Since Galileo invented the telescope in 1609,
we've been using it to gaze at and learn from the stars.
NASA spends considerable time looking
at our own star, the Sun.
And recently, it captured some videos so intriguing,
we just had to stare at the Sun for a while ourselves.
Since 2008, NASA's twin stereo telescopes
have been orbiting the Sun from 95 million
miles above its surface.
We have two eyes looking at the Sun to observe it
in the ultraviolet and x-rays and this allows
us to draw 3D representations of what's happening with the sun.
NARRATOR: Makes sense.
But this does not.
On March 13, 2020, the stereo telescopes
are doing their usual thing, and their heliospheric imager
is monitoring the solar winds in interplanetary space.
The sun is to the left of the frame,
Venus and Earth are in the shot, when suddenly, this rounded
object comes into the image, apparently on a collision
course with the Sun.
Watch in slow motion.
It looks like a wheel made from two circles
connected by spokes with a strange beam
projecting toward the sun.
It doesn't look like a solar flare,
magnetic field, or plasma discharge
to Oluseyi's trained eye.
HAKEEM OLUSEYI: This does not look like anything we've
ever seen close to the Sun.
So it does not appear to be a natural phenomenon.
NARRATOR: When the video appeared,
it created a huge buzz, according
to forensic investigator Chase Kloetzke.
CHASE KLOETZKE: Immediately, everybody was jumping on.
Is that a UFO?
What is that object?
UFO reports often come in from people that have seen
things come out of the Sun.
NARRATOR: You could say that again.
There have been dozens of strange UFO-like objects
spotted rushing into or away from the Sun.
And the wheel looks strikingly similar to a space
station once envisioned by famed rocket
scientist, Wernher Von Braun.
So we have to wonder, could this wheel-shaped object
be some sort of craft?
Astrophotographer, Andrew McCarthy, thinks it's possible.
I really can't rule it out.
I really can't rule it out that it might
be some type of structure.
NARRATOR: But why would any craft, alien or human,
charge toward the Sun?
And how could it survive?
ANDREW MCCARTHY: The sun's corona is millions of degrees.
It's actually the hottest part of the Sun.
So it would be a smart place for an alien spacecraft
to refuel its ship because of the abundance of energy.
A million-degree refueling station--
that's a lot of heat to endure to top off your tank.
To test out this theory, we turn to the best
in the business, Mars mission planner, Jonathan Hill.
When you compare the size of this pinwheel
to the size of Earth and the size of Venus,
this wheel would be a huge object that's
much larger than even Jupiter.
So if this was a physical object that had gravity,
our planet would've altered its course around the Sun
and really bad things would've started happening.
So we can definitely rule out that the wheel is some sort
of actual physical object traveling through space, just
based on its size.
NARRATOR: That would also rule out a giant spaceship.
But Hill thinks the explanation is right there in the image.
JONATHAN HILL: If we watch how that pinwheel shape moves,
it moves at the same speed but in the opposite direction
as the Venus dot does.
NARRATOR: That symmetrical motion suggests the wheel
is a reflection of Venus.
So why does it look like a wheel?
JONATHAN HILL: Light is coming into the camera,
and it's bouncing around in a weird way
and creating what we call a ghost image.
And it shows up as this wheel shape.
NARRATOR: And as for those other objects
that were caught filling up at the Sun's corona,
some defy an easy answer.
But according to NASA, a few are comets.
Others are Venus passing the Sun.
And others are solar flares and strange reflections
in the camera.
So what looked like a spaceship turned out
to be a ghost image of Venus.
But there will soon be a real spacecraft
flying near the Sun--
ours.
NASA's Parker Solar Probe launched in 2018.
It will travel directly through the sun's corona three times.
For decades, we've been sending probes to Mars.
And ever since, strange images have
been captured on the surface of the red planet.
Could this be a floating spoon, or this, a statue?
What about this, the face of a God?
But then, in the spring of 2020, things got really strange,
when an amateur astronomer claimed
the cameras on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
photographed this.
Take a closer look.
It appears to be a group of buildings and pyramids
on Mars, one even in the shape of an Eagle's head.
George Haas is the director of the Esoteric Cydonia Institute.
He believes this could be evidence
of an ancient civilization on Mars.
GEORGE HAAS: The first structure to get my attention
is this four-sided pyramid that has
a conjoined mound at the top.
These are large, geoglpyhic formations
that show intelligent design, all kinds of formations
that appears to be a city.
