not human
26:56and names it
26:58the star child skull.
27:00He looks at the skull
27:02and wonders now
27:03if this might be evidence
27:04of an alien-human hybrid,
27:06essentially the missing link
27:07that he's been looking for.
27:09He raises money
27:11to do carbon dating
27:12and DNA testing
27:13of the skull.
27:14When his test results
27:16come back,
27:17Pye claims
27:17that they show
27:18the skull dates back
27:19to 900 years ago.
27:21The sample shows
27:22lots of human DNA,
27:24but Pye claims
27:25that there are elements
27:27that the lab
27:27can't account for.
27:29And Pye argues
27:30that these holes
27:31in the DNA sample
27:32must be where
27:34the alien contributions are.
27:36Eventually,
27:37mainstream scientists
27:38are able to retest
27:39samples from the skull
27:40and fill in
27:42some of those
27:42previous gaps
27:43in the skull's DNA.
27:44Turns out,
27:45they disagree with Lloyd.
27:47They argue
27:48that the star child skull
27:49is not evidence
27:50of a gray-alien-human hybrid.
27:53Instead,
27:53they say that
27:54it's a male human
27:55with a birth defect
27:56probably like hydrocephalus,
27:58informally known
27:59as water on the brain,
28:00which can cause
28:01the kinds of features
28:02that appear in this skull.
28:03But Pye and his followers
28:05are not backing down,
28:06and no scientist
28:07or evidence
28:08is going to dissuade them
28:10from their beliefs.
28:12Lloyd fights this battle
28:13right until he dies
28:14in 2013,
28:16eight decades
28:16after the star child skull
28:18is pulled
28:19from that abandoned mine shaft
28:20outside Chihuahua.
28:22As for his followers,
28:24they believe the truth
28:25is still out there.
28:29Almost a century later,
28:31another teenager
28:32makes an incredible find,
28:34one that lies
28:35far beyond
28:36our solar system.
28:39It's 2019,
28:41and 17-year-old
28:43aspiring astrophysicist
28:44and Star Wars superfan
28:46Wolf Kukir
28:47has landed his dream job
28:49as a NASA intern.
28:51In addition to standard
28:53intern duties,
28:54like fetching coffee
28:55and making copies,
28:57he's tasked with
28:58analyzing data
28:59of variations
29:01in star brightness
29:02using NASA's
29:03TESS satellite.
29:05TESS stands for
29:07Transiting Exoplanet
29:08Survey Satellite,
29:10which is a fancy acronym
29:11for a very powerful
29:12space telescope
29:13that has shot into orbit
29:15in 2018
29:16to look for planets
29:17outside our solar system.
29:19He's asked to comb
29:20through brightness data,
29:21also known as a star's
29:23light curve,
29:24which is essentially
29:25its brightness versus time.
29:27These are pretty pictures
29:28of stars.
29:30These are pretty much
29:30just dots on the page.
29:32If the brightness doesn't change,
29:34the dot stays in the same place.
29:35If it gets dimmer,
29:36the dot goes down.
29:37For the scientists,
29:38this is kind of like
29:39grunt work.
29:40But for Wolf,
29:41as an intern,
29:42he is in heaven.
29:44On day three
29:46of his internship,
29:47Wolf stumbles upon
29:49a light curve
29:50that gets his blood pumping.
29:53It's a two-star system
29:54that sits in the
29:55Pictor constellation.
29:57As he's looking
29:58at this light curve,
29:59he sees a dip
30:01that comes in intervals.
30:02This represents
30:03the star dimming
30:04and then coming back
30:05to full brightness.
30:06That suggests
30:08a third object
30:09orbiting both
30:10of these stars.
30:12An excited Wolf
30:13leaps to his feet,
30:15straightens his name tag,
30:16and in his most confident
30:18intern voice,
30:19tells his NASA supervisor
30:21he thinks he's got
30:22something worth looking at.
30:23When Wolf's boss
30:25looks at the computer screen,
30:27he is absolutely stunned.
