Full Transcript for UFOs: Through the Wormhole Again

00:04:38.910 --> 00:04:41.230 than remaining an unexplained flying object. 77 00:04:41.750 --> 00:04:44.689 Jill's story tells us that anyone can be sucked into 78 00:04:44.730 --> 00:04:48.350 this idea of UFOs, even if just for a second. 79 00:04:49.290 --> 00:04:53.040 But then again, Jill is not just any scientist. She 80 00:04:53.100 --> 00:04:56.639 co-founded the SETI Institute, which stands for the Search for 81 00:04:56.759 --> 00:05:02.319 Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Ancetti pops up in Hollywood films all the time, 82 00:05:02.740 --> 00:05:06.779 like it's in Independence Day and in the 90s film Contact. 83 00:05:07.459 --> 00:05:11.100 In fact, Jill was actually the inspiration for Jodie Foster's 84 00:05:11.160 --> 00:05:18.129 character in that movie. So beautiful. I had no idea. 85 00:05:19.689 --> 00:05:24.029 Ancetti captures the imagination of Hollywood because they're doing something 86 00:05:24.189 --> 00:05:29.170 really amazing. they're monitoring the universe for signs of alien life. 87 00:05:29.790 --> 00:05:33.189 And in particular, they're searching for whether E.T. has figured 88 00:05:33.290 --> 00:05:36.040 out how to use radio. Is it a bit like 89 00:05:36.079 --> 00:05:40.019 when you're in a car that has an analogue radio 90 00:05:40.540 --> 00:05:45.620 and you're switching the dial and you're hearing static, and 91 00:05:45.680 --> 00:05:48.519 then eventually you get onto a radio station? 92 00:05:48.730 --> 00:05:53.850 Yes, that's a very good analogy. It was like tuning... 93 00:05:54.269 --> 00:05:57.290 A hundred radios in parallel. 94 00:05:57.790 --> 00:06:01.149 Yeah, SETI's computers are on the lookout for radio signals. 95 00:06:01.569 --> 00:06:02.709 And why radio? 96 00:06:02.730 --> 00:06:08.779 I mean, that's so old school. It's all about podcasting now, right? Well, 97 00:06:08.939 --> 00:06:11.959 radio is a very simple technology, so it wouldn't be 98 00:06:12.040 --> 00:06:17.290 too hard for anyone, including aliens, to figure it out. Plus, 99 00:06:17.649 --> 00:06:21.439 radio waves also travel really fast at the speed of light, 100 00:06:21.879 --> 00:06:25.879 making it a very efficient way to communicate over large distances. 101 00:06:26.500 --> 00:06:30.310 We have equipment that looks at billions of radio channels. 102 00:06:30.730 --> 00:06:34.209 The problem is that these radio waves are all around us. 103 00:06:34.350 --> 00:06:37.310 The sun, the stars and the planets, they all emit them. 104 00:06:37.920 --> 00:06:40.259 So Jill and her team pick these up as they're 105 00:06:40.279 --> 00:06:44.319 searching for ET and changing the dials on their cosmic radio. 106 00:06:44.839 --> 00:06:49.430 As you're tuning between the stations and there's that static, 107 00:06:50.110 --> 00:06:53.649 about 10 to 20% of that noise is actually coming 108 00:06:53.730 --> 00:06:57.370 from the galaxy. It's cosmic radio emission. 109 00:06:58.529 --> 00:07:02.610 So how do you know what's ET

and what's Uranus? 110 00:07:03.810 --> 00:07:04.040 Well. 111 00:07:05.149 --> 00:07:08.610 Different things emit different kinds of radio signals, and stuff 112 00:07:08.649 --> 00:07:13.490 that isn't natural, like a radio transmitter, emits this very 113 00:07:13.589 --> 00:07:18.189 particular kind of signal. It's called a narrowband radio signal. 114 00:07:19.240 --> 00:07:22.629 And that's what the SETI computers are looking for, because 115 00:07:22.680 --> 00:07:26.480 they reckon that these narrowband radio signals coming from far 116 00:07:26.560 --> 00:07:30.339 away would have to be created by an alien species. 117 00:07:31.389 --> 00:07:34.149 By now, Jill and her team over at SETI have 118 00:07:34.170 --> 00:07:37.040 been searching for these radio signals for decades. 119 00:07:39.040 --> 00:07:40.120 And what have they found? 120 00:07:41.480 --> 00:07:45.199 Well, in 1997, Jill was searching for aliens at a 121 00:07:45.259 --> 00:07:49.860 telescope in Virginia when she got this weird radio. 122 00:07:49.480 --> 00:07:52.279 Signal from the skies. Here's what happened. 123 00:07:52.879 --> 00:07:56.420 Jill had the graveyard shift, searching for aliens, and she 124 00:07:56.480 --> 00:07:59.000 told us that these nights at the telescope were. 125 00:07:58.959 --> 00:08:00.350 Usually pretty boring. 126 00:08:00.879 --> 00:08:04.800 So she had this trick for keeping herself awake. I 127 00:08:04.860 --> 00:08:08.660 read that you played salsa music at levels high enough 128 00:08:08.740 --> 00:08:09.850 to kill plants. 129 00:08:10.189 --> 00:08:11.170 Is this true? 130 00:08:11.790 --> 00:08:16.930 No, no, it wasn't salsa. Samba. Brazilian samba, yes. Dancing 131 00:08:16.990 --> 00:08:21.209 around this deserted control room with the music blaring. Because, 132 00:08:21.779 --> 00:08:24.259 you know, most of the work was really being done 133 00:08:24.279 --> 00:08:26.560 by the computers. We were just babysitting. 