Découvertes révolutionnaires que vous ne croirez pas être des accidents

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Transcript

00:00:00If you could go up in a time machine and come back in 1969, you would see something spectacular.

00:00:08It is not a desert, it is one of the most powerful waterfalls in the world, but completely dry.

00:00:15During the summer and autumn of 1969, for a period of 6 months, the American part of the Niagara Falls was left without water.

00:00:23Researchers wanted to study the rocky wall of the falls. They feared that they would become too unstable due to erosion.

00:00:29Erosion is the process by which natural forces such as water and wind use terrestrial materials.

00:00:35For example, if you see the ice of a glacier become muddy, it means that there is erosion.

00:00:41The three waterfalls that cross the international border between Canada and the United States form what is called the Niagara Falls.

00:00:49From the largest to the smallest, these three falls were named the Iron Horse Falls, the American Falls and the Married Veil Falls.

00:00:57The American Falls are entirely on the American side, while the Iron Horse Falls are mainly on the Canadian side, separated by the island of Goat.

00:01:06The Married Veil Falls, the smallest, are on the American side, but are separated from the others by the island of Luna.

00:01:13Many people did not believe that we could go against the power of nature and prevent such a quantity of water from flowing.

00:01:21But we did. It was necessary to build a dam of 183 meters on the huge Niagara River to stop these impressive falls.

00:01:29This means that it was necessary to divert 227,000 liters of water per second so that the rest of the flow passes through the largest Iron Horse Falls,

00:01:37which are entirely on the Canadian side of the border.

00:01:41More than 27,000 tons of rocks were used to build this dam.

00:01:45More than 1,000 trucks transported these rocks during the heat of this summer 1969.

00:01:50On June 12, the American Falls stopped after flowing uninterruptedly for more than 12,000 years.

00:01:56The Iron Horse Falls then absorbed the additional flow so that the research could be carried out properly.

00:02:03But the inhabitants were still worried. They knew that it was not possible to control such a quantity of water.

00:02:08They feared that the water would take another path and cause a catastrophic flood.

00:02:13They also feared that tourists would no longer come if the teams could not make the falls flow as before.

00:02:19But tourists continued to come, even this summer.

00:02:22And they had the unique chance to see something that no one had ever seen before or after.

00:02:28During this period, a temporary bridge was even built only six meters from the edge of the dried-up falls.

00:02:35It allowed the workers to clean the bottom of what was once a river.

00:02:40Thus, tourists could go there and explore the wild landscape of the falls,

00:02:44which was usually underwater, hostile and inaccessible in normal times.

00:02:48By exploring the dried-up bottom of the falls,

00:02:51researchers came across millions of coins that people had thrown into the water over the decades,

00:02:56to make a wish or for any other reason.

00:02:59They removed most of these coins and we can wonder what they did with this money.

00:03:04Anyway, for the past few decades, more and more tourists have come here.

00:03:09Imagine everything they could find now.

00:03:12New coins, of course, but also lost cameras,

00:03:15drones and dropped mobile phones,

00:03:18and other objects that careless visitors could have accidentally dropped in the falls.

00:03:23The idea of removing all the water and transforming the Niagara Falls into a desert turned out to be possible.

00:03:29But maybe we should start again.

00:03:31In 2020, the media reported that two bridges had to be replaced or repaired.

00:03:36No wonder, as they are nearly 120 years old.

00:03:39These bridges are located above the rapids.

00:03:42Experts have debated whether or not to turn the water over again.

00:03:47There is a lot of talk about the Niagara Falls, and some think they are the highest in the world.

00:03:52But this is not the case.

00:03:54They are certainly breathtakingly beautiful,

00:03:57In terms of height, there are nearly 500 other waterfalls in the world that are higher than the Niagara Falls.

00:04:04Starting with the Salto Angel in Venezuela, which is more than 915 meters high.

00:04:09But what makes the Niagara Falls so special is the amount of water that flows.

00:04:14Very high waterfalls generally do not have a high flow rate.

00:04:17It is the combination of these huge amounts of water and height that makes the Niagara Falls so impressive.

00:04:23In addition, they are among the falls that move the fastest on our planet.

00:04:28The Niagara River appeared after the last glacial period,

00:04:32at the same time as the whole basin of the Great Lakes, of which it is part.

00:04:3518,000 years ago, this impressive waterfall did not exist.

00:04:39Glacial slabs with a thickness of 1,500 to 3,000 meters covered the region of southern Ontario.

00:04:45By moving south, the glacial slabs created the basins of the Great Lakes.

00:04:50Then they melted, releasing huge amounts of water into the basins.

00:04:54In general, the water we drink is fossil water.

