15x11 - The Ultimate Guide to UFOs

[bunniefuu]

NARRATOR: Flying disks make impossible maneuvers.

MAN: Oh! MICHIO KAKU: Gravitational forces inside these objects would crush any living individual.

NARRATOR: Triangular craft appear out of thin air.

- (alarm blares) He actually was a hundred feet away from that flying triangle and could see through it and the stars above.

NARRATOR: Enormous cylindrical objects fill the sky.

RICHARD DOLAN: It had the radar return equivalent to ten aircraft carriers, except this was up in the air.

NARRATOR: UFO witnesses have reported objects of all shapes and sizes.

Could they offer important clues about other intelligent life in our galaxy? NICK POPE: Might there be links between the shapes of UFOs and the different types of entities that are sometimes reported? GEORGE NOORY: It's very conceivable they're coming from different planetary systems throughout the universe.

NARRATOR: There is a doorway in the universe.

Beyond it is the promise of truth.

It demands we question everything we have ever been taught.

The evidence is all around us.

The future is right before our eyes.

We are not alone.

We have never been alone.

At dawn on April 14, 1561, the citizens of this Bavarian city at the center of Europe awake to a commotion in the sky unlike anything they have ever experienced before.

People went outside, and they saw what they described as a celestial battle.

The witnesses observed seeing hundreds of these strange-shaped objects.

What were these strange shapes that they were describing? NARRATOR: The aerial scene, illustrated in this contemporary woodcut, is described in the accompanying text as a very frightful spectacle.

Strange objects seemed to launch projectiles as onlookers below watch in amazement.

This was actually witnessed by thousands of people.

Had it been a meteor shower or something like this, then the reports would have been, "Okay, this happened before because we've seen this before.

" But that was new.

HENRY: The witnesses wouldn't have had a conception of some kind of a mechanical spacecraft, but that seems to be exactly what they were describing.

And this has to be one of the greatest mass sightings of a UFO phenomena in all of recorded history.

NARRATOR: Incredibly, a very similar incident was reported in Basel, Switzerland five years later and was illustrated in a woodcut that still exists to this day.

Is it possible that these two events witnessed by thousands represent the first mass UFO sightings on record? TSOUKALOS: The UFO phenomenon is not modern.

It goes back as far as we can remember, because we have accounts of lights and craft not only in modern times but also in ancient times.

NARRATOR: Ancient astronaut theorists find it remarkable that the depictions of these 16th century sightings include every shape of craft that has been reported by UFO witnesses in modern times.

But it also poses an important question.

If these are, in fact, representations of alien vehicles, what could explain all the different shapes? BIRNES: So, it well might be that different types of UFOs are tasked for different purposes.

There are scout ships.

There are ships that only orbit.

There are mother ships.

They're all tasked for different purposes.

NOORY: If you look at our planet today, almost every country has some kind of flying machine that is different from what we have.

I think the same thing is the case with extraterrestrials.

Let's assume there's ten different E.

T.

Races within our Milky Way galaxy.

Each one could have a different shape to its craft because that's just the way they created it.

And I think that's very conceivable when we see cigar-shaped UFOs, triangular-shaped UFOs, round UFOs.

They're coming from different planetary systems throughout the universe.

NARRATOR: Could the various shapes that have been witnessed in the sky for hundreds of years all represent extraterrestrial crafts, as ancient astronaut theorists suggest? And if so, with a more advanced technological frame of reference, might modern humans be able to gain insight about who, or what, is visiting Earth by examining these shapes? Are there conclusions that you can make about the different shapes of UFOs that are reported? Might there be links even between the shapes of UFOs and the different types of entities that are sometimes reported? NARRATOR: In modern times, the most commonly reported UFO shape is the iconic "flying saucer.

" The term was coined in 1947 after pilot Kenneth Arnold spotted a number of flying objects near Mount Rainier in Washington, traveling at incredible speeds.

He described them as skipping through the air "like a saucer," he said.