134 00:08:30.689 --> 00:08:33.779 So Jill is dancing around the control room to samba 135 00:08:33.820 --> 00:08:37.460 music in the middle of the night, as usual. And suddenly, 136 00:08:37.659 --> 00:08:43.039 the SETI computers start freaking out. Telling Jill that it's 137 00:08:43.100 --> 00:08:45.470 found a weird signal coming from space. 138 00:08:45.899 --> 00:08:50.029 So clearly this isn't Mother Nature. It's a technology. 139 00:08:50.049 --> 00:08:53.269 A technology? From an alien? 140 00:08:54.289 --> 00:08:58.110 Well, before Jill gets too excited, she starts doing some tests. 141 00:08:58.710 --> 00:08:58.879 And bam! 142 00:08:59.179 --> 00:09:02.799 We're imagining the samba music is still playing. One of 143 00:09:02.840 --> 00:09:06.100 the tests involves moving the antenna of the telescope back 144 00:09:06.200 --> 00:09:08.360 and forth to see what happens to the signal. 145 00:09:10.299 --> 00:09:13.259 You move the telescope away from the source you were 146 00:09:13.299 --> 00:09:16.820 pointing at, and the signal should go away if it's 147 00:09:17.019 --> 00:09:20.799 actually coming from a distant extraterrestrial source. 148 00:09:22.259 --> 00:09:22.700 And it did. 149 00:09:22.720 --> 00:09:23.870 It did? 150 00:09:23.879 --> 00:09:24.419 It did. 151 00:09:25.570 --> 00:09:28.470 Okay, so now Jill knows that she has this very 152 00:09:28.590 --> 00:09:33.230 clear particular signal which seemed to not be natural. And 153 00:09:33.490 --> 00:09:39.000 it seemed to come from one place. So Jill is thinking, whoa, 154 00:09:39.620 --> 00:09:41.320 this is really happening. 155 00:09:41.340 --> 00:09:45.799 I got really excited then. I woke up my colleague 156 00:09:45.860 --> 00:09:48.899 who was still sleeping in the dorms and he came 157 00:09:48.980 --> 00:09:53.019 in and we kept working around things. trying to figure 158 00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:55.889 out different things that we could do that might tell 159 00:09:55.950 --> 00:09:59.529 us whether the signal was really what we were beginning 160 00:09:59.570 --> 00:09:59.960 to think it was. 161 00:10:04.440 --> 00:10:08.460 And then Jill starts calling and waking up more SETI scientists. 162 00:10:11.159 --> 00:10:14.809 SETI Institute freeze-dry room. We have all the aliens you need. 163 00:10:14.850 --> 00:10:22.820 Just click three for frozen aliens. punch four for preserved aliens. 164 00:10:23.460 --> 00:10:23.860 Four. 165 00:10:23.879 --> 00:10:28.710 Sorry, Wendy, you do not get any aliens. What? 166 00:10:30.049 --> 00:10:33.509 This is Seth Shostak, and no, he's not secretly hoarding 167 00:10:33.590 --> 00:10:39.100 freeze-dried aliens that we know of. He's a senior astronomer 168 00:10:39.149 --> 00:10:41.960 at the SETI Institute. There are a couple of SETI 169 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:45.919 locations on that night in 1997. Seth was on the 170 00:10:45.980 --> 00:10:49.370 west coast and Jill was on the east. And when 171 00:10:49.490 --> 00:10:52.269 Seth got this call, he knew it could be a 172 00:10:52.370 --> 00:10:52.990 big deal. 173 00:10:53.250 --> 00:10:56.049 When the boss calls you at home, it's usually not 174 00:10:56.110 --> 00:10:58.960 good news. Seth, I think you ought to get down here. 175 00:10:59.460 --> 00:11:00.899 There's an interesting signal. 176 00:11:02.559 --> 00:11:05.820 So now the SETI scientists are on high alert, thinking 177 00:11:05.840 --> 00:11:09.840 this might be a signal from E.T. And if they're right, 178 00:11:10.500 --> 00:11:13.950 this could be the most important day in human history. 179 00:11:14.789 --> 00:11:18.529 This was their contact movie moment for real. 180 00:11:19.190 --> 00:11:21.509 I was very nervous. I couldn't sit down. I didn't 181 00:11:21.549 --> 00:11:23.789 sit down. I never sat in a chair that whole evening. 182 00:11:24.289 --> 00:11:26.700 And so for a full day and night, the SETI 183 00:11:26.750 --> 00:11:29.899 scientists on both sides of the country are now frantically 184

00:11:30.019 --> 00:11:32.200 trying to figure out what this signal is. 185 00:11:34.039 --> 00:11:37.179 By the time we left the telescope and went back 186 00:11:37.240 --> 00:11:40.940 to the sleeping quarters, we were pretty sure that this wasn't, 187 00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:47.220 in fact, an ET technology. Oh! We didn't know yet 188 00:11:47.279 --> 00:11:47.879 what it was. 189 00:11:48.419 --> 00:11:51.769 Jill says that after hours of monitoring this signal, they 190 00:11:51.789 --> 00:11:54.809 could see that it was changing in this particular way 191 00:11:54.970 --> 00:11:58.850 that suggested it wasn't coming from the far-off alien planet 192 00:11:58.929 --> 00:12:02.470 they thought it was. But Jill and her team were 193 00:12:02.629 --> 00:12:06.309 so exhausted that they completely forgot to tell the SETI 194 00:12:06.370 --> 00:12:09.690 scientists on the West Coast. So Seth and his team 195 00:12:09.809 --> 00:12:12.389 were still madly trying to figure out if this was 196 00:12:12.429 --> 00:12:14.190 an alien. And then? 197 00:12:15.110 --> 00:12:17.610 What happened next was I fell asleep at my desk. 198 00:12:18.500 --> 00:12:20.840 And to Seth, this is kind of funny when he 199 00:12:20.879 --> 00:12:24.039 thinks about all the conspiracies that people have about what 200 00:12:24.080 --> 00:12:27.759 would really happen if scientists discovered an alien signal. 