00:04:58Only 1% of it is renewed throughout the year, the remaining 99% coming from glacial slabs.

00:05:04The Niagara Peninsula has not been under ice for nearly 12,500 years.

00:05:10When the ice melted, the resulting water began to flow through what later became the Niagara River,

00:05:17the Erie Lake and Lake Ontario.

00:05:20It took a lot of time, but the water eventually surrounded the cliffs and formed these spectacular falls.

00:05:26You may have noticed that the Niagara River is surprisingly green.

00:05:30This color shows us how powerful the water is when it comes to erosion.

00:05:35Every minute, the Niagara Falls spit out more than 60 tons of dissolved minerals.

00:05:40It is all this, added to the salt and finely ground rocks, that gives this magnificent color.

00:05:45The inhabitants of the United States and Canada, or more precisely the more than a million people who have access to the region,

00:05:52use the waters of the Niagara River for various purposes.

00:05:55For example, fishing, drinking water supply, recreational activities, swimming,

00:06:01pleasure sailing, bird watching, hydroelectric energy production, and much more.

00:06:08The first hydroelectric power plant in the world was built at the end of the 19th century,

00:06:13just next to the falls.

00:06:15Very quickly, it began to bear fruit, because electricity could be drawn from it.

00:06:19But this electricity could only travel 100 meters, and so things had to be improved.

00:06:24It was Nikola Tesla who took up the challenge and brought the necessary modifications.

00:06:29He discovered that electricity could travel long distances using an alternative current.

00:06:35Today, the various power plants in the Niagara Falls provide more than 2 million kilowatts of electricity.

00:06:42Interestingly, it was not only in 1969 that the Niagara Falls stopped.

00:06:47In 1848, the water did not flow for 40 hours.

00:06:51The falls were already very popular with tourists and were a source of useful energy for the local population.

00:06:57It is therefore not surprising that they panicked.

00:07:00But this time, it was nature that was at fault.

00:07:03The ice blocked the source of the Niagara River.

00:07:06An American farmer was the first to notice it.

00:07:10It was March 29, and he went for a walk just before midnight.

00:07:14He quickly realized that he did not hear the thundering of the falls.

00:07:18He quickly went to the edge of the river and was stunned.

00:07:22There was almost no water.

00:07:24The factories and mills had to close because they depended on this water.

00:07:28The turtles did not know where to go, the fish were dead.

00:07:31Some people were walking along the bottom of the river,

00:07:34picking up the little things they found there as a souvenir.

00:07:37But two days later, on March 31,

00:07:40people heard a loud roar coming from upstream of the river.

00:07:44They approached and amplified until a wall of water appeared in front of their eyes.

00:07:50One of the largest attractions in the world, which millions of tourists visit every year,

00:07:55was back in action.

00:07:57Magnificent and finally invincible, as nature must be.

00:08:02The biggest accidental discovery I made in my life

00:08:05was a 10-euro bill found in my old winter jacket.

00:08:09Some people are more lucky, however.

00:08:12They discover underground cities dating back several centuries

00:08:15or make inventions that transform them into millionaires.

00:08:18The Velcro was born from a simple walk in the forest.

00:08:21Kellogg's Corn Flakes were inspired by a broken tooth.

00:08:25And the Play-Doh paw saved a commercial empire from bankruptcy by pure chance.

00:08:30In 1998, electrician engineer John Williams made a strange discovery

00:08:36that looked like an electric plug emerging from the ground.

00:08:39Digging around, he noticed that it was embedded in a small rock.

00:08:43This discovery took place in a rural area of North America,

00:08:47far from any urban or industrial zone,

00:08:49from any airport and any electrical installation.

00:08:53This electronic piece embedded in a solid block of granite

00:08:56was named Enigmalite and was valued at $500,000.

00:09:01Some scientists are skeptical of its authenticity,

00:09:04considering it more like a cannula than an artifact left by extraterrestrial visitors,

00:09:09as Williams claims.

00:09:11However, the discoverer of this rock is determined to prove

00:09:14that it is indeed a technological relic, perhaps even a real one.

00:09:20If it is not a cannula, this small discovery could be proof

00:09:24that humans, or another civilization of the past,

00:09:27were much more advanced than we had imagined.

00:09:30They could thus have found a way to generate electricity

00:09:33long before the humans of the 19th century.

00:09:36Williams invited scientists to examine his discovery

00:09:39without damaging the rock to determine its true nature,

00:09:42but no one volunteered.

00:09:45Williams consulted an engineer and a geologist,

00:09:48who both confirmed that there was no trace of glue on the electronic component.