And this is really where the term "a flying saucer" arrives in English language, is from Kenneth Arnold's description.

NARRATOR: With more saucer-shaped objects reported around the globe, the United States government began to investigate reports of UFO activity.

It wasn't just the United States that was interested in potential UFOs in the mid-century.

Canada, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and Brazil all had various programs to determine whether or not it was a thr*at for humans.

NARRATOR: Could it be that reports of flying saucers caught the attention of world governments because they have a shape unlike any man-made aircraft? Ufologists suggest that these sightings triggered a competition by world powers to manufacture their own craft based on this exotic design.

A design that many presumed must have some unknown but inherent advantage for flight.

There's no question that, historically, governments have attempted to recreate the shape of UFO craft that have been seen, spotted or crashed.

NARRATOR: In the 1950s, the Pentagon funded a prototype for a disc-shaped craft.

This once-classified project yielded a nearly three-ton flying saucer: The VZ-9 Avrocar.

TEITEL: The Avrocar was one attempt to develop a flying saucer.

And it was a VTOL design.

A vertical takeoff and landing.

It was designed by a Canadian company, Avro, for the U.

S.

m*llitary.

The U.

S.

Air Force wanted it to be a supersonic interceptor and fighter, and the U.

S.

Army wanted it to be something stealthy that could hover above the ground in silence and detect radar.

Avro engineers thought that this big circular wing might be the design that could meet both requirements.

NARRATOR: In 1959, after years of top secret development, this flying saucer prototype was finally put to the test.

ANNOUNCER: In preparation for the final contractual demonstration, a representative course was selected where the vehicle could demonstrate its capability while remaining in view of the observers.

TEITEL: It turned out that the cushion of air under that wing became extremely unstable just a few feet off the ground.

There was one model built, and some wind tunnel tests done, but ultimately it was deemed completely aerodynamically unstable.

NARRATOR: While the Avrocar failed, in 2019, Romanian engineer Razvan Sabie and aerodynamicist Iosif Taposu unveiled their answer to the flying saucer problem.

The "All Directional Flying Saucer," or ADIFO, demonstrates precision maneuverability, and outperforms all previously known flying saucers constructed by humans.

TEITEL: The ADIFO design looks really interesting.

It looks like a highly maneuverable flying saucer design.

But it's small, and it's a drone.

It would be interesting to see how the engineering works with a full-size design, because engineering is very difficult, and usually doesn't scale up very cleanly.

NARRATOR: This saucer utilizes four ducted fans like a quad copter drone, and it is also equipped with jets for added thrust, and lateral nozzles that provide side-to-side mobility and rotation.

The saucer only currently exists as a miniature prototype, but its creators plan to pursue a full-sized, manned version capable of hypersonic speed.

If successful, will we have finally achieved the same technology as extraterrestrial space travelers? Or could recent events reveal that they are still light-years ahead of us? NARRATOR: Ancient astronaut theorists have speculated that one reason extraterrestrials might have designed disc-shaped craft is so that they can instantly change direction, and at tremendous speeds.

CHILDRESS: We can learn a lot from modern UFO reports.

These disc-shaped craft are able to make sudden turns, turning at-at high speeds in any direction.

DOLAN: When you're thinking in terms of aerodynamics, shape should matter a great deal.

But what if aerodynamics is not really relevant? What if these objects are able to employ a different kind of a science that makes aerodynamics irrelevant? CHILDRESS: One of the concepts here is that these circular or disc-shaped craft are using antigravity for propulsion.

They're not rockets.

They're antigravity.

They're generating their own gravitational field, which would likely be a spherical field around the craft.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that reports of disc-shaped objects changing direction at incredible speeds, some of which have even been captured on video, are alien craft with antigravity technology? While there is no hard evidence that antigravity aircraft do exist, there has been much speculation as to how such craft might function.

One theory is that they could be, in part, driven by centrifugal force, the force that is felt by a rotating or spinning object.

The shape of these craft is consistent with these different models of rotation around a central axis involving something with high mass and high energy.