201 00:12:28.039 --> 00:12:30.639 If you ask the public what they think would happen, 202 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:34.230 the government would shut us down and take over everything and, 203 00:12:34.309 --> 00:12:36.870 you know, whatever. But this showed that, well, actually none 204 00:12:36.909 --> 00:12:39.309 of that happens. What actually happens is that you go 205 00:12:39.350 --> 00:12:40.970 upstairs and fall asleep on your desk. 206 00:12:42.509 --> 00:12:46.059 Okay, so if this was no alien... What was it? 207 00:12:47.259 --> 00:12:49.950 Well, eventually, the team figured out that the signal was 208 00:12:50.029 --> 00:12:55.289 coming from a spacecraft called SOHO. This spacecraft was helping 209 00:12:55.370 --> 00:12:59.129 scientists to study the sun. SOHO was beaming information to 210 00:12:59.250 --> 00:13:02.809 Earth about the sun's surface and solar weather patterns. And 211 00:13:02.889 --> 00:13:05.700 that's what the SETI computers had picked up and what 212 00:13:05.799 --> 00:13:07.799 Jill had confused for aliens. 213 00:13:08.620 --> 00:13:12.070 Yeah, it was a disappointment. On the other hand, like 214 00:13:12.490 --> 00:13:17.590 the UFO that I experienced, it did end up having 215 00:13:18.269 --> 00:13:20.610 an explanation. It did not remain a mystery. 216 00:13:21.350 --> 00:13:24.519 That day in 1997 goes down as one of the 217 00:13:24.580 --> 00:13:28.559 most exciting days in SETI history, which is all to 218 00:13:28.600 --> 00:13:33.730 say that they haven't found any aliens. But Jill hasn't 219 00:13:33.769 --> 00:13:37.190 given up. She says the search for intelligent alien life 220 00:13:37.509 --> 00:13:42.549 has really only just begun. Because space is just so big. 221 00:13:43.210 --> 00:13:45.809 Here's how Jill explained it to us. She says, if 222 00:13:45.850 --> 00:13:48.820 you think about space, like the oceans on Earth. 223 00:13:49.200 --> 00:13:51.419 So how much have we searched in 50 years? And 224 00:13:51.460 --> 00:13:55.960 my calculation said, well, it's about one eight-ounce glass of 225 00:13:56.000 --> 00:14:00.840 that ocean. So that's it. That puts that in perspective. 226 00:14:01.399 --> 00:14:04.820 It's because we haven't really looked yet. 227 00:14:05.200 --> 00:14:08.159 And so you believe that there is fish. 228 00:14:07.899 --> 00:14:11.240 In the ocean? I believe that that's a really good 229 00:14:11.340 --> 00:14:15.600 question to ask. And the fact that one glass doesn't 230 00:14:15.679 --> 00:14:18.570 turn up a fish doesn't yet mean that there are 231 00:14:18.610 --> 00:14:21.330 no fish in the ocean. Just keep fishing. 232 00:14:24.090 --> 00:14:26.669 And this is an argument you hear a lot, that 233 00:14:26.690 --> 00:14:30.509 there are so many planets in the universe. Intelligent life 234 00:14:30.710 --> 00:14:32.970 just has to have sprung up on one of them. 235 00:14:33.629 --> 00:14:34.710 We asked Seth about this. 236 00:14:35.450 --> 00:14:36.889 And how many planets are there? 237 00:14:37.149 --> 00:14:39.429 Well, we know roughly how many planets are in the 238 00:14:39.470 --> 00:14:42.620 galaxy in the Milky Way. It's roughly a trillion with 239 00:14:42.649 --> 00:14:46.519 a T, trillion. And we can see two trillion other galaxies. So, 240 00:14:47.019 --> 00:14:51.080 you know, two trillion times a trillion is two trillion 241 00:14:51.159 --> 00:14:51.639 trillion planets. 242 00:14:51.990 --> 00:14:52.909 It's a lot of trillions. 243 00:14:53.090 --> 00:14:56.029 Yeah, that's a big number. I mean, really, that's, you know, 244 00:14:56.149 --> 00:14:59.309 usually it's compared to the number of grains of dry 245 00:14:59.389 --> 00:15:01.470 sand on all the beaches of the Earth. It's bigger 246 00:15:01.509 --> 00:15:01.809 than that. 247 00:15:02.370 --> 00:15:05.049 Okay, so all those trillions, that's a bit of a 248 00:15:05.129 --> 00:15:10.139 back-of-the-envelope calculation, probably on the high side. But still, everyone 249 00:15:10.179 --> 00:15:13.240 who studies this agrees that there is a kangaroo pouch 250 00:15:13.460 --> 00:15:16.480 full of planets out there. Which is all to say 251 00:15:16.639 --> 00:15:20.009 that there's a lot. And even when you limit it 252 00:15:20.049 --> 00:15:22.830 to planets that we think could be the right size 253 00:15:22.929 --> 00:15:25.950 as well as the right temperature to host life, planets 254 00:15:25.990 --> 00:15:29.120 in the so-called Goldilocks zone, where it's not too hot 255 00:15:29.159 --> 00:15:30.580 and it's not too cold,

