Mysteries.of.the.Abandoned.S09E11.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[und] Movie Subtitles

1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:08,367 [narrator] A cosmic wreck that seemed to have made contact. 2 00:00:08,367 --> 00:00:11,267 It really looked like the signal was coming from 3 00:00:11,267 --> 00:00:12,667 a faraway planet. 4 00:00:17,067 --> 00:00:21,200 [narrator] Clandestine ruins that decided a nation's fate. 5 00:00:21,267 --> 00:00:24,567 A lot of what went on here was top secret, for good reason. 6 00:00:28,667 --> 00:00:30,000 [narrator] And a fantastical old castle built on a deception. 7 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:31,000 [narrator] And a fantastical old castle built on a deception. 8 00:00:32,867 --> 00:00:35,067 I see a lot of storybook. 9 00:00:35,067 --> 00:00:38,900 There's a lot more to this place than meets the eye. 10 00:00:41,467 --> 00:00:43,100 [narrator] Decaying relics, 11 00:00:44,467 --> 00:00:46,567 ruins of lost worlds, 12 00:00:48,367 --> 00:00:50,700 sights haunted by the past, 13 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:55,067 their secrets waiting to be revealed. 14 00:01:05,367 --> 00:01:07,767 In Georgia's Piedmont region, 15 00:01:07,767 --> 00:01:11,467 two lonely structures gaze at the heavens. 16 00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:18,067 You've g***t all these trees. 17 00:01:18,067 --> 00:01:21,167 And then all of a sudden, it breaks through 18 00:01:21,167 --> 00:01:25,067 and you see something that you completely don't expect to see here. 19 00:01:25,067 --> 00:01:27,267 There's no mystery as to what these are. 20 00:01:27,267 --> 00:01:30,000 They're two great, big satellite dishes. 21 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:31,000 They're two great, big satellite dishes. 22 00:01:31,067 --> 00:01:33,867 They've clearly been sitting there in the weather 23 00:01:33,867 --> 00:01:36,167 and not being used for some time. 24 00:01:37,767 --> 00:01:39,900 [narrator] Built at great expense, 25 00:01:39,967 --> 00:01:43,900 what is unclear is the exact purpose of this facility. 26 00:01:43,967 --> 00:01:47,967 [Jaega] Cold, white walls, no windows, air vents, 27 00:01:47,967 --> 00:01:50,800 these two great, big dishes on top, 28 00:01:50,867 --> 00:01:52,667 surrounded by fencing. 29 00:01:52,667 --> 00:01:54,967 It's like some sort of villain's lair. 30 00:01:54,967 --> 00:01:58,067 [Jim Meigs] When you get inside, you can see that it'd been stripped pretty bare. 31 00:01:58,067 --> 00:02:00,000 Any valuable equipment was taken away long ago. 32 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:01,000 Any valuable equipment was taken away long ago. 33 00:02:01,567 --> 00:02:03,667 Now, it's just kind of a hodgepodge of junk. 34 00:02:03,667 --> 00:02:05,467 There's stacks of wooden chairs, 35 00:02:05,467 --> 00:02:07,767 there's even an old refrigerator. 36 00:02:07,767 --> 00:02:11,067 [narrator] Once occupied by brilliant scientists, 37 00:02:11,067 --> 00:02:15,500 this complex was engaged in the search for something extraordinary, 38 00:02:15,567 --> 00:02:17,967 beyond planet Earth. 39 00:02:17,967 --> 00:02:21,900 There was a moment when we thought we had proof that something was out there. 40 00:02:21,967 --> 00:02:25,067 And this complex was at the center of that story. 41 00:02:31,067 --> 00:02:34,500 When these structures were built in 1976, 42 00:02:34,567 --> 00:02:37,467 it was called the Woodbury Earth Station. 43 00:02:37,467 --> 00:02:41,100 It was built by AT&T, the giant telecoms company. 44 00:02:41,167 --> 00:02:45,867 [Jim] In the 1970s, the telephone industry was going through a revolution. 45 00:02:45,867 --> 00:02:48,867 It was becoming feasible to 46 00:02:48,867 --> 00:02:52,100 send all kinds of data, including telephone calls, 47 00:02:52,167 --> 00:02:54,067 up to satellites in orbit. 48 00:02:54,067 --> 00:02:58,700 So, AT&T built these two dishes to serve as an uplink and downlink 49 00:02:58,767 --> 00:03:00,000 for this satellite phone transmission system. 50 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:01,000 for this satellite phone transmission system. 51 00:03:03,267 --> 00:03:07,400 [narrator] The unique landscape here made it perfect for the Earth station. 52 00:03:07,467 --> 00:03:10,067 Scott Harris is a planetary geologist, 53 00:03:10,067 --> 00:03:14,100 who has investigated its extraterrestrial origins. 54 00:03:14,167 --> 00:03:17,700 [Scott] Well, we're in this unique depression, called the Cove. 55 00:03:17,767 --> 00:03:21,867 My colleagues and I have been researching the site for about 20 years, 56 00:03:21,867 --> 00:03:25,567 looking at the possibility that these radio telescopes 57 00:03:25,567 --> 00:03:29,667 actually sit in the middle of an ancient impact structure. 