30:29This intern
30:30on his third day
30:31of the job,
30:33somehow,
30:34in the cold expanse
30:35of space 1,300 light years away,
30:39has stumbled across
30:40a previously undiscovered planet
30:42orbiting two stars at once.
30:45Now, if you're a Star Wars fan
30:48like Wolf,
30:49you know that Luke Skywalker's
30:51home planet
30:52had two suns.
30:53And just like Tatooine
30:54in Star Wars,
30:56if you were to look up
30:57in the sky
30:57from the surface
30:58of this newly discovered planet,
31:01you would see
31:01two sunsets.
31:03But in this case,
31:04the planet is so hot,
31:06you would also be vaporized.
31:08This is a remarkable discovery
31:10because this is the first time
31:12the test satellite
31:13was able to discover
31:15a planet orbiting
31:16a double star system.
31:18And it was found
31:19by a high school student.
31:22The astronomers
31:23leading this study
31:24publish their results
31:25in a major
31:25international science journal,
31:27and they do
31:28a very classy thing.
31:29They include
31:3017-year-old high school
31:32intern Wolf
31:33as a co-author.
31:34But it's not all
31:36good news for Wolf
31:37because even though
31:38he's the guy
31:39who discovered the planet,
31:40he's not allowed
31:42to name it.
31:43NASA names it
31:44TOI-1338B,
31:47which doesn't exactly
31:48roll off the tongue.
31:50Some reporters
31:51ask Wolf
31:51if he's disappointed
31:52by the name,
31:53and he says his brother
31:54suggested they call it
31:55Wolf-topia,
31:56which, let's face it,
31:57is far more awesome.
32:04High in the Andes,
32:06two climbers
32:06reached the summit
32:07of a frozen peak.
32:09But instead
32:10of a breathtaking view,
32:12they discovered
32:12a clue
32:13from an old mystery.
32:17It's a cool day
32:18in January of 1998
32:20on the Chilean-Argentinian border.
32:23Mountain climbers
32:24Pablo Reguera
32:24and Fernando Garmendia
32:26are summiting
32:27one of the highest peaks
32:28in the area,
32:30Mount Tupungano.
32:31As they cross
32:32the 15,000-foot mark,
32:34they notice something
32:35in the distance.
32:36As they get closer,
32:38it becomes obvious
32:38that what they're looking at
32:40is some sort of engine.
32:43And a quick wipe
32:44of the valve cover
32:45on top
32:45reveals the words
32:47Rolls-Royce.
32:48Now, obviously,
32:50nobody has taken
32:51their luxury automobile
32:52three miles up
32:53a mountain in Argentina,
32:54so the two conclude
32:55that what they must
32:56be looking at
32:56is an airplane engine.
32:58There are no recent reports
33:00of crashes
33:01or missing airplanes
33:02anywhere in the area.
33:04And while the engine
33:05looks pretty banged up,
33:06it's tough to tell
33:07just how long
33:08it's been there.
33:09A quick search
33:10of the area
33:10reveals what appears
33:12to be a damaged fuselage
33:14as well as some strips
33:15of sun-bleached clothing.
33:16At this point,
33:18the mountain climbers
33:18realize that this is
33:19definitely a crash site.
33:21The question is,
33:23from when?
33:25They snap a few photos
33:26and they head back
33:27down the mountain
33:28and report it.
33:30This is enough
33:31to raise interest
33:31in mounting
33:32a full expedition.
33:33And so volunteers
33:34from the Argentinian army
33:36form a caravan,
33:38trucks, men,
33:39even mules
33:40to try to get to places
33:41where the trucks
33:41can't go on the mountain.
33:43When the team
33:43reaches the crash site,
33:44they spread out
33:45and comb over the area.
33:47Then, the search
33:48takes a gruesome turn.
33:50They find human body parts
33:53scattered across
33:54the crash site.
33:56Parts of five different bodies
33:58are ultimately discovered,
34:00all preserved
34:01atop this frozen mountain.
34:04The team then turns
34:05over their findings
34:06to Argentine scientists.