but. 256 00:15:30.500 --> 00:15:36.639 It's just right. Well, there are still billions and billions. 257 00:15:36.080 --> 00:15:39.759 Of these planets out there. And it's these estimates that 258 00:15:39.799 --> 00:15:43.840 have Seth really excited. He just can't believe that Earth 259 00:15:43.980 --> 00:15:48.139 is that unique. If life, intelligent life, brewed up here, 260 00:15:48.620 --> 00:15:50.480 surely it would crop up elsewhere. 261 00:15:50.500 --> 00:15:53.919 I would be surprised if there was something very special 262 00:15:53.960 --> 00:15:56.539 about Earth. 263 00:15:57.769 --> 00:16:02.370 Increasingly, scientists are agreeing that there is probably life out there, 264 00:16:02.590 --> 00:16:06.990 somewhere in the universe. Where it gets contentious is whether 265 00:16:07.070 --> 00:16:10.340 that life is pond scum or intelligent enough to build 266 00:16:10.379 --> 00:16:11.559 a radio transmitter. 267 00:16:12.500 --> 00:16:15.460 Another point of contention, these aliens. 268 00:16:15.159 --> 00:16:18.059 Might have built their radio at a totally different time 269 00:16:18.120 --> 00:16:21.419 to us, like maybe thousands of years ago, and now 270 00:16:21.679 --> 00:16:27.019 they're dead and gone. Still, Seth is optimistic about one thing. 271 00:16:27.039 --> 00:16:30.259 He says we might not have to wait too much 272 00:16:30.340 --> 00:16:34.480 longer to settle some of these arguments. Because Seth says 273 00:16:34.500 --> 00:16:37.919 the tech is getting so good that we're no longer 274 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:39.090 dipping a cup of. 275 00:16:39.110 --> 00:16:42.210 Water into the ocean. We're starting to pull out. 276 00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:45.960 If this experiment's going to work, it's going to work 277 00:16:45.980 --> 00:16:47.259 in the first half of this century. 278 00:16:47.559 --> 00:16:49.399 You spend so much time thinking about it, so it's 279 00:16:49.419 --> 00:16:53.679 not so exciting. But I really thought that this was 280 00:16:54.110 --> 00:16:56.129 not something that could happen in my lifetime. 281 00:16:56.669 --> 00:16:59.710 Well, just be careful when you cross the street so that, 282 00:16:59.769 --> 00:17:01.809 you know, your lifetime is long enough to see this happen. 283 00:17:01.870 --> 00:17:02.230 Right? 284 00:17:03.070 --> 00:17:06.039 Okay, so other scientists we spoke to thought that this 285 00:17:06.130 --> 00:17:10.430 timeline might be a bit optimistic. But still, if it's 286 00:17:10.569 --> 00:17:13.309 not crazy that there are other planets that could host 287 00:17:13.390 --> 00:17:17.640 intelligent life and that we might even find that life 288 00:17:17.779 --> 00:17:21.359 in the next few decades, what about this idea that 289 00:17:21.500 --> 00:17:27.849 aliens have already visited Earth? How crazy is that? After 290 00:17:27.890 --> 00:17:33.750 the break, we're tackling one of the biggest UFO conspiracies, Roswell. 291 00:17:36.809 --> 00:17:47.579 And we've

got answers. Hey, it's Wendy from Science Versus, 292 00:17:47.680 --> 00:17:49.680 and I want to tell you about a podcast that 293 00:17:49.799 --> 00:17:53.150 I love, Science Friday. They cover all sorts of amazing 294 00:17:53.210 --> 00:17:56.529 things in the weird and wonderful world of science, from 295 00:17:56.549 --> 00:18:00.279 how concussions affect our brain to the inner secrets of 296 00:18:00.319 --> 00:18:03.359 a snake with a spider on its It's a lot 297 00:18:03.400 --> 00:18:05.339 of news that you can use and. 298 00:18:05.259 --> 00:18:07.339 Some that you can't, but you're going to love anyway. 299 00:18:07.579 --> 00:18:10.740 It's hosted by Ira Flato and Flora Lichtman. 300 00:18:10.900 --> 00:18:13.599 Who is an old friend of the show and loves 301 00:18:13.700 --> 00:18:16.309 a pun as much as we do. Science Friday is 302 00:18:16.369 --> 00:18:18.950 on every day, wherever you get your podcasts. 303 00:18:26.230 --> 00:18:26.650 Welcome back. 304 00:18:26.980 --> 00:18:29.569 So we've just found out that it's not bonkers to 305 00:18:29.609 --> 00:18:34.269 believe that intelligent aliens are out there, somewhere in the universe. 306 00:18:35.390 --> 00:18:37.630 But could they be right here? 307 00:18:38.289 --> 00:18:41.670 Could aliens have visited our home planet? 308 00:18:43.049 --> 00:18:44.819 This might have been something that a lot of us 309 00:18:44.859 --> 00:18:45.579 were wondering. 310 00:18:46.279 --> 00:18:49.480 When it became public knowledge that the US Department of 311 00:18:49.519 --> 00:18:50.480 Defence had. 312 00:18:50.359 --> 00:18:57.859 A secret UFO program... And this made headlines around the world. 313 00:18:58.680 --> 00:19:01.200 To maybe our favorite story of the day, what looks 314 00:19:01.240 --> 00:19:03.400 to be a case of real-life X-Files. 315 00:19:03.660 --> 00:19:08.430 The existence of a secret government program to investigate UFO sightings. 316 00:19:08.490 --> 00:19:11.650 My personal belief is that there is very compelling evidence 317 00:19:11.710 --> 00:19:16.150 that we may not be alone, whatever that means. 318 00:19:17.599 --> 00:19:18.960 Whatever that means. 