NARRATOR: Ancient astronaut theorists point out that such spinning wheel-like machines bear an eerie resemblance to one of the most famous and enigmatic stories from the Hebrew Bible, the story of Ezekiel's wheel.

TSOUKALOS: When you have these ideas that are currently proposed of these gigantic wheels in the sky that spin on their own axis in order to create artificial gravity, I might as well be reading Ezekiel.

It's very similar.

NARRATOR: In the Bible's Book of Ezekiel, the prophet describes a fiery chariot drawn by four living creatures.

Each creature is flanked by a metallic object, a wheel within a wheel, that Ezekiel observes as it descends, making a tremendous amount of noise.

In his 1968 book, Chariots of the Gods?, ancient astronaut theory pioneer Erich von Daniken proposed that what was actually being described in Ezekiel was a spaceship.

NASA engineer Josef Blumrich was determined to debunk this controversial theory.

But after painstaking research, the author was shocked to find himself agreeing with Erich Von Daniken.

In 1974, he published his own book supporting Erich's theory, entitled The Spaceships of Ezekiel.

TSOUKALOS: Blumrich reads Ezekiel, and he has an epiphany.

Because what is he describing? He's describing a wheel up in space.

Blumrich says, "By gosh, Erich is right.

" And so he conceived what Ezekiel may have described in that ancient biblical text.

TAYLOR: Ezekiel describes that the outside of the wheel doesn't spin.

The inside of the wheel spins.

So he's-he's telling us that's the engines.

None of this necessarily has to be magic.

This could all be technology.

HENRY: Perhaps what the wheel actually signifies is the secret of the gods, the secret of their extraterrestrial spacecraft and how humans might be able to reverse engineer that wheel and ultimately make their own craft.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that a story from the Bible's Old Testament describes the propulsion system of an extraterrestrial spacecraft? While Ezekiel's description of wheels within wheels may represent a primitive interpretation of highly advanced technology, one man claims to have firsthand knowledge that antigravity craft do exist: Area 51 whistleblower Bob Lazar.

Investigative journalist George Knapp was the first to interview him in 1989 about the notorious m*llitary base that has long been rumored to be hiding alien technology.

He told this incredible story, that he'd been working at this facility called S4, south of Groom Lake.

That they had a hangar hidden in the desert to make it look like it was actually a part of the desert terrain, and inside those hangers were, uh, nine flying saucers.

So Bob Lazar was tasked at area S4, a subsite of Area 51, to reverse engineer the power and propulsion of what we know as a flying saucer.

All of the nine craft that Lazar was able to see with his eyes were said to have worked on the same gravity system.

Bob Lazar said the craft would turn belly-first and the gravity wave amplifiers would all point to the place in time-space where you want it to go.

We're talking about a gravity-propelled craft.

We're talking about something that y-you don't have any effect of the inertia or-or momentum.

It's just instantaneously voom-voom-voom! One place, then the next.

BOB LAZAR: Element 115 was what we would call the fuel that provided the power for the reactor to work.

Element 115 affects gravity.

Element 115 produces its own gravitational energy.

The resulting gravity wave creates a distortion in front of it, allowing the craft to slide forward.

And that's how it proceeds.

NARRATOR: Could Bob Lazar's extraordinary claims about the flying saucers he allegedly worked on at S4, along with video evidence of UFOs, reveal that there are alien aircraft in our skies equipped with antigravity technology? KAKU: Antigravity is not possible with the known laws of physics.

So when I talk to my physicist friends about flying saucers and stuff like that, I get the giggle factor.

They start to giggle, their eyes roll up into the heavens, because, you see, I think they make a mistake.

They assume that the aliens are maybe 100 years more advanced than us, in which case, yeah, it is impossible for a civilization 100 years from us to reach us from the stars.

But what if, what if they are a million years ahead of us? New laws of physics are gonna open up once you have a civilization that is a million years more advanced than us.