00:09:52It has not been welded either,

00:09:54indicating that it is as old as the rock itself,

00:09:57dating from about 100,000 years, according to a geological analysis.

00:10:00Dr. John Kellogg had a philosophy based on a biological way of life,

00:10:05including regular exercise, massages, a lot of water,

00:10:09the abandonment of bad habits, little caffeine and no meat at all.

00:10:14At the end of the 19th century,

00:10:16he took the direction of a health institute in Michigan.

00:10:19One day, he made a mixture of flour, oats and cornstarch.

00:10:24Convinced that the cooking of whole grains at high temperature

00:10:28would make them more digestible and healthier,

00:10:30he cooked the mixture twice.

00:10:32Initially, he made biscuits out of it,

00:10:35but a patient broke his teeth on it.

00:10:37Then, he decided to break them into small pieces.

00:10:40It is difficult to determine exactly how Kellogg's Corn Flakes were born,

00:10:45because there are many versions of the story.

00:10:48Kellogg's wife, Ella, as well as his brother Will,

00:10:52claim to have played a role in the creation of the famous flacons,

00:10:56just like several other family members and staff of the establishment.

00:11:01The legend of the company would say that one day in 1888,

00:11:04wheat-based cereal paste had been left aside for too long,

00:11:08fermenting during the process.

00:11:11When it was finely spread,

00:11:13the slightly moldy paste turned into these perfect,

00:11:16large and thin flacons,

00:11:18which became crispy and delicious in the oven.

00:11:21Over the years, Will Kellogg continued to modify the recipe

00:11:25and realized that corn, and not wheat,

00:11:28produced even more crispy and tasty flacons.

00:11:31His brand, Kellogg's Corn Flakes,

00:11:34has become a company worth several billion dollars.

00:11:37One day, the Swiss engineer George de Mestral

00:11:40went for a walk with his dog

00:11:42and came back with a concept that would later prove to be revolutionary.

00:11:45Returning from the forest,

00:11:47de Mestral noticed that his pants and the fur of his dog

00:11:50were covered with small dots of xanthium.

00:11:53He examined the beards under a microscope

00:11:56and noticed that they resembled tiny hooks

00:11:59attached to the loops of clothes and fur.

00:12:02Determined to reproduce this natural technology,

00:12:05he designed an extremely solid attachment system

00:12:08with multiple practical applications.

00:12:11After several years of research and experimentation

00:12:14with different materials,

00:12:16he finally opted for nylon.

00:12:18In addition, he had to develop a special weaving profession

00:12:21capable of weaving fibers in the right sizes,

00:12:24shapes and densities.

00:12:26After 14 years of hard work,

00:12:28de Mestral finally presented to the world the velcro,

00:12:31derived from the words velvet and hook.

00:12:34Although he hoped that his invention

00:12:36would replace lightning fastening,

00:12:38the fashion industry initially perceived it as low-end

00:12:41and unattractive.

00:12:43However, NASA recognized its potential

00:12:45and began to use it in space suits

00:12:48and astronauts' helmets in the 1960s.

00:12:51Today, the velcro is omnipresent,

00:12:54with a multitude of applications.

00:12:56From shoes to toys,

00:12:58through the cushions of airplane seats.

00:13:00Until the middle of the 20th century,

00:13:02coal heating was the norm in most homes,

00:13:05leaving soot everywhere in the house,

00:13:08especially on wallpaper.

00:13:11Cutol Products was the main supplier of cleaners

00:13:14for wallpaper at the time.

00:13:16However, in the 1950s,

00:13:18more and more people adopted gas,

00:13:21oil and electricity as sources of heating,

00:13:24which largely solved the problem of all this soot.

00:13:28The owner of Cutol Products

00:13:30desperately tried to save his company.

00:13:33During this time, his beautiful sister,

00:13:35who was a kindergarten teacher,

00:13:37read that a cleaner for wallpaper

00:13:39could be used to make decorations.

00:13:42Traditional modeling clay

00:13:44was too difficult to handle for her students.

00:13:46That's how she decided to experiment with this material.

00:13:50And it worked very well.

00:13:53She shared her discovery with her loved ones

00:13:55and proposed a name for this new product.

00:13:58Play-Doh.

00:13:59With Cutol at the brink of bankruptcy,

00:14:01it was the ideal opportunity for a reconversion.

00:14:04Quickly, large stores like Macy's and Marshall Field

00:14:08showed interest in this new toy

00:14:10and began to distribute it.

00:14:12At first, Play-Doh only existed in white,

00:14:15but it was quickly declined to red, blue and yellow.

00:14:19They made several modifications to the original recipe,

00:14:23but the basic composition remains largely the same

00:14:25as the one used to clean the wallpaper.