319 00:19:19.500 --> 00:19:22.509 That was the former US government official who headed up 320 00:19:22.609 --> 00:19:26.789 that UFO program. And even before this news story broke, 321 00:19:26.910 --> 00:19:30.450 there were already declassified documents showing that the US government 322 00:19:30.509 --> 00:19:36.579 had been investigating UFO sightings on and off since the 1940s. So, 323 00:19:37.180 --> 00:19:41.240 what does the government know about UFOs? Do they have 324 00:19:41.559 --> 00:19:46.400 any evidence that aliens have visited Earth? We asked David Clark, 325 00:19:46.480 --> 00:19:50.220 an investigative journalist and researcher at Sheffield Hallam University, in 326 00:19:50.240 --> 00:19:54.240 the UK. And he's been trolling governments for decades to 327 00:19:54.319 --> 00:19:58.640 find out what they know about UFOs, writing his first 328 00:19:58.720 --> 00:20:01.960 letter to the UK Ministry of Defence when he was 329 00:20:02.019 --> 00:20:02.740 a teenager. 330 00:20:04.140 --> 00:20:06.319 My mum said, well, you've got a letter from the government. 331 00:20:06.440 --> 00:20:09.680 And I remember sort of tearing open the envelope and 332 00:20:09.700 --> 00:20:12.559 finding this quite polite letter saying, thank you for your letter. 333 00:20:12.880 --> 00:20:15.970 But there's no good evidence that we've been visited by aliens. 334 00:20:17.349 --> 00:20:21.109 Still, that didn't throw David off the UFO trail. 335 00:20:21.650 --> 00:20:22.670 He's kept at it. 336 00:20:22.690 --> 00:20:26.650 And in particular, keeping a close eye on revelations about 337 00:20:26.829 --> 00:20:32.400 one of the most infamous UFO conspiracies of all time, Roswell. 338 00:20:34.559 --> 00:20:38.349 Roswell is a touchstone for UFO believers. They say that 339 00:20:38.529 --> 00:20:42.190 alien spacecraft crashed in the desert of New Mexico and 340 00:20:42.230 --> 00:20:45.650 the government covered it up. And now there are thousands 341 00:20:45.730 --> 00:20:48.569 of Roswell truthers all over the world and even a 342 00:20:48.609 --> 00:20:54.299 museum dedicated to the cover-up. So what really happened? Let's 343 00:20:54.359 --> 00:20:59.180 set the scene. It's 1947. A rancher in remote New 344 00:20:59.220 --> 00:21:03.140 Mexico comes across this weird wreckage that covered in what 345 00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:07.460 appears to be curious symbols. David told us, so the 346 00:21:07.480 --> 00:21:10.299 story goes, that the rancher picks up the wreckage. 347 00:21:10.539 --> 00:21:12.960 Puts it on his truck, takes it back to his ranch, 348 00:21:13.509 --> 00:21:16.829 shows it his family. They try and bend it, try 349 00:21:16.849 --> 00:21:20.190 and burn it. It won't burn. They flex it and 350 00:21:20.210 --> 00:21:22.789 it returns to its original shape. It's weird. 351 00:21:23.529 --> 00:21:26.009 A couple of weeks later, the rancher goes into town 352 00:21:26.109 --> 00:21:28.329 and reports the strange debris to the sheriff. 353 00:21:28.910 --> 00:21:29.750 He pretty much says. 354 00:21:30.250 --> 00:21:32.549 Guess what I found? What do you think this is then? 355 00:21:33.309 --> 00:21:34.730 The local sheriff doesn't know. 356 00:21:34.990 --> 00:21:37.849 So then he contacts the Air Force and eventually they 357 00:21:37.890 --> 00:21:39.940 put out a press release pretty much. 358 00:21:39.839 --> 00:21:43.859 Saying, nothing to worry about, kids. This is nothing odd. 359 00:21:44.299 --> 00:21:48.200 It's just a weather balloon tracking winds high up in 360 00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:48.779 the sky. 361 00:21:49.119 --> 00:21:51.569 Big letdown. Oh, it's not a flying saucer after all. 362 00:21:51.869 --> 00:21:52.569 It's a weather balloon. 363 00:21:53.349 --> 00:21:56.230 But of course, that's what

they'd want you to think. 364 00:22:00.869 --> 00:22:05.490 So what really happened? Well, the funny thing is that 365 00:22:05.569 --> 00:22:09.529 Roswell actually was part of a secret government program. 366 00:22:10.390 --> 00:22:12.970 So there was a government cover-up. 367 00:22:14.269 --> 00:22:14.529 Yes. 368 00:22:15.029 --> 00:22:16.910 Just not with aliens. 369 00:22:16.950 --> 00:22:17.289 Yes. 370 00:22:18.210 --> 00:22:22.750 So David told us that they weren't tracking aliens. They 371 00:22:22.769 --> 00:22:24.710 were tracking the Soviets. 372 00:22:24.730 --> 00:22:24.829 Yes. 373 00:22:26.069 --> 00:22:28.200 Remember, this is the late 1940s. 374 00:22:28.230 --> 00:22:30.829 The Cold War was just starting and the Americans were 375 00:22:30.890 --> 00:22:33.299 worried about the Soviets building an atomic bomb. 376 00:22:34.079 --> 00:22:36.920 So the American military has this kind. 377 00:22:36.640 --> 00:22:41.220 Of crazy idea to use large 70-foot balloons loaded with 378 00:22:41.319 --> 00:22:44.509 different kinds of equipment to try to detect if the 379 00:22:44.569 --> 00:22:48.410 Ruskies were exploding nuclear bombs. And they did a bunch 380 00:22:48.430 --> 00:22:52.210 of tests releasing all these balloons around the United States 381 00:22:52.470 --> 00:22:54.230 to see if their idea might work. 382 00:22:55.190 --> 00:22:57.869 But they were trying to keep this hush-hush. 383 00:22:59.710 --> 00:23:03.769 Secrecy was endemic. It was part of the Cold War mindset. 