And a million years is nothing but a blink of an eye compared to the age of the universe.

NARRATOR: Many UFO researchers believe the flying saucer is designed to take advantage of an antigravity propulsion system, and is the optimal shape for maneuvering quickly in any direction.

But what could explain the numerous other types of unidentified craft that have been reported? Perhaps further clues can be found by examining a UFO shape that more closely resembles man-made aircraft: The flying triangle.

NARRATOR: At 6:55 p.

M.

, local police receive a report of a massive V-shaped object traveling southeast across the night sky.

Over the next three hours, the craft is witnessed by thousands of people as it journeys down through Arizona and into Sonora, Mexico.

With most of the reports coming from Phoenix, as well as photographs and video footage, the incident becomes known as the Phoenix Lights.

DOLAN: The entire city of Phoenix was able to see this half a mile-long display of lights over the city in a very, very distinctive pattern.

It was a triangular-ish shaped object seen very reliably by quite a large number of witnesses.

BIRNES: Who's our best witness to that, the best one? Governor Fife Symington of Arizona.

FIFE SYMINGTON: As a pilot and a former Air Force officer, uh, I can definitively say that this craft did not resemble any man-made object that I'd ever seen.

BIRNES: He says, "Yeah, I really did see the UFO," and he describes it.

He actually was, maybe, 100 feet away from that flying triangle, and could see through it and the stars above.

DOLAN: Governor Symington was a qualified pilot, and in the Air Force Reserve as well.

I think he knew what he was seeing.

NARRATOR: The governor of Arizona described a strange triangular UFO that appeared translucent, camouflaging itself amidst the star field above.

This incredible mass UFO sighting made the front page of USA Today.

And then three years later, it happened again.

At 4:00 a.

M.

, three large triangular objects are seen by multiple witnesses, including police officers, flying silently in the night sky.

I looked up in the sky and observed this huge arrow-shaped, triangular-shaped object.

NARRATOR: They are observed for at least two hours and over more than one town.

SCHRATT: This is known as the famous Southern Illinois Flying Triangle.

We have about four different police officers.

What they describe seeing are three distinct arrowhead-shaped craft.

Officer Craig Stevens he was directly below one of these triangles.

And he said that it was trying to cloak or camouflage itself against the night sky, and was projecting the star field above it on the bottom surface, allowing it to effectively blend in with its background.

NARRATOR: The ability of triangular-shaped objects to hide in plain sight reminds many observers of modern stealth technology.

Developed by the U.

S.

m*llitary in the 1970s and '80s, stealth technology allows triangular-shaped aircraft to appear invisible to radar, sonar and other detection methods.

MICHAEL DENNIN: To make something invisible to radar, all you have to do is make sure that the radar doesn't reflect back to the receiver.

So, you send out a radio signal, you bounce it off the plane, you get the signal back, and now you detect it by radar.

This all comes down to mostly the shape of the planes, though it's a little bit the material, too, but it's predominantly the shape.

You want it shaped in a way so that the radar either scatters in random directions or literally just bounces off in a completely opposite way.

NARRATOR: Could the masking technology attributed to the Illinois flying triangle and to the craft observed during the Phoenix Lights incident be a highly advanced version of this same principle? Some kind of alien stealth? MICHAEL SALLA: Stealth technology has been developed to hide some of these spacecraft to simulate an environment behind the craft.

So this can be done in a way to make a craft disappear.

NARRATOR: Ancient astronaut theorists suggest that the triangular shape employed by the Phoenix and Illinois craft, and now by the U.

S.

m*llitary, has populated the skies since ancient times.

As proof, they point to evidence of triangular E.

T.

Surveillance craft in the ancient world, in the form of a symbol often called the "all-seeing eye.

" BRUCE FENTON: The triangle with an eye in the center is commonly used as a depiction of God, particularly in ancient Egypt, but we also see this in the Catholic faith, Masonic circles.

We see it on the U.

S.

Dollar bill, and indeed, you know, in some of the ancient artwork.

