03x06 - ISS UFO Swarm, Yale Lake Leaf Monster, and Rat King

[bunniefuu]

- Tonight on "The
Proof is Out There."

The International
Space Station catches

something inexplicable.

- You have to ask yourself,

is there intelligent life
behind what we're seeing?

Something
strange is in the water.

These kayakers caught
it all on video.

What the
just happened?

A trucker spots

these strange lights
over Wisconsin.

Can
you guys see this?

What is this thing?

What is that?

And a UFO
hunter on the prowl.

Did he finally find
what he's seeking?

I hope I
don't get taken tonight, man.

- Some of these videos are
very difficult to explain.

Around the
globe are videos...

What
the heck is this?

It's moving.

Photos and sounds
that defy explanation.

Is it some
kind of unidentified object?

What's exciting
is nobody really knows.

What are they?

Some
sort of bizarre mutation.

- Extraordinary claims
need extraordinary proof.

- I'm Tony Harris,

and as a journalist
for more than 30 years,

I've followed the facts
where they take me.

Now I'm bringing that
spirit of investigation

to the world's strangest
sounds and images.

We'll analyze each
one with top experts.

- It's a credible case.

It's a credible video

And pass a
verdict on what it is.

- This video was clearly faked.

- The proof starts now.

Good evening and welcome

to "The Proof is Out There."

At almost five miles per second,

the International Space
Station makes one orbit

around Earth in a
little over 90 minutes.

And you can bet it manages

to photograph some
pretty cool things

and some pretty strange ones.

Check this out.

It's July 12th, 2021,

and a live video streams

from an external
high-definition camera

on the International
Space Station

when the camera captures
something that's

out of this world.

It's a cluster of lights
passing through its field,

appearing to have a form
similar to a constellation.

Look at how they move at a
seemingly controlled pace,

holding their formation.

To journalist Alexis
Brooks, that's noteworthy.

- This has eluded everybody.

The fact that they moved so
intentionally across the sky,

you have to ask yourself

is there intelligent life
behind what we're seeing?

If these are
intelligent objects,

why would they be
interested in the ISS?

It could very well be
that they are interested

in us seeing them

because maybe they want
to expose themselves.

Brooks says that,

since its inception
in the late 90s,

the International Space
Station has photographed

many instances of mysterious
lights that suggest

the presence of
extraterrestrial life.

- The ISS is no stranger

to capturing this sort
of anomalous footage.

In 2019, it captured
several blue lights

and a blue jet that
launched out of a cloud

and into space over
the Pacific Ocean.

And then in 2020,
a Russian cosmonaut

was filming the aurora.

But something that
he did not expect

was what seemed to be a
stream of horizontal lights.

He called them space gases.

- It's an interesting thought

that the first
extraterrestrial contact

would be a subtle tickle,
rather than a bold arrival.

That maybe these
lights are just another

in a series of gentle
attempts to establish contact.

But let's ask our experts

before we spend too much
time prepping our response.

First we turn to Rich Hoffman

to determine could these lights
be explained away as stars.

- The lights are pretty
much just little dots

moving across the screen

that are not changing
size or position.

And they look like that they're
in some sort of a formation,

but I have not seen anything
where you have stars

that move across
the sky like that

in that kind of a pattern.

So they're not any stars.

While stars do
move, they're so far away

that this movement
wouldn't be visible

to the naked eye or this camera.

And while there are
other celestial bodies

that visibly move,

they don't do it in
coordination like we see here.

- They're not any planets.

They're not a swarm of meteors

that are coming
toward the planet.

As for UFOs,
Hoffman points out

that the U.S. has
always kept a close eye

on any object entering
the earth's atmosphere.

In fact, a 1971 treaty
obligates the US and Russia

to notify each other

of any unidentified
objects coming from space.

That's to prevent one
from being mistaken

for a nuclear m*ssile attack.

- I don't believe that UFOs

in that kind of a swarm
would've gone unnoticed by NASA.

We can see something down
to the size of a wrench,

and we're doing that to be able

to protect the actual
space crew aboard the ISS.