34:08Over the next two years,
34:09they conduct DNA testing
34:11and eventually confirm
34:12the identities
34:13of all five individuals.
34:15As they notify the families,
34:17they realize these victims
34:18are all linked
34:19by one thing.
34:21They were all on a plane
34:22that vanished
34:23nearly 50 years ago.
34:26On August 2nd, 1947,
34:29a decommissioned
34:30World War II bomber,
34:31now converted
34:32into a passenger plane
34:33called the Stardust,
34:35takes off from Buenos Aires
34:36with 11 people on board,
34:38bound for Santiago.
34:39There's a snowstorm that day
34:41as well as a strong headwind.
34:43Then, just four minutes
34:45before the aircraft
34:46is scheduled to land
34:47in Santiago,
34:48the pilot sends
34:49a Morse code message
34:50announcing his estimated
34:51time of arrival,
34:53followed by a cryptic message,
34:56Stendak.
34:58The radio man in Santiago
34:59has never heard this phrase.
35:01He asks for the message
35:02to be repeated,
35:03and it comes back
35:04the same twice more.
35:06Stendak.
35:07Stendak.
35:08The signal cuts off
35:10without warning,
35:11and the plane
35:12simply disappears.
35:16The Argentine
35:18and Chilean air forces
35:19send up aircraft
35:20searching for wreckage
35:22of Stardust,
35:22and yet they find nothing.
35:25It's like it simply
35:25disappeared off
35:26the face of the earth.
35:28For 50 years,
35:29the fate of Stardust
35:30remained an aviation cold case,
35:32but now there's a chance
35:34to solve it all
35:35because some mountain climbers
35:37tripped over its engine.
35:39From what investigators
35:40can tell,
35:41the plane crashed
35:42into the side of the mountain
35:43during a controlled descent.
35:44The visibility
35:45would have been bad,
35:46and if the crew
35:47hadn't accounted
35:48for the strong headwinds,
35:50they may have thought
35:51they were past the Andes
35:52when they began their descent.
35:54Under whiteout conditions,
35:56they may never have even
35:57seen the mountain
35:58before they collided with it,
35:59and if the collision
36:00was violent enough,
36:02it may have triggered
36:05an avalanche
36:06that buried Stardust,
36:08obscuring it from the view
36:10of the search and rescue aircraft
36:11that were looking for it.
36:13With the fate
36:14of the people aboard
36:15figured out,
36:16one question remains.
36:19What does Stendek mean?
36:21Some think that it might be
36:22some sort of abbreviated
36:23distress message,
36:25like severe turbulence
36:26encountered,
36:27now descending,
36:28expect crash,
36:30but there's no proof of this,
36:31and why tag
36:33a routine arrival message
36:35with this complicated acronym?
36:38We may never
36:39crack the code of Stendek,
36:42but at least the families
36:43of the passengers
36:44and crew of the Stardust
36:45now know the fate
36:46of their loved ones,
36:47and this 50-year-old
36:49aviation cold case
36:50is, at least partly,
36:52closed.
36:58Sometimes mysteries
37:01about the heavens
37:02aren't found above us,
37:04but instead
37:05are buried deep
37:06in the ground,
37:07like one ancient object
37:09discovered in Germany.
37:10In 1999,
37:15in a remote part
37:15of Nebra, Germany,
37:17metal detectorists
37:18Henry Westfall
37:19and Mario Renner
37:20are on the hunt
37:22for coins
37:22and other trinkets
37:23that they can pawn
37:24to subsidize their hobby.
37:26As they swing
37:27their metal detector
37:27over the ground,
37:29they hear that
37:30high-pitched whine,
37:32and that gets them
37:33really excited,
37:34because this is what
37:35they're here for.
37:36They start digging
37:38with small shovels
37:40and then pickaxes,
37:41and as they dig,
37:42their signal
37:43gets stronger
37:44and stronger,
37:45and soon they uncover
37:48something large
37:49and flat.
37:51It's a bronze sword,
37:53and it's old,
37:55possibly ancient.