384 00:23:04.250 --> 00:23:08.529 The problem was that according to a declassified government report, 385 00:23:09.109 --> 00:23:13.950 these giant balloons were unsteerable and they often went rogue. 386 00:23:14.670 --> 00:23:18.000 Like one balloon landed on top of a Brooklyn tavern 387 00:23:18.019 --> 00:23:23.730 and another, they said, in Roswell, New Mexico. where that 388 00:23:23.930 --> 00:23:25.309 rancher would find it. 389 00:23:25.930 --> 00:23:26.549 Here's David. 390 00:23:27.049 --> 00:23:31.119 Turns out, years later, it emerged that what he'd actually 391 00:23:31.200 --> 00:23:33.140 seen was one of these giant balloons. 392 00:23:33.819 --> 00:23:37.539 And here's a pretty funny thing. The US government actually 393 00:23:37.700 --> 00:23:42.160 knew that the public was confusing these weird-looking balloons for UFOs, 394 00:23:42.680 --> 00:23:46.380 and they kept an eye on UFO sightings, hoping to 395 00:23:46.440 --> 00:23:50.289 find out where their blasted, unsteerable balloons had got to. 396 00:23:51.039 --> 00:23:54.819 Our senior producer, Caitlin Sori, asked David about this. So 397 00:23:54.859 --> 00:23:58.460 from a government perspective, the alien conspiracy was actually working 398 00:23:58.480 --> 00:24:01.819 in their favour because they could keep track of these balloons. 399 00:24:01.920 --> 00:24:02.140 Yes. 400 00:24:02.369 --> 00:24:02.809 Wow. 401 00:24:03.220 --> 00:24:06.230 What a good way of putting the Russians off the 402 00:24:06.289 --> 00:24:09.250 scent by encouraging these stories about flying saucers. 403 00:24:09.829 --> 00:24:14.670 So, yes, Roswell was a government cover-up, but not nearly 404 00:24:14.750 --> 00:24:19.559 as fun as the one UFO truthers would have us believe. OK, 405 00:24:19.730 --> 00:24:23.380 so there's an alternative explanation for Roswell. But that's just 406 00:24:23.619 --> 00:24:28.119 one UFO file. David has looked through literally thousands of 407 00:24:28.180 --> 00:24:30.980 reports of UFO sightings from the UK government. 408 00:24:31.640 --> 00:24:34.359 I would say probably 60,000 to 80,000 pages. 409 00:24:34.359 --> 00:24:41.329 60,000 to 80,000 pages of UFO reports. 410 00:24:41.569 --> 00:24:43.910 Yeah, must be something like that. I mean, don't forget, 411 00:24:44.190 --> 00:24:46.569 I didn't do this in one afternoon. This is over 412 00:24:46.569 --> 00:24:47.250 20 years. 413 00:24:47.250 --> 00:24:53.170 20 years of trawling through the public stories of weird 414 00:24:53.259 --> 00:24:57.180 sightings and odd experiences. And what did he find? 415 00:24:57.200 --> 00:25:03.640 Any real UFOs? Well, about 90% of the things that 416 00:25:03.680 --> 00:25:07.920 people reported ended up being identified. And it turns out 417 00:25:07.980 --> 00:25:12.019 that people confuse all kinds of things for UFOs, including 418 00:25:12.160 --> 00:25:15.279 the lights from a Tina Turner concert and even Richard 419 00:25:15.339 --> 00:25:16.240 Branson's blimp. 420 00:25:17.049 --> 00:25:19.529 But more often, David says that these. 421 00:25:19.390 --> 00:25:23.339 Now-identified objects have a fairly mundane explanation. 422 00:25:24.319 --> 00:25:30.720 Balloons, aircraft, even things like birds fly in unusual formations, 423 00:25:30.859 --> 00:25:35.589 unusual weather conditions, ball lightning. And also you have people 424 00:25:35.630 --> 00:25:40.009 who deliberately make up their stories, hoaxes. They're a huge 425 00:25:40.109 --> 00:25:41.230 part of the phenomenon. 426 00:25:42.329 --> 00:25:45.490 And David told us that planets and stars also get 427 00:25:45.529 --> 00:25:51.190 confused for UFOs. In particular, the planet Venus. Venus is 428 00:25:51.230 --> 00:25:53.950 often low and bright in our sky. And when you 429 00:25:54.029 --> 00:25:57.410 view it through the lens of our atmosphere, it can distort, 430 00:25:57.569 --> 00:26:02.059 looking a bit like it's moving about. But not everything 431 00:26:02.099 --> 00:26:06.740 can be explained by Venus and Tina Turner concerts. 90% 432 00:26:06.740 --> 00:26:10.299 of these objects were identified. But that still leaves a 433 00:26:10.410 --> 00:26:17.200 cheeky 10% of these sightings that have no explanation at all. So, 434 00:26:18.339 --> 00:26:21.140 what's that got to do with it? Got to do 435 00:26:21.180 --> 00:26:24.460 with it? Well, 10%. 436 00:26:24.460 --> 00:26:25.319 That's not nothing. 437 00:26:25.960 -->