So people who are
monitoring on earth

would've been able to
readily point that out.

For Tim McMillan,
it's the speed of the lights

that becomes an important clue,

telling him the camera isn't
pointing toward the stars,

but down.

- The speed in which we see
these lights move is consistent

with the speed in which
the ISS orbits the earth.

So that gives us
a really good idea

that we're looking at something
that's fixed on the earth.

Then could
these lights be part

of Earth's atmosphere?

Say, weather?

- Even though it's 248 miles
above the Earth's surface,

we often see natural
phenomena, lightning strikes,

that type of thing.

However, because these
lights are static,

I think we can
rule out lightning.

If it's not
atmospheric,

could they be city lights?

- These really don't look

like what we see with
major cities from space.

You can see the
sprawling spiderweb

of network of roads
and buildings.

And we don't see that here.

So what
does that leave us?

Marc D'Antonio has an idea.

- Where I've seen lights
like this on earth

is when there have been
fishing fleets offshore

using bright lights
aimed down into the water

to lure shrimp.

And so that's probably
what we're seeing here.

It also
explains the darkness

that surrounds all the lights.

That's the ocean.

- These larger bloated
areas are where the lights

are being cast out
in a very broad area.

Water reflects light very well.

And so you can actually
see these lights

from the International
Space Station.

- Our verdict? Fishing vessels.

We think D'Antonio's comparison

between this video and other
known vessels is a match.

If you wanna see views
from the ISS for yourself,

you can visit the ISS HD Earth
Viewing experiment online.

To date, approximately
500 million people

have seen the globe this way.

Now from fishing
boats to kayaks.

Most people take up
kayaking as a way to escape,

bask in nature, and relax.

But just going with the
flow was not an option

for the guys who
had this intense

and unusual aquatic encounter.

June 29th, 2017.

On Yale Lake in
Southwest Washington,

two men take their kayaks out

for a relaxing afternoon

when the calm waters
are suddenly disturbed.

Weird.

The video seems
to show bubbles rising

to the surface of the water
in the center of the lake

as the kayakers
paddle towards them.

Just bubbles coming
from the bottom of the lake.

No current.

I'm afraid to put my
hand in the water.

One kayaker dips his
camera below the water line,

and we see debris and
thousands of bubbles swirling.

Weird though, dude.

The bubbling
is so intense,

the other kayaker
panics and paddles off.

Go, go, go.

Then an ominous burst
of murky brown water erupts

as hundreds of leaves are
belched up to the surface.

What the!

What the just happened?

Something just happened
that we caught on camera.

Dude, it stinks!

Field researcher
and author Ken Gerhard tries

to help us understand what
we're seeing in the video.

- My first thoughts are,

is there something
alive beneath the water

that's creating these bubbles

and this disturbance
in the water?

Yale Lake is connected
to the Columbia River,

which has been said to be
home to this massive creature

called Colossal Claude.

Sightings date back
to the early 1930s.

The general physical
description is a huge animal

about 40 feet long
with a serpentine,

although a very
thick, powerful body,

and what was described as
a very evil snakey head.

Many of the lakes
around the world

where these monsters
have been reported

all boast healthy populations
of salmon and trout.

So perhaps these lake monsters
might also live in the ocean

and follow the salmon
populations

into fresh water to feed.

- There are dozens,
maybe thousands,

of undiscovered creatures
inhabiting the world's lakes.

Recently, researchers
uncovered around 40 new species

in Lake Mweru,

located between Zambia and the
Democratic Republic of Congo.

But was whatever these
kayakers saw a creature

from the deep?

Let's see what's swimming in
our experts' thought bubbles.

Marine biologist, Dr. Shea
Conger, begins her analysis

by addressing the
lake monster theory.

- The number of salmon

in the Columbia River's
dramatically decreased,

and this is an
important resource,

not only for humans,
but for wildlife.

So if there were some sort

of abnormally large
animal in Yale Lake,

it probably wouldn't have a
lot of food to live off of.

And so it's pretty unlikely

that there are undiscovered
large animals in Yale Lake.