00:14:28An urban legend says that if you use all the clay

00:14:30to model Play-Doh never produced

00:14:32and make it go through their machine,

00:14:34you will get a snake long enough

00:14:36to wrap the planet 300 times.

00:14:39A Turk was renovating his house

00:14:41when he knocked down a block of his cellar.

00:14:44To his great surprise,

00:14:45he discovered a hidden tunnel behind the wall

00:14:48that led to an old underground city.

00:14:50This tunnel led to other passages,

00:14:52rooms and rooms.

00:14:54It turned out to be an entire 18-story underground complex

00:14:58devoid of inhabitants and abandoned for a long time.

00:15:01It was the city of Derinkuyu,

00:15:03designed thousands of years ago

00:15:05to accommodate up to 20,000 people.

00:15:08Anyone who built it showed great mastery,

00:15:11because digging tunnels in this soft rock

00:15:13poses considerable risk of collapse.

00:15:16None of Derinkuyu's floors ever collapsed.

00:15:20The city was equipped with a sophisticated ventilation system

00:15:23comprising more than 15,000 ventilation shafts.

00:15:26The upper levels benefited from the best ventilation

00:15:29and were reserved for rooms and living spaces.

00:15:33The lower levels were mainly used for storage,

00:15:36but also contained mansions.

00:15:39Between the two were spaces dedicated to cattle,

00:15:42a school, a convent and small churches.

00:15:45John Martin, a professor of silviculture,

00:15:48was walking one night in a Wisconsin forest.

00:15:51He used a UV flashlight to spot lichens,

00:15:54mushrooms, plants and frogs

00:15:57shining under this light.

00:16:00Suddenly, he heard a flying squirrel

00:16:03cooing near a bird feeder.

00:16:05He turned his flashlight on the animal

00:16:07and saw it tinted in pink.

00:16:10The professor discussed this with his colleague

00:16:12and they decided to go deeper into their research.

00:16:15They examined the flying squirrel skins

00:16:17kept in museums to determine

00:16:19whether this pink tint was a common phenomenon.

00:16:22It turned out that almost all the flying squirrel specimens

00:16:25they examined showed this fluorescence.

00:16:28However, ordinary squirrels showed none.

00:16:32Other fluorescent animals,

00:16:34such as macaws and chameleons,

00:16:36emit a blue tint under the UV light.

00:16:39The only other mammals with a fluorescent fur

00:16:42are about twenty species of opossum.

00:16:44They live in various ecosystems

00:16:46and have different diets.

00:16:48The only thing they have in common

00:16:50with flying squirrels is that they are nocturnal,

00:16:53while other squirrels prefer daylight.

00:16:57It is possible that pink light

00:16:59is a function linked to the perception

00:17:01and nocturnal spotting of flying squirrels,

00:17:03especially in cold and snowy environments

00:17:06where the UV light is more abundant.

00:17:09Another hypothesis is that it could serve as a means

00:17:12to attract potential partners.

00:17:15It is also possible that it is a form of mimicry.

00:17:21Welcome to Rapa Nui,

00:17:23better known as Easter Island.

00:17:25It is a tiny point in the vast Pacific Ocean,

00:17:28located 3,500 km from the Chilean coast.

00:17:31This island is especially famous

00:17:33for its imposing Moai statues.

00:17:35This place also houses one of the most enigmatic

00:17:37writing systems in the world,

00:17:39known as Rongorongo.

00:17:41We have created 27 small wooden tablets

00:17:43carrying this script.

00:17:45For years, historians have debated

00:17:47the authenticity and history of the latter.

00:17:50And now, we may be about to unravel their mystery.

00:17:55Man set foot on this island

00:17:57for the first time in the 12th century.

00:17:59For many decades,

00:18:01it was inhabited by the Rapa Nui people,

00:18:04relatively isolated in the heart of the Pacific Ocean

00:18:07until the eruption of the Europeans in the 1720s.

00:18:10With them came a multitude of challenges,

00:18:13drastically reducing the indigenous population

00:18:15to a fraction of what it was.

00:18:17Subsequently, in the 19th century,

00:18:19missionary Eugène Hérault visited the island

00:18:21and carved wooden tablets

00:18:23adorned with complex symbols.

00:18:25He described them as extraordinary

00:18:27and claimed that there were hundreds of them

00:18:29scattered throughout the island,

00:18:31present in every home.

00:18:33But alas, not all have survived to this day.

00:18:36Only 27 of them have been preserved.

00:18:38Some were eroded by time,

00:18:40burned or otherwise damaged.

00:18:42Today, they are scattered around the world,

00:18:45exhibited in museums

00:18:47and kept in private collections.