NARRATOR: George also believes these Martian
pyramids are eerily similar to the ancient Mayan
pyramids in Mexico.
GEORGE HAAS: It looks a lot like the Pyramid
of the Moon in Teotihuacan.
And you have a four-sided pyramid
with this platform or porch that's jetted
off the one end of the pyramid.
And they're almost identical.
NARRATOR: Forensic investigator, Chase Kloetzke,
says there's a case to be made for past life on Mars.
CHASE KLOETZKE: There is physical evidence,
scientific evidence, that there was once water on Mars.
So if the water was there, it easily could've
supported civilization.
NARRATOR: So where did the Martians go?
One popular theory, they were destroyed by nuclear war.
The possible evidence?
Atmospheric traces of an element called Xenon 129.
GEORGE HAAS: Xenon 129 is a signature of
artificial nuclear explosions.
A 1-megaton bomb can completely level
a radius of nearly four miles.
But before we mourn the annihilation of Martian
civilization, let's determine if there
was a civilization at all.
We took these photos to the best in the field, Mars
mission planner, Jonathan Hill.
Hill begins by examining the large Eagle's head structure.
Could that be by design?
JONATHAN HILL: We see cliff faces along the edge,
nice, gentle slopes that are consistent with ice deposits
that we see on similar mesas throughout the planet.
NARRATOR: Hill says those lines indicate a natural formation.
And geological analysis of the area confirms it.
So using ground-penetrating radar from orbit,
we can see down into different layers of these mesas to see
what they're made out of.
And the entire mesa is rock and water ice.
And so that, obviously, rules out any artificial metals
or other materials.
NARRATOR: But what about the nearby pyramid?
George Haas claims it's a mirror image of the Pyramid
of the Moon in Mexico.
Were the two built by the same hands?
JONATHAN HILL: When you look at it,
the difference between an actual pyramid
is that all the angles are perfect.
They were artificially engineered.
When you look at a mesa like this,
the edges aren't straight.
They're all curves.
The top is not centered.
The geometry is just not there.
NARRATOR: And that evidence of nuclear war on Mars, the xenon
129?
JONATHAN HILL: Xenon is a naturally occurring gas.
We find traces of it in our atmosphere here on Earth.
So it's not surprising that we find traces of it on Mars.
NARRATOR: After years of studying
the Red Planet and claims of amazing instructors there,
Hill believes there's a psychological explanation
for what people think they are seeing on Mars, the phenomenon
known as pareidolia.
JONATHAN HILL: It's basically where the human brain goes
a little too far, and it implants patterns
where patterns don't exist.
And so, I think people have to really prove
to themselves that they're not being
affected by this known effect.
So it's simply a trick of the eye.
It turns out that sometimes we'll see things we want to see
and not what's actually there.
So our verdict, pareidolia.
But don't let that stop you from looking up at the stars
for that alien life.
We may still find the proof one day.
It's March 2020 in the English port town of Falmouth.
A local property developer is taking
a late winter's walk with his dog near the coastal cliffs.
He's watching the ships pass by when something catches his eye
that demands documentation.
MJ BANIAS: He saw this large ship here, not exactly floating
on the water, but above it.
NARRATOR: And this is not the only
hovering ship caught on camera off the southern coast
of England.
A video from May 2021 shows a large container
ship floating up above the water's
surface near the town of Kent.
As anomalous as these images appear,
there's a long tradition of floating ships
that goes back to the ninth century.
One intriguing story from a Spanish-born priest serving
in Lyon, France, involves a group of sailors
from a realm called Magonia.
MJ BANIAS: According to legend, the Magonians
had developed the ability to use magic
and witchcraft to make their boats float through air instead
of on water.
There are these mystery boats that float through the air,
and during lightning and thunder storms,
come down and wreak havoc upon the countryside,
stealing grain and wheat from people's fields.
NARRATOR: Then, in the 1960s, famed French astronomer and UFO
researcher, Jacques Vallée, gave this theory a modern twist
in his book, "Passport to Magonia, From
Folklore to Flying Saucers."
CHASE KLOETZKE: And in it, he describes that this could've
been something interdimensional, or even a parallel dimension
[inaudible] space and time.
NARRATOR: Vallée's theory is that the legendary flying
Magonian ships of the ninth century are connected
to the more recent UFO sightings of the 1950s
and '60s, evidence, he claimed, that
time-traveling aliens have visited
the planet for centuries.