There are actually a couple

of freshwater seal
populations in the world,

but if this were something
like a seal or a whale,

we would definitely
see the animal itself.

And seals really only
hold their breath

for maybe 20 minutes at a time.

What about
those bubbles?

Geologist Bob Anderson
helps us figure out

what could be happening here.

- Natural gas and oil are formed
between sedimentary layers.

And you get a lot of
Carboniferous materials

that are from the time
before the dinosaurs.

And these areas get
buried deep down

and that pressure and heat
causes those organic materials

to break down into hydrocarbons.

And all it takes is
a crack in the rock,

and they just release
and they pop real fast.

The
Carboniferous Period

occurred 300 million years ago.

So these organic materials
have been building pressure

for quite some time,

just waiting to blow.

- When you look at the video

and you add in the
combination of those bubbles

and the smell at the end...

Dude, it stinks!

To me, it's a dead clue

that it's some type of a
natural gas that's coming up.

- This happens all
over the world.

Massive underwater craters
have been discovered

off the coast of Norway.

Up to 147 feet deep
and 2,624 feet wide,

researchers have
deemed them the cause

of expulsions of gas rising
to the surface in the area.

Our verdict? Natural gas.

The smell was the clincher.

The kayaker complained
about the horrible aroma

which is a common
attribute of methane gas

when it mixes with
hydrogen sulfide,

causing a rotten egg odor.

While the men didn't come
across Colossal Claude,

they did still stumble
upon a remarkable piece

of natural history.

- This next story
is about a sound

that was heard over
thousands of square miles

and yet no one could
see what caused it.

Did it come from
the ground, the sky,

or the U.S. government?

October, 2021,

it's a quiet fall morning in
Leominster, Massachusetts.

But shortly before 11:30 AM,

that tranquil scene is broken

when a backyard
security camera captures

this mysterious sound.

No big deal, right?

That boom is almost
immediately followed

by a softer one,

except neither is soft.

The sound is heard
over three states,

which means wherever
it emanated from,

it was as loud as a
100-megaton nuclear expl*si*n.

So what could it be?

According to
journalist MJ Banias,

there are several theories.

- The idea is much

like the earth can fracture
and create an earthquake,

frequencies in the sky will
also rub up against each other

and create a loud boom sound.

Some people believe
it's caused by storms

or it's caused by
electromagnetic frequencies.

Some people believe it's caused

by the earth's magnetic poles.

But not
everyone agrees skyquakes

are the work of mother nature.

- Other people believe that
when UFOs enter our atmosphere,

they create a skyquake of sorts.

Because they would
create a loud boom sound,

much like a fighter jet
when it goes hypersonic.

- Between 2013 and 2015,

scientists from the
University of North Carolina

attempted to determine
the origins of skyquakes

with a mobile network

of 400 atmospheric
sensors and seismographs.

And while no definitive
answers were found,

the research did rule
out the possibility

that seismic activity
plays any role

in these strange sounds.

So what do we have here?

A meteor?

A sonic boom from a jet?

Some other natural or
supernatural explanation?

We asked our experts
to take a listen.

We begin our analysis with
meteorologist, Juan Hernandez.

Could this boom have
been caused by a meteor?

Turns out that satellites set up

for tracking lightning
strikes have the answer.

- A result of tracking
lightning is oftentimes

the ability to detect meteors
streaking across the sky.

In this case, we did
have an example detected

in the sky across New Hampshire.

The satellite itself
picked up the flash

at 11:21 in the morning.

That sound was heard
across the region.

But while
radar detection

on a scope appears to be
definitive visual evidence

of a meteor,

soundscape ecologist,
Ben Gottesman,

says the audio captured

on the backyard camera
tells another story.

- Skyquakes refer to a
low frequency rumbling.

And they typically occur
not when it's storming,

but on nice calm days.

But Gottesman says,

while no one really
knows what causes them,

what he hears can be explained.

- That double boom signature
is really characteristic

of sonic booms that
eclipse the speed of sound.