00:26:30.240 I mean, could some of them, like even just one 438 00:26:30.279 --> 00:26:33.299 of them, be intelligent life visiting Earth? 439 00:26:34.160 --> 00:26:35.380 Does David believe that? 440 00:26:39.029 --> 00:26:43.730 People have extraordinary experiences. There's absolutely no doubt about it. 441 00:26:43.730 --> 00:26:45.809 And we can't explain all of them. 442 00:26:46.190 --> 00:26:49.789 David's like, just because we don't know everything, it doesn't 443 00:26:49.829 --> 00:26:50.809 mean it's an alien. 444 00:26:51.329 --> 00:26:55.599 I challenge anyone to sit down, do the same thing 445 00:26:55.630 --> 00:26:57.819 that I did, go through every single one of those 446 00:26:57.880 --> 00:27:00.819 pages and come out at the end thinking, yes, we've 447 00:27:00.839 --> 00:27:01.980 been visited by aliens. 448 00:27:02.819 --> 00:27:03.240 But still. 449 00:27:03.609 --> 00:27:08.490 The unexplainable does leave the alien spacecraft door ajar, even 450 00:27:08.690 --> 00:27:13.779 if it's just squeaking open. So how hard would it 451 00:27:13.839 --> 00:27:17.259 be for an alien spacecraft to visit Earth? Like, we 452 00:27:17.319 --> 00:27:19.539 have this vision that they would just press a button 453 00:27:19.579 --> 00:27:23.319 from their alien spaceship and kablam, they'd be here. 454 00:27:24.099 --> 00:27:29.880 But seriously, how would they get here? How would aliens reach. 455 00:27:29.759 --> 00:27:30.759 Us at all? 456 00:27:31.059 --> 00:27:34.160 Like, how hard would it be for them to travel 457 00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:36.740 from their homeland to ours. 458 00:27:37.740 --> 00:27:39.140 To get our heads around that. 459 00:27:39.400 --> 00:27:42.789 We need to consider where aliens would be coming from 460 00:27:43.029 --> 00:27:43.849 in the universe. 461 00:27:44.670 --> 00:27:48.430 We asked Jill Tata, a.k.a. Jodie Foster, about this. 462 00:27:50.309 --> 00:27:53.789 Well, they could be as close as the nearest star, 463 00:27:53.849 --> 00:27:55.230 which is four light years. 464 00:27:56.049 --> 00:27:59.710 Jill says the closest planet that we think might host 465 00:27:59.849 --> 00:28:04.579 alien life is Proxima b, It's in that sweet-ass Goldilocks zone, 466 00:28:04.680 --> 00:28:06.799 and it orbits a star that's roughly. 467 00:28:06.460 --> 00:28:11.400 4.3 light-years away. How long does it take to get 4.3 468 00:28:11.400 --> 00:28:12.029 light-years away? 469 00:28:12.220 --> 00:28:15.529 If you're a rocket with our fuel, tens of thousands 470 00:28:15.569 --> 00:28:15.869 of years. 471 00:28:15.880 --> 00:28:17.049 Right? 472 00:28:17.210 --> 00:28:19.930 We're slow. We're slow compared to the speed of light. 473 00:28:20.470 --> 00:28:23.569 We actually did the calculations, and for an alien ship 474 00:28:23.650 --> 00:28:27.369 to come from Proxima b to Earth using our rocket fuel, 475 00:28:27.869 --> 00:28:32.539 it would take more than 100,000 years. Plus, a study 476 00:28:32.579 --> 00:28:36.240 came out suggesting that this planet, Proxima b, might not 477 00:28:36.299 --> 00:28:39.970 have an atmosphere which would make it hostile to life, 478 00:28:40.569 --> 00:28:44.529 at least life like us. So it looks like we 479 00:28:44.569 --> 00:28:48.369 might have to go even further out for intelligent alien life. 480 00:28:49.069 --> 00:28:52.890 How much further out? Seth at SETI has thought about 481 00:28:52.930 --> 00:28:54.829 this question long and hard. 482 00:28:55.589 --> 00:28:57.799 My calculation, which was based on what I thought were 483 00:28:57.819 --> 00:29:01.759 fairly conservative assumptions about all this, suggests that the nearest 484 00:29:01.819 --> 00:29:05.400 other aliens might be 500 to 1,000 light years away. 485 00:29:05.720 --> 00:29:09.160 That would mean it would take well over 10 million 486 00:29:09.220 --> 00:29:11.319 years to get there on rocket fuel. 487 00:29:11.900 --> 00:29:15.779 Yeah, let me just do that calculation. 488 00:29:15.799 --> 00:29:15.859 No. 489 00:29:18.099 --> 00:29:18.779 Yeah, no. 490 00:29:18.799 --> 00:29:20.400 Yeah, that's about right. 491 00:29:20.549 --> 00:29:20.769 Yeah. 492 00:29:22.210 --> 00:29:24.750 These are some rough estimates, but the point is. 493 00:29:25.329 --> 00:29:29.230 The aliens live very, very far away, if they live 494 00:29:29.349 --> 00:29:32.720 anywhere at all, and we have no idea how they 495 00:29:32.759 --> 00:29:36.680 would get to us. Using our best technology, you and me, 496 00:29:37.029 --> 00:29:38.470 we couldn't get to those aliens. 497 00:29:39.470 --> 00:29:39.630 But. 498 00:29:40.099 --> 00:29:45.119 science fiction has a solution, suggesting that maybe the aliens 499 00:29:45.160 --> 00:29:48.019 have access to something that could help them move across 500 00:29:48.059 --> 00:29:50.000 the galaxy at a tremendous pace. 501 00:29:50.880 --> 00:29:57.849 A gateway. A wormhole. So just quickly, we wanted a 502 00:29:57.910 --> 00:29:58.690 gut check on this. 503 00:29:59.470 --> 00:30:03.440 Could wormholes really make long-distance space travel possible? 504 00:30:04.460 --> 00:30:06.339 Right, well, wormholes, yes, they're very interesting. 505 00:30:06.740 --> 00:30:09.539 This is Jim Al-Khalili. He's a professor of physics at 506 00:30:09.579 --> 00:30:12.839 the University of Surrey in the UK. And Jim told 507 00:30:12.920 --> 00:30:16.549 us that this idea of wormholes isn't totally loony. 508 00:30:17.329 --> 00:30:18.420 Einstein came up with it. 509 00:30:18.769 --> 00:30:21.190 It all goes back to Einstein, usually these things. He 510 00:30:21.230 --> 00:30:23.380 developed his general theory of relativity 100 years ago, 1915, 511 00:30:23.369 --> 00:30:23.930 and that's the theory. 512 00:30:26.730 --> 00:30:29.410 That talks about the shape of space and time and 513 00:30:29.670 --> 00:30:32.990 how gravity can warp space and time. We've done lots 514 00:30:33.029 --> 00:30:34.869 and lots of tests and it

