NARRATOR: Nuclear annihilation-- This would have been an
absolutely devastating event. NARRATOR: --mysterious
pyramids-- There are, apparently, these
unusual structures there. NARRATOR: --and evidence of
life billions of years ago. Researchers found objects
that looked extremely similar to microorganisms
here on Earth. NARRATOR: Throughout
human history, the planet Mars has
captured our imagination. But is it simply because
of its striking red color and prominence in the night sky? Or might there be
a more profound extraterrestrial connection? NASA knows there
is life on Mars. But for some reason, it does
not want that information out. NARRATOR: Millions of
people around the world believe we have been
visited in the past by extraterrestrial beings. What if it were true? Did ancient aliens really
help to shape our history? And if so, might they have come
from the red planet of Mars? [theme music] Cape Canaveral, Florida-- August 20th, 1975. MAN: Ignition-- we have liftoff. NARRATOR: The United States
launches a Titan rocket carrying the Viking spacecraft. Viking is embarking
on a 420 million mile journey to one of the most
prominent sights in the night sky-- Mars. If all goes well, in 11
months the unmanned probe will touch down on the Martian
surface and search for evidence of life. Mainstream scientists say Mars
is most likely a dead planet because of its incredible
temperature swings and high levels of
solar radiation. So why is NASA spending a
billion dollars to explore it? The night sky is
an astounding thing. To the naked eye, the
red planet could be seen with its special colors. After all, it's
the biggest thing you see up there past the moon. So it's been a special object
of fascination and reverence, because religious systems
often were associated with the planets and the
stars, the sky in general. Speculations about
what's there-- is intelligent life there? Are the gods there? That's gone on for a long time. Our dream for life on
Mars probably goes back even to the ancient times, when
we were just doing naked eye observation. It's the planet that really
stands out, that we now know is very close to Earth in
terms of physical conditions. Even though Venus is much more
like Earth in size and gravity, it's a hell hole in
the solar system. But Mars is out there,
within our grasp. NARRATOR: Among the first to
record this fiery red ball in the night sky were
ancient Egyptian astronomers. In 1534 BC, they placed Mars
on humanity's first chart of the known cosmos,
the Senenmut star map. Two and a half centuries
later, the Egyptians painted the planet Mars on the
ceiling of the tomb of Seti I. But while the
Egyptians honored Mars, many other ancient
cultures feared it because they associated the red
planet with death, destruction, and war. According to some
anthropologists, this is because the planet glows
red, like the color of blood spilled on the battlefield. The association of the red
planet with the gods of war goes way back. In ancient Babylon, Mars
was named after Nergal, the god of fire, death, and
destruction, essentially a god of war. The Greeks named Mars after
Ares, their god of war. The Romans, Mars-- that
is their god of war. Rome was a warrior culture,
so this martial emphasis all connected to the
red planet is accounting for the great armies
that conquered the known world, a very successful
story and very much aligned with the planet Mars. NARRATOR: In 42 BC, the
Roman forces of Augustus waged the Battle of Philippi
against Marcus Brutus as Augustus tried to
avenge the assassination of his adopted
father, Julius Caesar. Augustus pledged to
the god of war, Mars, that if he won this battle
he would build a great temple for him. So he won the battle,
became Caesar Augustus-- one of the greatest of
the Roman emperors-- and he created the
temple of Mars. And whenever Rome
would declare war, the temple doors
would be thrown open. It was called a temple
to Mars the Avenger. Famously, we say the gates
of war nowadays, right? And it was the gates
of Mars' temple that were opened or closed
depending upon whether there was a war going on. From India to Rome, all
of the ancient societies had a reverence for Mars,
a great closeness to Mars-- very important in their
pantheon, very important in the imagination of the people
that some kind of connection with that red planet
be maintained. NARRATOR: But while many
ancient societies felt a bond with Mars, most did not identify
it as a planet like Earth. The ancients thought the
planets were as uninhabitable as the sun. They saw them as
wandering stars. In fact, the word planet means,
in Greek, wandering star. Planets are. You have the fixed stars,
the constellations. But then you have these
stars wandering about. They seem to follow the
sun, because they appear to move against the
background of the fixed stars the same way the sun does. NARRATOR: It wasn't until
the 17th and 18th centuries, when astronomers finally had
telescopes powerful enough to make out features
on the surface of Mars, that we started to imagine
life on the red planet as a real possibility. By the 1860s, an
Italian astronomer by the name of