The question is,

was it a sonic boom produced
by an aircraft or a meteor?

Gottesman
analyzes known examples

of the sounds produced
by both objects.

First up, the boom of a meteor.

- So that is a sonic boom caused

by a meteor ripping
through the atmosphere.

And it's characterized
by this single impulse

that we see here.

Next up, an example
of a boom from a fighter jet.

- Here we're going to listen

to a sonic boom
caused by an aircraft.

Did you hear that double boom?

Aircrafts have this
double boom sound,

because there's a sonic
boom created at the front

and at the tail end
of the aircraft.

As both of them eclipse
the speed of sound,

which is around
750 miles per hour,

those pressure waves
collide together

and produce these shock waves

that then ripple through
and create these booms.

And we'll compare that to this.

To me it's a really good match.

This sound really does
have the the shape

and profile of sonic booms
created by an aircraft.

- So if you believe our experts,

this is one of the oddest
phenomena we've ever covered.

The meteorological
data indicates a meteor

was entering the atmosphere

and the audio analysis
indicates military jets

were passing over
at the same time.

What are the odds of that?

One of those events
probably explains the sound.

This is
an unexplained coincidence.

Seriously!

Have you ever wondered
why the Mouse King

in "The Nutcracker"
is sometimes depicted

with more than one head?

Turns out it's based
on a real phenomenon.

And after seeing
this next video,

I'm glad I've only ever
viewed it on a stage.

Tartu, Estonia.

October, 2021.

Johan Uibopuu receives
a disturbing phone call

from his mother regarding
her chicken coop.

He offers to take a look,

but nothing could prepare
him for what he finds.

Boy!

Their tail is really tangled.

That's
an understatement.

Let's take another look.

What looks like a
heap of black rats

is actually a heap of black rats

with their tails hopelessly
entangled together.

There are 13 rats in this
bundle, bound together for life.

- One of them, unfortunately,

looks like it has passed
on to the next world.

And maybe that's for the best.

I wouldn't wanna be tied

to a bunch of my brothers
and sisters either.

Would you believe that

this isn't the first time
a knot of rats like this

has been discovered?

It's even got a
name: the rat king.

- The term rat king is thought
to originate from German.

It's a number of rats whose
tails have become entangled

so that they are basically
like a rodent super organism.

An older, wiser rat would sit
atop a pile of younger rats

and they would serve
all of his needs.

Unfortunately for rat kings,

they are considered
to be bad omens.

It's thought that they
warn of the plague.

They're also associated
with witchcraft.

Because of this,

in old Strasbourg, where
rat kings were found,

they were usually
drowned in a well

or dunked in boiling
water before being brought

to the local school
teacher to study them.

Because of their
supernatural associations

and the rarity of
their occurrences,

there's debate as to whether

or not rat kings are
cruel man-made hoaxes.

- There's a long history

of fabricating
creatures for profit.

Think about P.T.
Barnum's Fiji mermaid,

George Hull's Cardiff Giant.

Back in the day, people
would take lizards

and glue bat wings on them
and say here, buy a dragon.

Or they'd stick a
narwhal horn on a horse

and say, this is a unicorn.

So a hoax is
definitely not outside

the realm of possibility.

- Knots are complicated.

There's a whole area of
mathematics called knot theory

dedicated to studying these
things in the abstract.

And the knots of the rat
king tales are complex too.

Scientists have attempted
to recreate them

and they quickly discovered it

was a lot harder than expected.

The knots they made looked
too neat and intentional,

and those rats were dead.

Let's turn to our experts
to see what they think

about this whole thing.

First we turn to
biologist Floyd Hayes

to find out, is this real?

And if so, how the heck does
something like this happen?

- One possibility
is that it was faked

and somebody actually
stuck the tails together.

But it could also be
a natural phenomenon;

and I think that's most
likely in this case.

It's been suggested

that perhaps they are
stuck together from birth.

But that seems very unlikely

because these are
fairly well grown,

and they would likely
starve to death

if they were stuck
together for a few weeks.

So if they
weren't destined at birth

to become parts of a rat
king, how do they form?