Now, could it be because the craft, which we have reported in the skies they look like a triangle with a light in the center, rather like an eye looking down on us? NARRATOR: Some believe that the eerie similarity between triangle-shaped UFOs and the U.

S.

m*llitary's stealth aircraft is no mere coincidence.

Stealth technology traces its roots back to a single series of papers written by a Soviet physicist.

This Soviet physicist realized radar doesn't see the way that the human eye sees.

And so, if you change the shape or composition of an object, that'll affect how it shows up on radar.

American engineers, when they learned about this, went back and started experimenting with how to apply that to an aircraft.

And a lot of their test work was done at Area 51 and Groom Lake, which, of course, has just made it a mecca for conspiracy theorists.

And then, later, people started to wonder if there were actually alien technologies there.

NARRATOR: Area 51? The U.

S.

Air Force installation in Nevada, long suspected to be hiding alien technology? Is it possible that the conspiracy theorists are right, and that the stealth bomber is the result of reverse engineering extraterrestrial craft? A lot of people say this is actually something we've developed, back engineered from extraterrestrial technology.

This is absolutely quantum leap technology.

NOORY: I think there's no question that we have reverse engineered, or have looked at the shapes of these craft, and have tried to create it for ourselves.

Look at some of the new stealth jets that are coming out right now.

They're amazingly close to what we saw 20 years ago from UFO reports.

NARRATOR: UFOs shaped like triangles and saucers, reported in the skies for centuries, can potentially teach mankind a lot about the alien entities who may be piloting them.

But are these craft the actual mother ships that carried alien visitors across the vast distances of interstellar space? Or are they simply smaller probes designed to enter and navigate the Earth's unique atmosphere? And if so, did these probes arrive here on board much larger vessels vessels with entirely different shapes, and with sizes that would stagger the human imagination? NARRATOR: Two Chilean pilots are conducting a training mission at 35,000 feet when they detect something highly unexpected: A massive cigar-shaped object.

They encountered visually and on their airborne radar an absolutely enormous object in the sky.

And in fact, two separate ground-based radars tracked this object.

We are told that it had the radar return equivalent to ten aircraft carriers.

Except this wasn't floating on the water, this was up in the air.

NARRATOR: One aircraft carrier alone is a massive vessel that stretches to about 1,000 feet in length, and towers 30 stories above the water.

Some can hold upwards of 75 aircraft, and can accommodate over 4,000 personnel.

DOLAN: I don't know what could be as large as ten aircraft carriers up in the sky, but this was quite immense.

As the pilots approached this object and you have to imagine they had to be somewhat terrified one of them described it as a very elongated object swathed in smoke.

As they got to a certain distance, this thing instantly accelerated and was just gone.

NARRATOR: Based on the descriptions of the two pilots, many researchers believe this to be the largest UFO ever reported.

And, in fact, many of the larger UFOs on record have a similarly cylindrical shape.

The cylindrical craft is a typical UFO shape, one that we see a lot of.

And, in fact, the very first photo of a UFO is of a huge cylindrical craft over Mount Washington in New Hampshire, taken in 1870, right at the very beginning of photography.

NARRATOR: On March 25, 1989, an infrared image was taken by an unmanned Soviet Martian probe called Phobos 2 that was beamed back to Earth.

It captured a massive 15-mile long, cylinder-shaped UFO approaching one of the two small moons of Mars.

Mysteriously, moments after the photo was taken, the Soviet probe disappeared.

PAUL STONEHILL: JPL was in the know.

They kept watching, I think, every second of the mission.

They knew when the probe disappeared and then was destroyed.

So I think there is something on that moonlet that is capable of destroying spacecraft from Earth, and they know it.

NARRATOR Officially, the loss of the Phobos 2 probe was blamed on a malfunction of the on board computer, but no explanation was ever provided for the enormous cylindrical object that was captured by its camera.

Could it be that the cylindrical craft was in fact a mother ship from a distant star system? In 2017, another massive cigar-shaped object was spotted traveling towards Earth.