Angelo Seki thought he saw straight
lines criss crossing the surface of our little
ruddy buddy up there, Mars. And he called them kamali. The idea was picked up
by an American astronomer by the name of Percival Lowell. And Percival Lowell built
his own observatory down in Flagstaff, Arizona. He spent a lot of time looking
through a telescope at Mars, and he wrote books about this. He was articulate. He was clever. And he convinced a
lot of the public, and some of the
scientific establishment, that there really was
a civilization on Mars, busy digging up their planet
because they needed to irrigate their crops. NARRATOR: But why
has Mars fascinated humankind throughout history? Is it simply due to the
planet's proximity to Earth and its striking red
color in the night sky? Or is it possible, as ancient
astronaut theorists contend, that Mars really was at one time
inhabited by intelligent life? The Cydonia region of
Mars, July 20th, 1976-- an alien spacecraft
sent from Earth touches down on the red planet. MAN: Nav is green
for touch down. NARRATOR: After a
10 month journey, Viking 1 has reached
its destination. MAN: Touch down,
we have touch down. NARRATOR: To NASA scientists,
it's a momentous event. For the first time
in its history, the United States has a
probe on another planet. Viking was the
first spacecraft to actually attempt a
soft landing on Mars and give us an actual feel, a
taste for what the conditions were on the surface. We looked out at those
pictures of the surface, and they looked so much like
the Pacific desert tier, like Death Valley. We all half expected to see
a miner in his burrow come walking up over
the nearest rise. NARRATOR: Scientists knew
that finding definitive signs of life on Mars was a long
shot, but when the Viking Lander performed four tests
on the Martian soil looking for microbial
life, it returned surprising and
controversial results. Dr. Gil Levin designed
one of the tests that the Viking probe performed. Microorganisms breed just
like you or I or anything else, and then they give
off carbon dioxide. So we got a tiny sample, a
thimble full of the soil, put into a little container. It was monitored for
seven days continuously, to see if there are any
bubbles forming in the tube. Surprisingly, the test
came up positive for life by the criteria that had
been approved by NASA. NARRATOR: However, the result
of another important test-- one looking for organic matter
on the Martian surface-- was negative. But Dr. Levin says the other
test wasn't nearly as sensitive as his experiment. It needed 3 million bacteria in
a thimble full of Martian soil to find signs of life,
while Dr. Levin's test only required 30 bacteria. So there was a vast
discrepancy in the sensitivity of the two experiments. And I immediately
said, well, you know, they both could be right. We detected life, but maybe
there aren't enough bacteria per unit of soil for the organic
analysis instrument to find. But NASA was very
cautious, and they opted to say no organic matter. There goes the ball game. No life. NARRATOR: Dr. Levin has fought
NASA for almost 40 years on whether the Viking probe
found evidence of life on Mars. If he was right about
the results of his test, this would be the first proof
accepted by mainstream science that life exists
outside our planet. But ancient astronaut
theorists say an even more profound discovery
regarding the red planet has been uncovered
right here on Earth-- mysterious relics that may
reveal an actual visitation of beings from Mars. Teotihuacan, Mexico--
in 2003, archaeologists in this ancient city made
a startling discovery. A previously unknown
tunnel lies 45 feet beneath the Temple of
the Feathered Serpent, one of the most sacred
pyramids on the continent. Working underground,
scientists methodically explored the debris filled
tunnel using a robotic probe with an infrared scanner. After some 250 feet,
they reached a side cave. The tail end of
the tunnel, terminus of the tunnel was
loaded with yellowish, metallic looking orbs,
apparently colored clay. The orbs are very
interesting objects. I've never seen
anything like them in any kind of other
archaeological context. On the inside, they are clay. On the outside, they're coated
with some sort of gold flecks so they look like golden balls. NARRATOR: What purpose these
golden balls served is unknown, but some archaeologists believe
the cavern in which they were found was a place
of sacred ritual. Like the clay balls,
the walls were also covered in gold flecks. So if the cavern was illuminated
by a torch during a ceremony, it would have shimmered
with 1,000 points of light resembling the cosmos. These beautiful orbs
of yellow material strongly suggest that someone
was illustrating planets. We do know that the Mayan
calendar is heavily calibrated to the orbital parameters of
the planets in our solar system, specifically the inner planets. NARRATOR: The red
planet's connection to the Mayan calendar is
portrayed in the "Dresden Codex." This rare book from
Mayan antiquity describes the
calendar in relation to Mars' movements
across the sky. The "Dresden Codex" is