That's all fascinating, but before we stamp our passport
to Magonia, let's figure out what
this particular floating ship represents--
a true mystery or just a fascinating trick of the eye?
First, you know we have to ask, could
this photo have been doctored?
ANDREW MCCARTHY: I see no signs of artifacts or doctoring.
So that tells me that what we're looking at
is authentic and was actually captured in camera.
NARRATOR: And by checking the ship tracking sites,
photography expert, Andrew McCarthy,
is actually able to determine that these ships are
very much of this dimension.
ANDREW MCCARTHY: We know that it was a Norwegian tanker
ship, called the Mary Belle, which suggests to me that what
we're looking at is not a levitating ship,
but something else at play.
NARRATOR: So if it's a real ship under sail,
then what's causing this strange effect?
ANDREW MCCARTHY: At a certain distance,
you're no longer really looking at the ocean
because the air is reflecting the sky back towards you.
That's why the horizon actually drops in this image.
NARRATOR: In other words, that's not really the sky.
It's the reflection of the sky off the water
in the far distance.
We see the same effect in the video from Kent.
It's actually what's called a false horizon.
The surface of the water, as you get further out,
is a bit calmer out here than it is back here.
Because it's calmer and flatter, it's
reflecting things more evenly.
You just get a more even reflection of the sky.
NARRATOR: You can see this line looks like the horizon.
But on 2D plane, it's actually up here.
That's because all of the water in the area
is the same color as the sky it's
reflecting and blending into.
Our verdict?
This is simply an optical illusion.
This is just the sky reflecting off the water.
But it makes you wonder, were similar odd sites
centuries ago what gave rise to the legend of Magonia?
It's May 2012 in South Ayrshire, Scotland.
Engineer and professional trainer, Chris Croft,
is traveling up from England with his wife.
I did a bit of research on things to see in Scotland.
And there was this thing called the electric brae.
And they said it's one of the weirdest things you'll ever see
and you have to see it.
NARRATOR: Chris and his wife arrive at the brae, which
in Scottish, means hillside.
He gets out of his car, but then his car
does something remarkable.
CHRIS CROFT: This is a car rolling uphill.
The electric brae.
Let's have a look at it from the other angle.
My first thought was, is it magnetism?
Is it some weird gravity effect?
Because it absolutely feels like that?
How can things roll uphill?
NARRATOR: And Chris isn't the only one
to capture this strange sight.
This is crazy.
NARRATOR: In January 2020, travel journalist, Bridget
Barbara, showed that not only cars,
but also balls, seemed to roll up the slope of this roadway.
So what's the deal?
The, sort of, notorious name, electric brae,
comes from the fact that many people who have witnessed
this sort of anomaly feel that it had to do with electricity
being installed in the area.
They started to wonder if there could
be some electromagnetic field that's
moving objects up this hill.
So let's take another look at this car rolling uphill.
The camera catches it from multiple angles,
and it seems clear that the car is going up the slope,
contrary to all the known laws of physics.
We don't have Sir Isaac Newton on staff,
but let's see if our experts can figure
out what's going on here.
MICHIO KAKU: If it was magnetism that
was dragging the car uphill, it would have to be
tremendously big and huge.
And we don't see that anywhere.
We don't see a gigantic magnet pulling this object up.
NARRATOR: One experiment suggests
a magnet would need to be 6 miles wide in order
to pull a small car up a hill.
And physicist, Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi,
says there's another problem.
Not every object that's moving up the road is made of metal.
A ball is not made of metal.
It is not a conductor.
NARRATOR: Our physicists believe the explanation
of this strange video lies not in electricity,
but in geography.
We judge our orientation on the planet Earth
by looking at the horizon.
But the horizon here is not flat.
It's tilted.
As a consequence, the brain could become confused as
to what really is horizontal.
And perhaps, that's the key to how
you can ride something uphill.
HAKEEM OLUSEYI: What appears to be up and down is all relative.
You can get fooled.
You can get tricked.
NARRATOR: The slope of this hill is very slight, rising only
17 feet over a quarter mile.
This gradual slope surrounded by the unusual landscape
leads to the confusion.
And Chris says it can be hard to switch your brain back around.
CHRIS CROFT: I was saying to myself, looking down this hill,
this is actually uphill.
And it must be just the shape of the mountain behind that's
making me feel that.
But I couldn't flip it in my mind.
Our verdict?
This is an optical illusion.
The surrounding landscape makes what's going
down look like it's going up.
Scientists say our brains take in so much information
that in filtering some things out,
they can make us see things that aren't real.