00:18:49Some remains of this language

00:18:51have been brought back to Tahiti,

00:18:53then to Europe,

00:18:54leaving nothing on Easter Island itself.

00:18:56The four sacred tablets

00:18:58ended up in a Catholic congregation in Rome.

00:19:01They are the same ones

00:19:02who participated in this recent discovery.

00:19:06For years, historians have wondered

00:19:08whether this writing system

00:19:09was independently developed

00:19:11by the inhabitants of the island

00:19:12or if it was borrowed from the Europeans.

00:19:14To elucidate this mystery,

00:19:16they used carbon-14 dating.

00:19:18All organic materials,

00:19:20such as wood, coal and others,

00:19:23contain a tiny amount

00:19:25of a radioactive form of carbon

00:19:27called carbon-14.

00:19:29At the end of their life,

00:19:30they stop absorbing carbon-14

00:19:32and the present quantity

00:19:34begins to disintegrate over time.

00:19:36By measuring the amount of carbon-14

00:19:38remaining in a sample,

00:19:40we can estimate its age.

00:19:42This method allowed us to determine

00:19:44the age of many fossils and artifacts.

00:19:46This is how we studied the age

00:19:48of certain rongo-rongo tablets.

00:19:50Three of them had been made

00:19:52from trees grown in the 18th or 19th century,

00:19:55corresponding to the arrival of the Europeans.

00:19:58However,

00:19:59one of them is prior

00:20:01to their first visit to the island.

00:20:04Two elements suggest

00:20:06that the Rapanui people

00:20:08created the rongo-rongo writing system.

00:20:10First of all,

00:20:11it has distinct characteristics

00:20:13of European languages.

00:20:15Its decoding is a difficult task

00:20:17with more than 400 unique glyphs,

00:20:19none resembling a well-known writing system.

00:20:21Many attempts have been made

00:20:23to unravel the secrets,

00:20:25without success so far.

00:20:27Secondly,

00:20:28one of the tablets seems to date

00:20:30back to the 15th century,

00:20:32however,

00:20:33the dating to radiocarbon

00:20:35only tells us about the period

00:20:37when the tablet's wood was cut,

00:20:39and not about the period

00:20:41when the writing was engraved on it.

00:20:43And since we only have one tablet

00:20:45as a reference,

00:20:46we do not have enough evidence

00:20:48to affirm anything.

00:20:50On the other hand,

00:20:51why would the inhabitants of the island

00:20:53have kept cut wood for more than 200 years,

00:20:55just to catch a beautiful day

00:20:57and write on it?

00:20:59Anthropologists and historians

00:21:01believe that the scarcity of resources

00:21:03could have pushed the islanders

00:21:05to recycle old floating wood,

00:21:07which could date back several centuries

00:21:09before the appearance of writing itself.

00:21:11This phenomenon is known in archaeology

00:21:13under the name of the problem of old wood.

00:21:15In addition,

00:21:16the tablet seems to be very well preserved.

00:21:18It has been maintained

00:21:19to protect it from insects

00:21:21that damage wood and humidity.

00:21:23This is why it has survived

00:21:25over the centuries.

00:21:26Whatever is written on it,

00:21:28it is likely that it has

00:21:30great importance for the Rapa Nui people.

00:21:32All this is just pure conjecture.

00:21:34But scientists remain

00:21:36prudently optimistic.

00:21:37They consider the possibility

00:21:39that the Rongorongo

00:21:40is one of the rare examples

00:21:41of independent writing invention,

00:21:43like those of the Sumerians

00:21:45or Egyptians.

00:21:47But we need more evidence.

00:21:49In Rapa Nui language,

00:21:51rogorogo

00:21:53translates as recited or declared.

00:21:55Not everyone could write,

00:21:57only a few people

00:22:00It is likely that only the elite of the Isle of Pâques,

00:22:02mainly men,

00:22:04has the knowledge of this written language.

00:22:06After colonization,

00:22:08none of them has survived.

00:22:10And we are now faced with the task

00:22:12of deciphering these inscriptions.

00:22:14First of all,

00:22:15researchers fail to agree

00:22:17on the nature of this scriptural system.

00:22:19We can't even confirm

00:22:20if it's their native language.

00:22:22And when we don't even know

00:22:24if it's a primitive form of writing

00:22:26or an entirely developed system.

00:22:29In the 90s,

00:22:31a linguist named Stephen Roger Fisher

00:22:33thought he had decrypted

00:22:35the structure of the Rongorongo.

00:22:37According to him,

00:22:38these tablets were cosmogonies.

00:22:40Cosmogonies are stories

00:22:41that expose the genesis of the universe

00:22:43as well as the emergence

00:22:45of natural phenomena.