one of four remaining books that the Maya wrote. It is, in many regards,
an astronomical almanac. There are many
different sections of the book that talk about
different astronomical phenomena. One of them is the planet Mars. There is an almanac near the end
of the book that breaks up days into 10 groups of 78 days
equaling 780 days, which is the synodic period of Mars-- in other words, the
time in which it takes Mars to get back to the
same place on the horizon from a human perspective. [music playing] NARRATOR: Scholars believe
Mars played an important role in the Maya astrology that's
described in the "Dresden Codex." Above that almanac is a sky
band shown with various aspects of celestial symbols we
recognize out of hieroglyphs. And hanging off a bit is
this interesting dragon like creature. That dragon like creature is
recognized as the face of Mars. NARRATOR: Why did the planet
Mars feature so prominently in Maya astronomy? Ancient astronaut theorists
suggest the answer may be found in a little known
myth surrounding the story of the feathered
serpent god whose temple sits above the secret tunnel that
contains the golden orbs. In the Mayan tradition,
their great god, often pictured as a feathered serpent, was
said to have been responsible for the death of the god Mars. Flayed him to death-- that's
stripping off the skin. It's a horrific ritual
that was actually done in other ways in that culture. But the idea is,
death by that means absorbs the power of the enemy. But the name of their god also
is associated with the comets. There are certain
drawings that show comets that look like
they have feathers coming off the back, that the flames
are depicted as feathers. And some scholars
believe there's a connection between the look
of the flying feathered serpent and these comets. NARRATOR: Is it possible
that the Mayan myth of the feathered serpent
describes an actual event-- a cataclysmic comet strike
that destroyed the Martian atmosphere. [dramatic music] After studying the red
planet for decades, mainstream scientists admit it's
entirely possible this impact occurred on Mars in
the distant past. If you look at the
Martian landscape, it's heavily cratered
compared to Earth. Mars is next to the asteroid
belt. In fact, in some ways, it defines the inner edge
of the asteroid belt. So Mars is constantly being
hammered by asteroids, relative to Earth. You always have the risk-- and, of course, we've
seen it here on Earth-- of having large asteroids
or comets hit the planet and cause tremendous
ecological damage. The most famous example of
that is the Chicxulub asteroid that may or may not
have been the final nail in the dinosaurs' coffin. And certainly, that could have
happened at Mars because it doesn't have a large moon
to help shield the planet and possibly deflect asteroids. NARRATOR: In his book
"Life and Death on Mars," physicist John Brandenburg
describes an impact crater in the Leo region of Mars
that's more than 125 miles in diameter. He believes this
comet strike may have caused a
profound disruption to Mars' planetary system. It's a large double ring
crater, only this happened to a planet that only gets
half the sunlight of Earth. It has one quarter
its surface area. So this would have been an
absolutely devastating planet climate changing event. There may have been a
very dramatic event where some other leftover piece from
the birth of the solar system, some big asteroid sort of made
a close flyby, sort of a fender bender collision with
Mars and just stripped off a lot of the atmosphere. That's a very popular
way to look at what may have gone wrong with Mars. [music playing] NARRATOR: But if Mars fostered
life long ago before losing its atmosphere, could
intelligent life and perhaps even civilization
have existed and even flourished on the red planet? And if so, where
would the inhabitants have gone after the cataclysm? Some say the answers
to these questions can be found in the origin story
of Earth's first civilization. [music playing] Mosul, Iraq, 1849-- during an
excavation of the biblical city of Nineveh, a team led by the
eminent British archaeologist Austin Henry Laird
discovered the ruins of the ancient Assyrian
library of Ashurbanipal. Among the priceless relics
Laird recovered from the library is a series of
cuneiform tablets called the Enuma Elish, also known as
the Seven Tablets of Creation. The tablets are essentially
text in columnar style, no more than eight to 10 inches
tall, six to seven inches wide, which were made of clay. And while the clay was just
in the process of setting, a stylus would be used
by a trained scribe to etch the stories of our
existence on this planet. NARRATOR: The Seven
Tablets of Creation tell a story about a group
of gods, called the Anunnaki, who came from heaven to give
birth to the human race. But some ancient
astronaut theorists believe the original
translations, completed in the 19th century by some of
the best scholars of the day, are flawed. The professors' certainly
brilliant brains had no idea of space travel, not to
speak of extraterrestrials. So they all, without exception,
made the translations in the belief that