And this time, astronomers made international headlines when they announced that this strange intruder had, indeed, arrived from a distant star the first interstellar object ever proven to have entered Earth's solar system.

In October of 2017, there was the very strange object very cylindrical and long called Oumuamua, which was, I believe, sent to our solar system.

POPE: We've had some space stories which have been pretty eye-opening, like Oumuamua, where we've had open speculation about how this thing might be an interstellar spacecraft.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that massive cigar-shaped objects like Oumuamua, the image captured by the Phobos 2 probe, and the UFO witnessed by pilots in Chile represent alien craft? Ancient astronaut theorists say yes, and believe that these craft serve a specific purpose, one that can be found by examining sacred Hindu texts that date back thousands of years.

DEEPAK SHIMKHADA: In Hindu texts, such as the Ramayana or the Mahabharata, a vimana is primarily a flying ship that God use to travel back and forth between spaces in heaven, from one planet to another planet, from one universe to another universe, and also come to Earth.

CHILDRESS: The vimana texts describe at least five different types of vimanas that have different shapes.

Some vimanas are tubular, cylindrical craft that can carry large amounts of people in them.

All these Vedic texts speak of a time when three cities were orbiting Earth.

And from these cities, smaller vehicles were used in order to reach the realm of the Earth.

Even extraterrestrials with their advanced technology would have to arrive with a larger mother ship orbiting the Earth.

And from that mother ship, smaller vehicles will enter the Earth's atmosphere, going back and forth.

And this is why we have these stories of vehicles with which to reach the larger palaces up in the sky.

Personally, I also think that whatever it is seen today with the modern UFO phenomenon, the big craft is out there.

The so-called cigar shape could be the larger vehicles, which were orbiting the Earth.

NARRATOR: Could it be that reports of cigar-shaped UFOs are really sightings of alien mother ships? Are these the interstellar barges that transport both extraterrestrials and their fleet of aircraft across vast distances of space? Ancient astronaut theorists say yes, and suggest that by more closely examining the behavior of these variously shaped UFOs, we may learn something about the beings that pilot them, or if they are even piloted at all.

(chatter in foreign language) NARRATOR: An unidentified glowing object descends from the darkness and hovers above the Temple Mount, a holy site revered in Judaism, Christianity and Islam for thousands of years.

(excited chatter in foreign language) The 2011 UFO sighting over the Temple Mount is absolutely fascinating.

You see this light slowly descend.

RABBI ARIEL BAR TZADOK: That happened in Jerusalem on a Friday night on a Sabbath.

We have too many witnesses from too many sources that can prove that this actually happened.

And this is what happened.

There was a light that appeared over the Temple Mount.

And it was just there.

A glowing globe.

And it was picked up on film by multiple different people from multiple different forms.

- And suddenly - MAN: Oh! God! It accelerates vertically upwards at immense speed, and you can hear some of the passersby gasping - in shock and amazement.

- MAN: Oh! If this is genuine, it's of extreme significance.

NARRATOR: The Jerusalem UFO exhibited astounding acceleration and maneuverability, but it's hardly alone.

MAN: Whoa! NARRATOR: On September 18, 2013, in Wittenberge, Germany, a witness records an unidentified triangular object that is also capable of accelerating at impossible speed.

And in December 2017, infrared footage goes public showing a Tic Tac-shaped object off the coast of California that radio operators track at 3,600 miles an hour.

The fastest man-made aircraft, the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, tops out at just over 2,000 miles an hour.

DOLAN: When you're looking at all of the different UFO reports over the many years, with all of the shapes and types of performance that are noted flying saucer-shaped objects, spherical-shaped objects, cigar-shaped objects all of these have shown incredible ability to accelerate.

All of them.

NARRATOR: For UFO researchers, the most compelling accounts are those in which the object maneuvers in such a way that it not only exceeds the abilities of any man-made aircraft, but would actually k*ll a human pilot.