00:22:46They are often rooted

00:22:48in ancient traditions and cultures,

00:22:50such as those present

00:22:52in Eastern Polynesia.

00:22:54Tablets could potentially address

00:22:56subjects such as the origins of the world,

00:22:58the source of all existence,

00:23:00and the formation of various elements

00:23:02of nature, such as stars

00:23:04or mountains.

00:23:05This would also explain

00:23:07why only an educated elite

00:23:09could write.

00:23:10Fisher advanced that the Rongorongo

00:23:12was a combination of logographic

00:23:14and semasiographic systems,

00:23:16which implies that some symbols

00:23:18represented spoken words,

00:23:20while others denoted ideas

00:23:22or concepts.

00:23:23However,

00:23:24this would be extremely complex

00:23:26and would require an in-depth

00:23:28understanding of the context,

00:23:30because these symbols act more

00:23:32as clues than as complete expressions.

00:23:34However,

00:23:35other linguists have contested

00:23:37his proposals,

00:23:38arguing that there were gaps

00:23:40in the way he formulated his theory.

00:23:42Alas,

00:23:43Fisher was not able to corroborate

00:23:45his hypothesis.

00:23:47It is possible that these inscriptions

00:23:49are only drawings.

00:23:51When we examine the tablets,

00:23:53some figures seem familiar.

00:23:55Human beings,

00:23:56animals,

00:23:57plants,

00:23:58and geometric shapes.

00:23:59We recognize birds,

00:24:01one of them resembling a frigate.

00:24:03A species associated with the god Mekmek

00:24:05by the inhabitants of Rapanui.

00:24:07There are also fish,

00:24:08millipedes,

00:24:09or at least these glyphs look like them.

00:24:11Could these inscriptions be

00:24:13only art or a form of decoration?

00:24:15Maybe,

00:24:16but there are some problems.

00:24:18The glyphs exhibit a high level

00:24:20of complexity and structure.

00:24:22They maintain a coherent style.

00:24:24For example,

00:24:25several symbols depict what seems

00:24:27to be a human with a raised hand.

00:24:29The only variation being the different

00:24:31heads represented.

00:24:32As if it were not complicated enough,

00:24:34this style of singular writing

00:24:36also uses a system called

00:24:38inverse Boustrophedon.

00:24:39This means that each alternate line

00:24:41is inverted,

00:24:42creating a pattern like no other.

00:24:44We do not know why they opted for

00:24:46this practice consisting of turning

00:24:48the tablet after each line.

00:24:50But there is hope for the future.

00:24:52Recent technological advances,

00:24:54such as AI,

00:24:55and other computer programs,

00:24:57could assist our understanding

00:24:59of ancient languages.

00:25:01We have already undertaken

00:25:03the development of algorithms

00:25:05that could help us unravel

00:25:07other mysteries,

00:25:08such as that of the Voynich manuscript.

00:25:10Universities have even organized

00:25:12the Vesuvius Institute,

00:25:14a research institute

00:25:16dedicated to the study of

00:25:19the Vesuvius Challenge,

00:25:21an automatic learning competition

00:25:23that, in 2023,

00:25:24solved the riddle of the

00:25:26ancient Herculaneum scrolls.

00:25:28These scrolls had been buried

00:25:30under the volcanic mud

00:25:32after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius

00:25:34in 79 AD.

00:25:35Due to their extreme fragility,

00:25:37deciphering these scrolls

00:25:39would have been a difficult task.

00:25:41But thanks to digitalization

00:25:43and automatic learning,

00:25:45this enterprise has become

00:25:47one of the most successful

00:25:49in the world.

00:25:51They probably belonged

00:25:53to the personal library

00:25:55of an Epicurean philosopher

00:25:57named Philodemus.

00:25:59They contain information

00:26:01of great value

00:26:03on Greek philosophy

00:26:05and Latin literature.

00:26:07If we decipher more,

00:26:09we will learn more

00:26:11about the vast history

00:26:13of the Roman Empire.

00:26:15The Vesuvius Challenge

00:26:17was a very intriguing

00:26:19experiment,

00:26:21and they decided

00:26:23to study it more closely

00:26:25once they returned home.

00:26:27By cutting the rock matrix,

00:26:29they discovered

00:26:31an unexpected object inside.

00:26:33Instead of the usual

00:26:35mineral formations,

00:26:37there was a cylinder

00:26:39that looked like porcelain.

00:26:41This cylinder

00:26:43was 500,000 years old.

00:26:45They thought it could be

00:26:47proof of the existence

00:26:49of a lost advanced civilization

00:26:51like Atlantis,

00:26:53or even of time travel.