the stories had to do with the almighty God. In the old text, we had, for
example, a word like heaven. For example, Abraham
was taken up to heaven and brought back to Earth. So we should change the word
heaven into the word space. So it makes sense. NARRATOR: Using what they say
is a more accurate translation of this origin myth,
ancient astronaut theorists believe the tablets tell a
story about the Anunnaki coming from space to colonize
both Mars and Earth. According to some
researchers, the Sumerians had a number of
myths about Mars, including that the Anunnaki
used Mars as a supply base to come here to Earth. And subsequently, the
Anunnaki then ruled the Earth as these extraterrestrial
god kings, while humans began to create
the many civilizations on our planet. And eventually,
the Anunnaki left to go back to their own planet. Or did they? NARRATOR: Is it possible
that the Anunnaki gods in our ancient origin
stories were actually extraterrestrial beings,
and that they created the structures that some
believe they see on Mars? And if so, did they
then journey to Earth? We see multiple references
in the cuneiform tablets that are allegedly the
records of the Anunnaki-- that, in fact, they did
originate from Mars-- that this is not a dead,
isolated, rocky world with nothing on it,
but there was life. NARRATOR: But according to
modern translation of Sumerian and Babylonian origin
myths, a cataclysmic event occurred on Mars-- an event that sounds remarkably
similar to ancient Mesoamerican myths about a feathered
serpent flaying the red planet. While the Anunnaki
were using Mars as a supply base for
Earth, at some point there was a catastrophe. There was some asteroid
comet strike on Mars. It ripped the
atmosphere from Mars. It changed the climate. And Mars couldn't be
used as a habitable space base for the Anunnaki anymore. And so therefore, as we
explore Mars more and more, we may find structures,
pyramids, ziggurats, even giant statues carved
into rock on Mars which are really
relics of the Anunnaki and the time when they
occupied that planet. Some have suggested that Mars
may have had an atmosphere, and it got annihilated
about 65 million years ago. What some have suggested is
that before this annihilation occurred, that civilization
was able to escape to Earth. Now according to this view, we
might in fact be the Martians. NARRATOR: Some scientists say
they've found powerful evidence of this lost civilization. They believe they may have
discovered a nuclear signature in the Martian atmosphere
that matches Earth's after a nuclear test. During the height
of the Cold War, we were detonating very large
hydrogen bombs in the open air. And it produces a lot of
the gas called Xenon 129. On Mars, we've also
found a lot of Xenon 129. The only process we
know to produce this is Xenon 129 is a
nuclear explosion. So apparently, a very large
nuclear weapon, or weapons, was detonated on Mars. If we look at the
Sumerian cuneiform tablets, there are very clear references
to a variety of advanced forms of technology. And it would seem pretty
clear that if we were able to get a nuclear bomb,
then why couldn't a civilization that was superior to
our own have developed the same technology? There is a Sumerian myth
concerning the planet Mars, having to do with some
colossal battle of the gods. So there is elements
in mythology that look very much like
descriptions of nuclear war. NARRATOR: Signs of a
possible nuclear blast, myths of a comet
flaying the planet, and a controversial
NASA experiment that may have found life-- could these really be traces of
an ancient alien civilization on Mars? And if so, is it possible
there are artificial structures buried beneath the
surface even to this day? [music playing] The Ares Vallis region
of Mars, July 4th, 1997-- NASA's Pathfinder spacecraft
lands on the red planet. The first probe to reach the
Martian surface since Viking, Pathfinder will look
for signs of water. [music continues] Since the Viking
missions in the 1970s, mainstream scientists have
come to the conclusion that the planet may have once
boasted oceans full of water and complex life. Billions of years ago,
early in the history of the solar system, Mars
probably looked in many ways the way the Earth did. It did build up an
atmosphere and oceans. The atmosphere probably would
have been equivalent to Earth's atmosphere at that time. Life could well have
formed in the oceans. NARRATOR: One day after
Pathfinder touched down, the Sojourner Rover began
exploring the Martian surface for signs of these ancient
lifeforms using an X-ray spectrometer and a
high powered camera. What they discovered was
yes, Mars, in certain places, looks like the high
desert on Earth. And maybe there
are areas which do seem to be dried out riverbeds. Maybe there is water
under the surface. The thing we've learned
from the rovers that's most interesting, I
think, is the fact that Mars once had a wet past. And if there was liquid
water on the surface of Mars long enough-- not just for a couple
of weeks, a couple of years, a couple
of thousand years-- but for millions
of years, hundreds of millions of years,