- So a rat king occurs when
the tails are stuck together.

This usually happens
in black rats,

which have unusually
long tails compared

to other species of rats.

And it happens mostly
in cold countries

during the winter months.

And it is believed

that their tails are
frozen together overnight

when they're huddling
together for warmth

by water or urine
or sperm or food.

- However, in a bizarre twist,

when we do some
research of our own,

we find that temperatures
in this area of Estonia

only had a low of 36
degrees Fahrenheit the night

before this rat king was found.

Not cold enough to freeze.

And what's more, rats,
contrary to their reputation,

groomed themselves
nearly as much as cats.

The idea that they
could get stuck together

with dirt and grime
seems unlikely.

So we turn to wildlife
biologist, Stephanie Schuttler.

She says the rat king legend
carries a grain of truth.

- Rats can be carriers of
diseases and parasites.

So the fact that people thought
rat kings were bad omens

or carriers or
signals of plague,

it's not that
unreasonable of a leap.

It might
just be coincidence,

but the COVID-19 epidemic
was still ravaging Europe

when this video was shot.

And Schuttler says there's
another question gnawing at her.

Why do these rats lie down
and accept their fates?

Why don't they fight back?

- When animals are stuck or
trying to escape from something,

they can do things like chew
their own appendage off,

like this has
happened in leg traps

with animals like
coyotes or wolves.

Why aren't these rats chewing

their own tails off to get away?

- Our verdict?

It seems like rat
kings form naturally,

but what we don't know
is the why of it all.

Why aren't there more rat kings?

And why don't these rats make
more of an effort to escape?

It remains an
unexplained mystery.

- The great Jim Morrison
once advised all motorists

to keep your eyes on the road

and your hands up on the wheel.

But that's easier said than done

when what's coming
at you on the highway

is breaking on through
the doors of perception.

It's a November night in 2019

and long haul trucker James Cole

is passing through
Stephensville, Wisconsin.

After hours of playing highway,

he comes around a
turn and sees this.

A fuschia
light glows over the road,

a stark contrast to
the dark night sky.

And it
doesn't go away either.

As James drives it appears
to get bigger and closer.

- I was talking on the CB radio

as I was passing
other trucks to say,

Man, do you guys see this?

What is this thing?
What is that?

No one was calling back
but, it's most unusual.

James is
perplexed by why his shout outs

to his fellow truckers are
met with radio silence.

- I had posted it to my YouTube
channel, it got an uproar,

but no one could really
pinpoint exactly what it was

and I couldn't either.

- So imagine you're the
driver in this truck.

You glance up to the
skies and you see this.

The first thing you notice
obviously is the color,

it's pink, and then you
notice the shape, right?

Not a sunset that
I've ever seen,

not something tied to
the Aurora Borealis.

Not a beacon of any kind.

This driver continued on
his journey for miles.

It never left the sky.
It didn't appear to move.

If I saw this on the road,
I'd be pretty freaked out.

Author Amy Teitel says
the theories vary.

- One of the leading theories
was that this pink cloud

is evidence of chemtrails.

Chemtrails are a theory
that government is releasing

toxic chemicals into
the atmosphere by plane

for a variety of reasons
ranging from mind control

to weather control.

Another theory is
that this pink cloud

is some kind of electromagnetic
field or radiation,

which is reminiscent
of the famous

Zona Del Silencio in Mexico.

This is a region in
the Mapimi desert

where allegedly no cell
phone or radio signals

can get through.

It is a complete
dead silent zone.

An electromagnetic
field is a force field

produced by stationary
electrical charges

being combined with moving
magnetic currents.

This force could become
entangled with CB radio waves,

throwing off their signal

or causing them to
stop completely.

Perhaps this is why James's CB
radio couldn't reach anyone.

What else could be at play here?

Rumors about La Zona Del
Silencio began in 1970

when a US military base
fired a test m*ssile

toward the White Sands m*ssile
Range and the rocket ended up

in the Mapimi Desert, 400
miles south of its target.

This secret operation
remains a mystery.