00:26:55Maybe someone from the future

00:26:57had accidentally left

00:26:59this object behind,

00:27:01or maybe intelligent aliens

00:27:03had brought it

00:27:05during their visit to Earth.

00:27:07If one of these hypotheses

00:27:09was true,

00:27:11they would not share

00:27:13this enthusiasm.

00:27:15People in search of truth

00:27:17and the circles of alternative

00:27:19archaeology

00:27:21looked at the mystery

00:27:23of the Kozo artifact

00:27:25until the late 90s,

00:27:27developing various theories

00:27:29and engaging in many debates.

00:27:31Finally, a group of skeptics

00:27:33made radiographs

00:27:35and took photos of the object

00:27:37that they presented

00:27:39as a corroded metallic object

00:27:41dating from the 1920s

00:27:43and not an ancient technology.

00:27:45Nearly 20 years later,

00:27:47one of the discoverers

00:27:49agreed to have the object

00:27:51examined at the University of Washington.

00:27:53The researchers officially established

00:27:55that it was a light bulb

00:27:57from the 1920s.

00:27:59In addition, the rocky matrix

00:28:01containing the artifact

00:28:03was not a geode,

00:28:05but a concretion,

00:28:07The Kozo artifact is a typical example

00:28:09of an incongruous manufactured object,

00:28:11a concept existing

00:28:13in pseudo-archaeology.

00:28:15It is an artifact

00:28:17attached to places or eras

00:28:19where it should logically

00:28:21not be found.

00:28:23This seems too advanced

00:28:25for the period when it was discovered,

00:28:27sometimes suggesting a human presence

00:28:29where it was not supposed to exist.

00:28:31Baghdad's electric battery

00:28:33is another striking example

00:28:35of this type of artifact.

00:28:37Discovered in the 1930s

00:28:39by a German archaeologist,

00:28:41it consists of a clay pot,

00:28:43a copper cylinder,

00:28:45and an iron rod

00:28:47crossing the lid of the pot.

00:28:49The top, although damaged,

00:28:51had probably been sealed

00:28:53with asphalt.

00:28:55Its discoverer noticed

00:28:57that it contained two different metals

00:28:59and potentially an electrolyte,

00:29:01the key elements of a battery.

00:29:03Scientific experiments

00:29:05filled it with an ionic solution,

00:29:07such as vinegar or wine,

00:29:09demonstrated that it could

00:29:11actually conduct electricity.

00:29:13If this battery was really

00:29:152,000 years old,

00:29:17it could have been used

00:29:19in ancient medical practices

00:29:21or even integrated into statues

00:29:23to create the impression

00:29:25of a vibration

00:29:27intended to impress visitors.

00:29:29Wilhelm König, his discoverer,

00:29:31discovered that even though

00:29:33it functioned like a battery,

00:29:35Baghdad's battery could only

00:29:37produce a tiny amount of energy,

00:29:39about 1 volt.

00:29:41Some therefore think

00:29:43that it was used as a container

00:29:45for sacred rolls.

00:29:47In the 1930s, a couple

00:29:49made a strange discovery

00:29:51on a walk along Red Creek

00:29:53in London, Texas.

00:29:55It was a piece of wood

00:29:57protruding from an apparently

00:29:59ancient rock.

00:30:01The discoverer decided

00:30:03to break the rock

00:30:05and discover inside

00:30:07a surprisingly modern-looking

00:30:09hammer.

00:30:11This discovery caught

00:30:13the attention of Carl Boe,

00:30:15a young earth creationist

00:30:17who claimed that the rock

00:30:19surrounding the hammer

00:30:21was from the Cretaceous period.

00:30:23He saw proof of this

00:30:25by contradicting

00:30:27what he claimed to have been

00:30:29a modern hammer.

00:30:31Thus, it was not a proof

00:30:33of the coexistence between

00:30:35rocks and dinosaurs,

00:30:37as some hoped,

00:30:39but simply of a miner

00:30:41who had dropped his hammer

00:30:43centuries ago,

00:30:45and of nature

00:30:47who had made its work.

00:30:49A Chinese archaeologist

00:30:51would have discovered caves

00:30:53that seemed to have served

00:30:55as shelters for figures

00:30:57wearing round helmets,

00:30:59as well as the sun, the moon,

00:31:01the earth and the stars,

00:31:03connected by groups of small dots.

00:31:05More than 700 records

00:31:07of mysterious stones

00:31:09were also discovered,

00:31:11engraved with spirals.

00:31:13Things took an even stranger turn

00:31:15when these records were sent

00:31:17to a Chinese professor

00:31:19who claimed that these spirals

00:31:21were actually written characters.