seems to be right. 515 00:30:35.690 --> 00:30:40.079 Wormholes, if they exist, come about because theoretically space and 516 00:30:40.130 --> 00:30:43.410 time can warp so much that they can connect to 517 00:30:43.470 --> 00:30:45.519 places that are very far apart. 518 00:30:45.960 --> 00:30:49.079 So it's a shortcut from one point in our universe 519 00:30:49.119 --> 00:30:51.599 to another that takes us out of our universe. 520 00:30:52.079 --> 00:30:53.150 Here's how Jim explains it. 521 00:30:53.380 --> 00:30:55.539 Look, take a piece of paper, two points on that 522 00:30:55.579 --> 00:30:58.019 piece of paper. The shortest distance between those two points 523 00:30:58.059 --> 00:31:01.400 is a straight line drawn on the paper. Now fold 524 00:31:01.440 --> 00:31:04.369 the paper over so the two points are very close together, 525 00:31:04.609 --> 00:31:08.029 hovering above each other with a gap of air between them. 526 00:31:08.789 --> 00:31:12.250 Imagine you could hop from one point out of the 527 00:31:12.289 --> 00:31:13.890 paper through the air to the other point. 528 00:31:15.269 --> 00:31:18.079 Okay, so it looks good on paper. But is it 529 00:31:18.299 --> 00:31:22.519 actually physics? Well, Jim told us that we haven't actually 530 00:31:22.680 --> 00:31:24.140 found any wormholes. 531 00:31:24.700 --> 00:31:26.660 They live in the land of theory. 532 00:31:26.900 --> 00:31:28.859 That's what we hang on to, the hope that if 533 00:31:28.960 --> 00:31:31.059 our science theory is right and it predicts everything else 534 00:31:31.099 --> 00:31:34.099 that we've checked out, maybe wormholes are right as well. 535 00:31:37.519 --> 00:31:41.740 Now, some scientists, including Jim, think that wormholes are so 536 00:31:41.859 --> 00:31:45.579 unstable that it would be impossible to actually travel through them. 537 00:31:46.349 --> 00:31:50.190 But Jim did say that at least in theory, perhaps 538 00:31:50.319 --> 00:31:54.859 some advanced alien could build a particular kind of wormhole 539 00:31:55.279 --> 00:31:58.299 that they could then travel through to get to us. 540 00:31:58.940 --> 00:32:04.680 So it sounds nonsense, but, you know, it's fun because 541 00:32:04.700 --> 00:32:06.440 I haven't broke any laws of physics in saying any 542 00:32:06.480 --> 00:32:06.720 of this. 543 00:32:07.299 --> 00:32:13.599 Physics, it sure is fun. Okay, so we haven't found 544 00:32:13.740 --> 00:32:16.859 alien life yet. We don't have any good evidence that 545 00:32:16.880 --> 00:32:20.029 they've found us. And we don't even know how they 546 00:32:20.049 --> 00:32:24.410 would reach us. But still, there are a lot of 547 00:32:24.509 --> 00:32:27.930 planets out there. Kangaroo pouches full of them. 548 00:32:28.690 --> 00:32:29.450 So who knows? 549 00:32:30.410 --> 00:32:33.569 Maybe you and I will live to have our Hollywood 550 00:32:33.710 --> 00:32:44.170 contact moment. That's science versus UFOs. Next week, we're bringing 551 00:32:44.230 --> 00:32:48.089 you a super weird and awesome episode on snakes. 552 00:32:48.769 --> 00:32:51.289 We'll learn about the incredibly. 553 00:32:50.829 --> 00:32:54.569 Odd and old-timey way that we make antivenom and hear 554 00:32:54.829 --> 00:32:58.359 just how hectic it can be when someone gets bitten. 555 00:32:59.059 --> 00:33:01.900 And even if it's really bad, there was a taipan 556 00:33:01.940 --> 00:33:04.440 bite in Australia where a guy was, it seemed like 557 00:33:04.480 --> 00:33:06.599 he was sweating blood from his back. 558 00:33:07.039 --> 00:33:09.000 I remember thinking there's no way I'd make it out 559 00:33:09.039 --> 00:33:09.339 of there. 560 00:33:10.019 --> 00:33:11.339 I thought I was a dead man. 561 00:33:12.440 --> 00:33:16.230 This episode was originally produced by Caitlin Sorey, me, Wendy Zuckerman, 562 00:33:16.349 --> 00:33:19.549 and Rose Rimler, with help from Shruti Ravindran and Meryl Horne. 563 00:33:20.190 --> 00:33:24.470 Nick Delrose helped produce the updated version. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, 564 00:33:24.609 --> 00:33:27.880 Meryl Horne, and Nick Delrose. Music by Bobby Lord and 565 00:33:27.930 --> 00:33:31.740 Emma Munger, mixed by Emma Munger and Bumi Hidaka. Editing 566 00:33:31.799 --> 00:33:35.579 by Blythe Terrell, additional editing help from Caitlin Kenney. Also, 567 00:33:35.630 --> 00:33:37.599 a big thank you to all the researchers we reached 568 00:33:37.680 --> 00:33:41.980 out to, including Dr Ravi Kumar Koparapu, Dr Craig Neal, 569 00:33:42.440 --> 00:33:46.869 Dr Jesse Christensen, Dr Cameron Hummels, Dr Phil Hopkins, Dr 570 00:33:46.940 --> 00:33:49.930 Avi Loeb, and many other researchers who helped us on this. 571 00:33:50.549 --> 00:33:52.390 I'm Wendy Zuckerman. Back to you next time.