Could similar forces
be at play in Wisconsin?

Hopefully our experts
can hit the mark.

First we turn to
meteorologist Juan Hernandez.

Could this be evidence
of the fabled chemtrail?

- We have actually
two satellites

that cover the whole
western hemisphere.

We would be able to
detect if there was

some sort of chemical being
released into the atmosphere.

In reality, what
people call chemtrails

are actually water vapor from
the engines of the airplane,

usually in a line.

In this case we
don't have a line.

It's more like a circular
or a blob of light.

But what does
he think about this being

some sort of
electromagnetic event?

Physicist Matthew
Szydagis weighs in.

- I do find it intriguing
that the truck driver

claims to be unable
to contact others

'cause that would hint towards

something electromagnetic
in nature.

But that doesn't
necessarily correspond

with a light in the sky.

There are many different
ways to create dead zones

with cellular signals,

but they're not gonna
produce a visible effect

that you can see in the sky.

So what
are we looking at?

- I looked at the exit sign,

where in Wisconsin
this video took place,

and it turns out
that very nearby

there is an organization that
runs an aquaponics facility

that uses purple LEDs
to grow their plants.

Aquaponics is
a food production system

that combines
aquaculture of fish

with hydroponics of plants.

Nutrient rich water
and proper lighting

for photosynthesis are key.

So that kind of
fits what James saw,

but he started recording
that footage miles away.

So how could James see this
from such a long distance?

- Colors that are towards
the end of the rainbow

tend to scatter more
easily in the atmosphere.

That could explain why we
see such a large purple mass

in this video.

Because the lights
from the LumiGrow LEDs

can really scatter very
easily through the atmosphere

and create an eerie
paranormal glow.

The clouds could be reflecting
light or refracting,

which means bending the light,

making it look much larger
than it actually is.

But is just some botanist
growing some plants

and vegetation for us.

- So it looks like
we've solved this one,

at least partly.

We don't know why the
radio went silent,

but the strange purple
light was coming from

an aquaponic farm.

Who knows, maybe James will
find himself transporting

some of the produce being grown
there to a store near you.

In the meantime, brother
keep on trucking.

- We love featuring stories

submitted by our
viewers.

So here's a doozy.

Now, the majority of UFO
videos we investigate

are usually due to the fact
someone just happened to be

at the right place at the
right time and pressed record.

But you were about to meet
a man who desperately wanted

to get a UFO on video and
it turns out maybe he did.

We're in Ardmore,
Oklahoma for this one

with dedicated proof
viewer Joey Franko.

After witnessing what he
thinks is a UFO one night

above his home,

Joey makes it his mission to
scan the evening sky each night

with his thermal camera
for any other signs

of extraterrestrial life.

And on May 26th,
2017, he records this.

Definitely a disc.

Take a closer look.

Watch how the object appears
to hover near the clouds.

Then deliberately
it moves sideways.

Then Joey points a
laser directly at it.

Whoa, did
you see it stop?

If I wouldn't have
shine the laser at it,

it would've never came back.

It's almost right over
the top of me now.

I hope it don't hurt me.
Please don't hurt me.

I've made contact
with this thing.

I hope I don't get
taken tonight, man.

I'm like scared and excited
all at the same time.

It's like I never expected
this to happen this night,

to make contact with aliens.

Whoa, did you see
that? It's gone, man.

At a thousand miles an
hour this thing booked.

Even journalist
Erin McCarthy wonders

if it's possible Joey
actually made contact

with an alien ship.

- It almost seems like
there's a bit of an empathetic

connection between Joey
and whatever this craft is.

He's talking to the craft.

- It's coming right back at
me, man, isn't that amazing?

And it seems
to be responding to him.

The idea
of humans communicating

with extraterrestrials
goes back hundreds,

if not thousands of years.

Some theorized the
Nazca people of Peru

communicated with
alien civilizations

and that some of the mysterious
1200 foot designs they built

were actually spaceship runways.

And 3000 year old artifacts
unearthed at Sanxingdui China

first in the 1920s and
then in the eighties

have convinced many of
alien contact in our past.