maybe something cooked up in that liquid. Maybe life. NARRATOR: As the Pathfinder
Rover snapped photographs of the Martian surface, it
captured images of something that puzzled some scientists-- a mountain range they
nicknamed the twin peaks. In his book "Life
and Death on Mars," Dr. John Brandenburg says
that because Mars has limited volcanic and tectonic
activity, it's an open question as to how
these mountains were formed. This interesting formation
is the tallest thing for hundreds of miles. Most of the volcanic
activity on Mars is concentrated in
the Tharsis region. How many miles away
is that, approximately? Oh, it's like 2,000
miles away to the west. All right, so this area is
not known for any volcanoes or anything like that. No. And because we now know so much
more about the climate of Mars than we did 20 years
ago, it had an ocean. It had long periods, apparently,
of liquid water flowing on its surface. So all of this causes us to
look at everything on Mars with new eyes. And so we have these
two interesting objects. They're conjoined. Not only are they the
tallest things for 200 miles, but they're linked
to each other. And this reminds me of what
we have found on planet Earth. Now there's alignment. And what's interesting-- this
is the Giza Plateau from Egypt. And it is near Cairo,
which name in Arabic derives from El Kahira, which
means camp of Mars, place of Mars. GIORGIO TSOUKALOS:
Very interesting. Fascinating. And we also have found out
recently that at one time, the Sphinx was covered
with red paint. So imagine we are looking at
the Giza complex and the Sphinx and a million years of
erosion has happened. Wouldn't these things all look
kind of rounded and mounded like this? It's conjectural. Now notice over here,
because it's the Giza Plateau, we have the Sphinx. Has something similar been
discovered on Mars specifically around the twin peaks area? Well, we have this strange
object which is nearby. And you see that from space
and also in the picture. And look at this,
at this alignment. Here is the Sphinx on Earth. Here's the pyramid. Here's this object,
and there is what looks like a mound of stuff. Who knows if it is
degraded archaeology? We must look at everything
on Mars now with new eyes. In fact, when the
Sphinx was originally found in modern times, it was
buried up to its neck in rubble and had to be excavated. GIORGIO TSOUKALOS:
So something similar could be going on right here? JOHN BRANDENBURG: There could be
a much larger structure buried beneath. NARRATOR: Could the
twin peaks be evidence that an ancient civilization
may have once existed on Mars-- a civilization whose
structures appear to resemble those on Earth? Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes, and that evidence for
this startling conclusion has been accumulating
for decades. When Viking
orbiters originally started taking pictures
of the surface of Mars, they took pictures of
very intriguing features on the plain of Cydonia. On July 25th, 1976, they
took a picture of something that looked, for all the
world, like a human face. The whole thing kind of blew
up when NASA project scientist named Toby Owen put a magnifying
glass over a frame number named 35a72 and said,
hey, look at this. NASA actually held a press
conference the next day where Owen and
Gerald Soffen, who was the chief Viking project
scientist, said you know, isn't it peculiar what tricks
of light and shadow can do? The whole thing kind of went
away a couple hours later when we took another picture. The problem with that is
that a couple hours later, the Viking orbiter was nowhere
near Cydonia, and it was dark. So there's no way that picture
could have ever existed. NARRATOR: Some believe they
found not only a human face carved into Martian
rock, but also a pyramid. A cliff-- in fact,
an entire city buried by thousands of
years of sand and soil. By the late 1980s,
one researcher had even discovered
what he thought were mathematical relationships
among the features of Cydonia. A cartographer and satellite
imagery expert from the Defense Mapping Agency named Errol
Torin took a look at the pyramid and concluded that it was
what he called the Rosetta Stone of Mars. He found a bunch of mathematical
relationships that pointed to other objects in the
area that he thought were artificial looking. They included the
face, an object called the cliff which
is a straight line that goes on for hundreds of
meters, a rounded mound called the tholus which appears to
have a pathway that goes up to the top. NARRATOR: More than 20 years
after the Viking mission, NASA re-photographed the
Cydonia region in 1998 and again in 2001. The face no longer looked
human, but some scientists believe that was because of
when and how NASA took the newer pictures. They shot it from the side. They shot it at morning. It was as much a different
viewing geometry and lighting geometry as possible from
the original pictures. Based on that evidence,
the face on Mars, evidence of past climate
on Mars, a past ocean, I have concluded that Mars
was apparently the home of a civilization in the past. NARRATOR: Is it possible