37:57They wave
37:58the metal detector
37:59over the now-empty hole,
38:02and to their amazement,
38:03they still have a signal.
38:06Finally, one of them
38:07gets their hands
38:07wrapped around
38:08a particularly stubborn piece.
38:11Whatever this is,
38:12it's wide and round
38:13and much tougher to free.
38:15They use the pickaxe
38:17to jostle a little bit,
38:18and finally,
38:19this strange object
38:20emerges from the ground.
38:23This piece
38:24is kind of disc-shaped,
38:26and it has the image
38:27of a golden crescent moon
38:28and stars.
38:31They don't know
38:32what to make of it,
38:33but they think that
38:34it's got to be worth something.
38:36To the finders,
38:38it looks like treasure,
38:39but in the eyes
38:40of the law,
38:41it's contraband.
38:43In Germany,
38:44this kind of stuff
38:45is considered state property.
38:46You're not allowed
38:47to keep it,
38:48and you're supposed
38:48to have a license
38:49just to hunt for it.
38:50Let's just say
38:51Henry and Mario
38:52haven't exactly filled out
38:54the proper paperwork.
38:55So they're in a pickle here.
38:57They want to make some money,
38:58but they don't want
38:59to get caught,
39:00so they got to move fast.
39:01The next day,
39:04they race to a dealer
39:05in Cologne
39:06who gives them
39:0731,000 Deutschmarks.
39:09That's equivalent
39:09to about $17,000 today.
39:12As the men disappear
39:13to count their money,
39:15their strange disc
39:17creates a buzz
39:18in the underground
39:19collector world.
39:20For years,
39:21the disc passes
39:22from collector
39:23to collector,
39:24rising in value
39:25to over half
39:26a million bucks.
39:27But still,
39:28nobody knows
39:29exactly what it is.
39:32Experts dated
39:33to the Bronze Age
39:34around 1600 BCE,
39:36but it's the markings
39:38that actually fuel speculation.
39:40Some astronomers note
39:42that a cluster
39:43of stars on the disc
39:44seems to correspond
39:46to the constellation Pleiades.
39:48And on the side
39:49of the disc,
39:50there is a long arc
39:51with a very precise measurement
39:53of 82.5 degrees.
39:56This corresponds
39:57to the difference
39:59between sunsets
40:00at winter
40:01and summer solstice.
40:03Soon,
40:04experts start to think
40:06maybe this strange disc
40:07is the oldest
40:09graphical representation
40:10of astronomical phenomena
40:12ever discovered.
40:15It's dubbed
40:16the Nebra Sky Disc,
40:18and German officials
40:19are eager
40:20to get their hands on it.
40:22One seller
40:22who's looking
40:23to unload it
40:24for a cool million
40:25gets busted
40:26in a sting operation,
40:27and the government
40:28is getting ready
40:29to throw the book
40:30at them
40:30for selling
40:31black market antiques.
40:33Looking for leniency,
40:34they provide information
40:35that leads authorities
40:36back to Henry Westfall
40:38and Mario Renner.
40:39Henry and Mario
40:40get arrested
40:41on the grounds
40:42of treasure hunting
40:43without a license
40:44and stealing state property.
40:46So now,
40:47it looks like
40:47they're gonna have to spend
40:48that 31,000
40:49Deutschmarks they got
40:50to pay for some lawyers.
40:51After a short trial,
40:54Henry and Mario
40:55are sentenced
40:56to four to ten months
40:58in jail.
40:59As for the Sky Disc,
41:01well, it's now kept
41:02in a state museum
41:03where people can visit
41:04and continue to speculate
41:05about whether it is
41:06indeed the first depiction
41:08of the cosmos.
41:11Cameras on the moon,
41:13wreckage in the sea,
41:14and treasures
41:15pointing towards the stars.
41:17Some mysteries
41:18from the skies
41:19go far beyond
41:21anything we expect.
41:23I'm Danny Trejo.
41:24Thanks for watching
41:25Mysteries on Earth.
Be the first to comment