But in the 20th century,

others attempted to use
the power of the mind.

- There was actually a
man after World w*r II

named George Van Tassel who
believed that he could summon

and telepathically communicate
with aliens by meditating.

And they actually telepathically
gave him instructions

to build a structure
out in the desert

that was supposed to
reverse the aging process.

- In the 1950s, author and UFO
contactee George Van Tassel

brought together 11,000 people

for his interplanetary
spacecraft convention

in the California desert,
hoping to make contact.

But was Joey able to communicate
with aliens all by himself?

We sent his footage to
our experts to decide.

We begin with Rich Hoffman

of the Scientific
Coalition for UAP Studies.

Does Joey's use of a thermal
camera offer any clues?

- Could it be a plane?

No, it doesn't have
wings to help hold it up.

We don't see any heat coming
out of the back end of it,

which might be
expelled from the heat

from whatever the
pulsion system was.

So I don't put it in
any kind of a category

like an aircraft.

Astronomer
and video effects designer,

Mark D'Antonio agrees
this isn't an airplane

and he says a drone wouldn't
move as erratically as this,

but D'Antonio believes
that sudden movement

may be a key piece
of the puzzle.

Whoa. Did you see that?

You're watching him
move through the sky

and then all of a sudden,

it's gonna go right
down to the ground.

So the way it's
flying right now,

it kind of looks like a hawk.

If you have to try to
assign it to something

it most resembles
a bird of prey.

- Is D'Antonio, right?

Is this a bird on the
hunt for it's next meal?

Science writer,
Mick West, agrees

the thermal camera
does offer a clue.

- All that we can tell about
the temperature of this object

is that it's warmer than
everything else in the scene.

It could very well be an animal.

So if it's
an animal, what kind?

West compares the object
to a known creature

that Joey also recorded?

- Joey has this video
here, which is a creature

that he recognized
as being a bat.

And you can see the
object flapping its wings.

And if we take the two videos
and put them side by side,

you can see when it's more
clearly something with wings

is actually a bit larger,

even though you can't really
see anything like wings

flapping like that in the
object, it's hard to say.

I wouldn't rule out
the possibility that

this isn't a bat
and this is a bat.

But in both videos it's kind
of very difficult to see

what's going on because
of the low resolution.

- So what do we have here?

If we can't see
any wings flapping,

it's hard to say
bat or bird of prey.

Has it turned out Joey
may have found exactly

what he was looking for?

- I think a lot of the
time when people think

they are summoning aliens,
they're just getting lucky.

Eventually something's
gonna fly along,

but this is a UFO because it's
unidentified and it's flying.

I don't what it is.

What the hell is it?

Could be a
bat, could be a bird,

could be something else.

I've made contact.

- Our verdict, genuine UFO.

While this could be
some sort of animal,

we agree with the experts
that the video doesn't give us

a clear enough image to make
that call with confidence

so it remains unidentified.

But when Joey does find
that definitive proof,

we'll be here to show it.

Here's a stone cold mystery

that's been millions
of years in the making.

A large, strange rock
with patterns so precise,

it looks like it has
to be the product

of intelligent design.

Let's see if we have the
intelligence to figure it out.

It's July, 2016 in Mineral
County, West Virginia.

A nature photographer
is taking pictures

around Jennings Randolph Lake

when she sees something
mysterious and snaps a shot.

Her photo shows a rock formation

with an almost honeycomb
appearance on its face

like a stone beehive.

The pattern is geometrical
with straight rows of triangles

and rhombuses, which make it
look somewhat like a waffle.

It's darker in color
than the rock face

and appears in relief,
which makes it stand out.

And journalist Eric
Grundhauser confirms

that it often draws
curious visitors.

- What makes it so evocative
is the way that the shapes here

and the design on the rock
are so seemingly uniform.

When we see natural formations,

we often think of them as
a little bit more random,

a little bit more chaotic.

But the design on Waffle Rock

seems to be a bit more ordered.

It seems to have a reason to it.