that an alien civilization existed on Mars in
the distant past and built the structures that
recent Martian probes have photographed? If so, does the government
know more than it's telling us about life and death
on the red planet? [music playing] Washington, DC,
August 7th, 1996-- on the South Lawn
of the White House, 30 years after NASA announced
the Viking mission had not found evidence of life on
Mars, President Bill Clinton held an historic
press conference to announce some momentous news. Microbial life may exist on
the red planet after all. Scientists had found
what they believed to be fossilized remains on a
Martian meteorite that crashed to Earth 12,000 years ago. It must be confirmed
by other scientists. But clearly, the fact that
something of this magnitude is being explored is another
vindication of America's space program and our continuing
support for it, even in these tough financial times. There was enormous
excitement over this discovery. Based on the chemical
composition of the meteorite, we could tell that
it was from Mars. Inside the rock, researchers
found different chemicals, and in particular different
physical shapes of objects that looked extremely similar
to microorganisms here on Earth. NARRATOR: Soon after the
president's press conference, scientists began to backpedal on
whether the meteorite actually showed signs of life. They said the original team of
experts may have been wrong. The image certainly looks like
some kind of a microorganism. But the opponents said
the microorganism remains are too small to have
DNA to be inside it, and therefore it
can't be a fossil. Since then, microorganisms have
been found that small which have DNA in them, but it
has not been resolved. NARRATOR: But given the
controversy surrounding the possibility that life may
have been discovered on Mars, starting with the Viking
mission of the 1970s and continuing to
the present day, some scientists say NASA almost
seems to be avoiding the issue. The Space Agency has never
retried Gil Levin's test for signs of life
on the red planet. It is very puzzling
as to why NASA has refused to send life
detection experiments back to Mars. My experiment discovered the
most remarkable thing yet know about Mars, that there
is something highly reactive in the soil-- chemical or biological--
but we really should find out what it is. It is startling that
NASA has made no attempt to determine that issue. I truly think NASA knows
there is life on Mars, but for some reason
unbeknownst to me it does not want
that information out. [music playing] NARRATOR: Has NASA found
definitive signs of life on Mars that they're
intentionally keeping from the public? And if so, have
they found evidence that an advanced civilization
once lived on the red planet? Some ancient astronaut
theorists believe they have, and as evidence
point to a report commissioned by NASA in 1960
that offers advice for how to reveal the news if the
American space program should ever find proof of
extraterrestrial life. The so-called Brookings
Report essentially said that in your travels throughout
the solar system, there is a distinct possibility
that you will discover artifacts, that you will
actually discover evidence of an ancient alien presence on
Venus, on the moon, or on Mars. And the implications of such an
announcement, if it were made, would be potentially
devastating to the human race. It could be catastrophic. In fact, it used the
word disintegrate. I would imagine that it would
be something that would be kept secret for a while. I don't think it's a bunch
of men sitting in a room and then smoking
cigarettes and saying we're going to keep this secret. But it is a responsibility, and
I think they would certainly be very, very careful as to
how to let out this knowledge. [music playing] NARRATOR: Is it possible
that not just microbial life but also intelligent beings
once called the red planet their home? And if so, what would that
mean for the existence of life elsewhere in the cosmos? If life used to exist on
Mars, particularly if it formed independently of Earth
life, life in the universe is all over the place. That means that of the
billions of planets discovered now similar to Earth through
our universe, many of them would have life on them. And if there is life different
from life on Earth that has evolved, there
would be every reason to suspect such evolution
would have gone on, on countless other Earths,
and that there would be intelligent life
out there as well. We want there to
be life on Mars. We want there to be life
somewhere beyond here. We want that transcendent
connection to the heavens. We don't want it to be invaders,
but we don't want to be alone in the universe. [music playing] NARRATOR: Are tales of life
on Mars bound in cultures across the world
simply mythology? Or might Martians
really have visited Earth in the distant past, as
ancient astronaut theorists suggest? If so, could there be evidence
waiting to be discovered on the red planet? Perhaps with further
missions to Mars, we'll find that not only
was it home to alien beings thousands of years ago,
but it still is today.