58 00:03:29,667 --> 00:03:30,000 [Jim] This cove dome crater appears to be the remnant 59 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:31,000 [Jim] This cove dome crater appears to be the remnant 60 00:03:33,667 --> 00:03:35,667 of a large meteor strike. 61 00:03:35,667 --> 00:03:37,767 Whatever hit this, hit it hard enough 62 00:03:37,767 --> 00:03:40,267 to pulverize rock, even melt the rock, 63 00:03:40,267 --> 00:03:43,900 and then leave that crater ring around the side. 64 00:03:43,967 --> 00:03:47,367 [Scott] There's no coincidence that these dishes are in the middle of that crater 65 00:03:47,367 --> 00:03:51,100 because the deep depression, about 300 feet deep, 66 00:03:51,100 --> 00:03:55,167 provides a radio and microwave free zone. 67 00:03:57,067 --> 00:03:59,067 [Jim] You can build your big dishes here, 68 00:03:59,067 --> 00:04:00,000 and they'd have very little interference 69 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:01,000 and they'd have very little interference 70 00:04:01,667 --> 00:04:05,467 from surrounding electromagnetic sources. 71 00:04:05,467 --> 00:04:10,400 [narrator] But Woodbury Earth Station's service would be short lived. 72 00:04:10,467 --> 00:04:14,667 The thing about satellite technology is it changes so rapidly. 73 00:04:14,667 --> 00:04:17,900 So by 1980, just a few years after they'd built it, 74 00:04:17,967 --> 00:04:21,967 AT&T retired this facility and abandoned it. 75 00:04:21,967 --> 00:04:25,400 But that was not the end of the story here, far from it. 76 00:04:25,467 --> 00:04:29,067 Soon, these giant dishes would be involved in a close call. 77 00:04:29,067 --> 00:04:30,000 Something truly out of this world. 78 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:31,000 Something truly out of this world. 79 00:04:32,467 --> 00:04:35,200 [narrator] Paul Steffes is a former NASA scientist 80 00:04:35,267 --> 00:04:37,567 and was on the ground when the Woodbury site 81 00:04:37,567 --> 00:04:40,267 was at the center of this "close call." 82 00:04:40,267 --> 00:04:44,400 [Paul] Our team leader always kept a bottle of champagne in her refrigerator. 83 00:04:44,467 --> 00:04:46,467 After this detection was made, 84 00:04:46,467 --> 00:04:49,767 they made sure the bottle was still there and full. 85 00:04:49,767 --> 00:04:53,400 [narrator] In 1996, Paul wasn't working for NASA, 86 00:04:53,467 --> 00:04:57,300 but an independent organization known as SETI. 87 00:04:57,367 --> 00:05:00,000 [Katherine] This was an organization that originally had been funded by 88 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:01,000 [Katherine] This was an organization that originally had been funded by 89 00:05:01,267 --> 00:05:03,067 the American Federal Government. 90 00:05:03,067 --> 00:05:06,567 Their funding gets cut and they become a non-profit. 91 00:05:06,567 --> 00:05:11,067 Their mission is to find evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence 92 00:05:11,067 --> 00:05:15,367 by searching space for signs that something is out there. 93 00:05:15,367 --> 00:05:19,467 [narrator] And Woodbury would play a key role in their latest search, 94 00:05:19,467 --> 00:05:21,233 Project Phoenix. 95 00:05:21,233 --> 00:05:25,267 [Paul] We operated as part of the Project Phoenix of the SETI institute 96 00:05:25,267 --> 00:05:28,067 from 1996, all the way through the year 2000. 97 00:05:28,067 --> 00:05:30,000 Project Phoenix was a successor to our NASA program 98 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:31,000 Project Phoenix was a successor to our NASA program 99 00:05:31,167 --> 00:05:33,500 of searching the skies for artificial signals 100 00:05:33,567 --> 00:05:38,167 emanated by foreign, or rather, distant civilizations. 101 00:05:38,167 --> 00:05:42,700 [Jim] Why would you wanna use a radio telescope to look for intelligent life? 102 00:05:42,767 --> 00:05:44,367 Well, the theory is, 103 00:05:44,367 --> 00:05:50,367 that if some intelligent civilization developed anything like humans did, 104 00:05:50,367 --> 00:05:53,900 at some stage, they might invent something like radio, 105 00:05:53,967 --> 00:05:55,867 or something like television, 106 00:05:55,867 --> 00:05:59,167 beaming signals around their planet. 107 00:05:59,167 --> 00:06:00,000 So, that's what they started looking for. 108 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:01,000 So, that's what they started looking for. 109 00:06:02,067 --> 00:06:05,400 [narrator] SETI had big plans for the Woodbury Earth Station 110 00:06:05,467 --> 00:06:09,267 But it had not been built to scour the heavens for signs of life. 111 00:06:10,467 --> 00:06:13,367 The...