DENNIN: So when you think about things moving and having very high accelerations in g-forces, we know that most things based on organic matter that are living are going to be unlikely to survive those forces.

TEITEL: There's only so many g-forces the human body can take before you run into a lot of medical problems.

So with some of these fast-moving objects people have seen move in ways that would k*ll a pilot.

NARRATOR: Are extraterrestrial crafts flown by incredibly resilient beings capable of withstanding forces that would otherwise k*ll a human pilot? There was this DIA report, Defense Intelligence Agency, about these different types of alien creatures, one of which is fascinating.

It's called transmorphic.

And what that means is, these creatures aren't corporeal the way we are.

They're energy beings, they're light beings.

NARRATOR: Some believe these objects that fly at bone-crushing speeds could be piloted by beings that are not bound to a rigid physical form.

But others suggest a more likely explanation is that the craft don't have pilots inside them at all.

KAKU: These are hypersonic devices.

They can also zigzag, and the amount of zigzagging is so great that the gravitational forces inside these objects as they jerk through space and time would crush any living individual.

In my opinion, whatever these objects are, they're guided either by remote control or by an autonomous cybernetic system.

FENTON: Now when we look at the cutting edge of science today, we realize that space exploration probably won't be carried out by living people, but instead by robot craft, and this is already happening.

You know, our explorations of Mars and of the solar system involve robot craft, not human beings.

Could it be that an advanced extraterrestrial civilization would have gone down the same route and sent living AI craft to explore our planet? NARRATOR: If aircraft of all shapes and sizes have been sent to Earth from alien mother ships, as ancient astronaut theorists suggest, could they be robotic drones that are remotely controlled from far above the planet? Or is it even possible that the craft possess highly advanced artificial intelligence, and fly autonomously? And if there are no pilots to accommodate, could this suggest that these crafts are capable of more than we ever imagined? NARRATOR: A robotics team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory announces a new prototype robotic system that will one day be able to explore the most inaccessible areas of distant worlds.

Mini-robots that can combine and transform to roll, fly, float, and swim in any environment.

NASA is calling them "Shapeshifters.

" NASA is looking at shape-shifting robots to explore other moons and planets.

Like Saturn's moon, Titan.

It's looking at having a shape-shifting robot as part of a probe that could adapt to the different environment on Titan's surface.

Flying through the air, exploring the ground, and even going into the methane and ethane seas.

The individual components are kind of self-contained mini-robots that work together as a collective and create new and interesting shapes, depending on what you need to go through.

It's been noted with a number of UFOs that have been observed, sometimes they change shape.

At one point, they look like a triangle and then they look like a disc.

NARRATOR: Another technology that NASA is developing for deep space travel is self-replicating robots: Artificially intelligent machines that are able to use the resources found on celestial bodies to create more of themselves, colonize planets, and even evolve into more sophisticated machines.

This has led some to speculate that the UFOs witnessed in our skies are not dependent on external control at all.

KAKU: If you're an alien civilization looking at the galaxy with a hundred billion stars, you may not want to send Captain Kirk hopping one by one.

You'd send self-replicating robots.

They would land on the planet, make hundreds of carbon copies of themselves that would launch off and colonize other moons.

From one robot, you would get a hundred, then a thousand, then a million, billion.

While we are certainly dealing with technological craft in certain instances, it's also true that we are finding evidence for conscious entities that are spacecraft.

NARRATOR: From an ancient Egyptian symbol to a 16th century Swiss illustration, and modern-day footage captured by m*llitary aircraft, is there overwhelming evidence that UFOs and extraterrestrial craft not only exist, but they have been present on planet Earth for thousands of years? Flying discs with exotic propulsion systems, stealth aircraft that can appear and disappear at will, and massive mother ships carrying space travelers from light-years away.

As new technologies allow us to capture more and more unidentified flying objects, perhaps we will soon discover that their numbers are far greater than we ever imagined, and it is not that they are in our airspace, but that we are in theirs.