So it looks
like the rock isn't random

and Grundhauser wonders if it's
trying to tell us something.

- One theory is that
it is a design created

by an ancient culture
that was trying to leave

some sort of message
or hieroglyphic

and left it in this
indecipherable code.

- If that were the case,

it would've been
chiseled into the rock.

We know that ancient
Native Americans

in what is now western
North Carolina,

etched this curvilinear motif
into a soapstone boulder

known as Judaculla Rock
more than 2000 years ago.

It is considered a mystical
sight to many Cherokee,

but there's an even more
ancient possibility.

- Another theory is
that this is actually

the fossilized
imprint of the skin

of some kind of giant lizard
left behind in the stone.

Specifically,
some have speculated

that it's the fossilized
or even mummified remains

of a dinosaur.

Sound farfetched?
Well, look at this.

This is the perfectly
preserved mummy

of a Nodosaurus
dinosaur found by miners

in Alberta, Canada in 2011.

It got this way because
it sank into the muck

shortly after it died,
preserving its skin and armor.

Yet Grundhauser has one more
idea about the rock's origin.

- Still another theory
posits that it was created

by extra terrestrials.

Either created intentionally
as some kind of map

for other extraterrestrials
or to mark their passing.

- So could this be the work
of intelligent alien design?

Though the Waffle Rock
formation is not at all common,

similar pattern
stones have been found

in Monongahela, Pennsylvania

and at Tea Creek Mountain
in West Virginia.

Still this one in Mineral
County is by far the largest.

So what are these
bizarre boulders

and where do they come from?

Let's turn to the experts.

Anthropologist, Kathy
Strain considers

if this could be
an ancient artwork.

- I'm not seeing
anything typical

of what you would see with
Native American rock art.

It's not a typical design.

It doesn't have any
kind of structure

that a Native American
would want to convey.

- Perhaps then this
is ancient writing,

maybe even from a lost language?

Archeologist Dr. Ed
Barnhart is an epigrapher

who translates
cuneiform, hieroglyphics,

and unknown ancient scripts.

He gives the strange
pattern a look.

- This waffle rock

doesn't follow any of the
rules of making

something that's communicating
a message in stone.

The reader and the writer
have to agree on a set amount

of symbols or it
doesn't work as a code.

When you look at Waffle
Rock, there is no pattern.

It is very complex
and very geometric.

There's lots of lines,

but there's no repeated
or different symbols.

If we can
rule out manmade origins.

What about the idea that this
is fossilized skin or scales

from an ancient creature
like a dinosaur?

- A fossil is simply
the calcium in bone

being replaced with rock
through millions of years

of being covered with mud.

When I look at it, I don't
see any fossilization at all.

There's nothing there that
would indicate calcium

like a bone structure
or any organics at all.

- We turn next to
geologist Bob Anderson.

Perhaps earth science might
offer some guidance here.

Could this be some sort of
natural geological formation?

- You'll see that
there are multiple,

what we call joint
patterns here.

And what happens is
that these are fluids

that are running
through this rock.

Either iron fluids
or water fluids,

even magma was running through
these cracks in the rocks

and it hardened and it and
eroded away at a different pace.

And so you see what's
called a waffle pattern,

and this is natural we see
in all kinds of crystals.

Anderson says the
movement of tectonic plates

caused cracks in the sandstone

that likely filled with
iron oxide mixed with sand

and formed a hard
cement like material

resistant to weathering compared
to the surrounding stone.

As the surrounding
rock gradually eroded,

it left behind the
iron oxide pattern.

Our verdict, this is
a natural phenomenon

likely caused by iron oxide
flowing into a crack in the rock

and hardening into this pattern.

Scientists who have
studied the rock

say the pattern formed hundreds
of millions of years ago,

so it had to have resulted
from geological processes.

The fact that it's
made by nature

makes the waffle rock
even more intriguing

and one of the most
visually interesting

rock formations we've ever seen.

And that's our show for tonight.

Thank you so kindly
for watching.

If you have any videos you
think we should investigate,

please reach out and keep
those cameras rolling.