00:31:23This is the story of the Dropa,

00:31:25who came from another planet

00:31:27and whose space ship

00:31:29crashed on Earth

00:31:31about 12,000 years ago.

00:31:33These visitors would have

00:31:35tried to live among humans

00:31:37until they were tracked

00:31:39by the locals.

00:31:41However, no concrete evidence

00:31:43corroborates this story.

00:31:45It was published for the first time

00:31:47in the 1960s through a few articles,

00:31:49but it seemed dubious.

00:31:51The Chinese professor

00:31:53did not seem to have left a trace

00:31:55in the archives.

00:31:57And although there is a people

00:31:59in Tibet called Dropka,

00:32:01they are entirely human

00:32:03and not extraterrestrial visitors.

00:32:05In addition, there is no tangible

00:32:07evidence of the existence

00:32:09of the Dropa stones.

00:32:11In a remote region of China,

00:32:13in these strange tube-shaped formations

00:32:15known as Beigong Pipe,

00:32:17a local explorer discovered them

00:32:19emerging from Mount Beigong

00:32:21and along the shores of Lake Taozhou

00:32:23nearby.

00:32:25Some thought they were the work

00:32:27of former extraterrestrial visitors.

00:32:29When samples of the pipes were analyzed,

00:32:31they mainly contained

00:32:33current minerals,

00:32:35but a mysterious 8% of unknown matter.

00:32:37Tests revealed that these pipes

00:32:39existed before the appearance of man.

00:32:41Chinese geologists visited the site

00:32:43and suggested that these pipes

00:32:45had formed naturally

00:32:47over time.

00:32:49They could be sediments

00:32:51accumulating in the cracks of the earth

00:32:53or even the roots of fossilized trees,

00:32:55testifying to the luxurious past of the region.

00:32:57But all this remains uncertain.

00:32:59In Mexico,

00:33:01there is a mysterious head

00:33:03in cooked earth and a name

00:33:05difficult to pronounce,

00:33:07the head of Tecaxi Calixtlahuaca,

00:33:09discovered in the 1930s

00:33:11during the excavation of a grave.

00:33:13This head strangely resembled

00:33:15the Roman statues of the classical period,

00:33:17making its presence in Mexico

00:33:19intriguing.

00:33:21And for some reason,

00:33:23its discoverer kept it secret

00:33:25for several decades.

00:33:27The head had been found in a pyramid

00:33:29on three floors,

00:33:31about 60 km from Mexico,

00:33:33accompanied by gold,

00:33:35copper and pottery.

00:33:37Some say that if this head

00:33:39is really several centuries old,

00:33:41it could indicate that the Romans

00:33:43and their civilization would have reached

00:33:45Mesoamerica long before Christopher Columbus.

00:33:47There are also theories

00:33:49suggesting a shipwreck

00:33:51after which some artifacts

00:33:53and survivors would have reached the coast.

00:33:55Some hypotheses advance

00:33:57that the head of this figurine

00:33:59would have been a small souvenir

00:34:01brought by the Vikings.

00:34:03However, there is no archaeological evidence

00:34:05of a meeting between the Vikings

00:34:07and the Mesoamerican peoples.

00:34:09Although some artifacts circulate,

00:34:11none have been identified

00:34:13as undeniable evidence of pre-Columbian contact.

00:34:15Thus,

00:34:17the mystery of the origin of this head

00:34:19remains unresolved.

00:34:21By digging a trench along a river

00:34:23in Romania, workers discovered

00:34:25an object in the shape of a chalice,

00:34:27now known as

00:34:29a chalice in aluminum

00:34:31or a chalice corner.

00:34:33Next to it were bones

00:34:35of mastodonts,

00:34:37these ancestors of the elephants who lived

00:34:39in this region, suggesting that the chalice

00:34:41could be the same age.

00:34:43What is interesting is that this corner

00:34:45is made of aluminum, a metal

00:34:47that was only discovered in the 19th century.

00:34:49Aluminum production requires

00:34:51intense heat.

00:34:53In addition, the chalice is covered

00:34:55with a thick layer of oxide,

00:34:57indicating that it has been there

00:34:59for hundreds of years.

00:35:01Some think it could have fallen

00:35:03from a spaceship from another planet.

00:35:05Some scientists think

00:35:07it could be an object made by man

00:35:09for an unknown purpose.

00:35:13Scientists have been looking for a piece of land

00:35:15that has been missing for more than 100 million years.

00:35:17Nothing to be afraid of

00:35:19since people are constantly

00:35:21looking for information

00:35:23on the history of our planet.

00:35:25One might think it was just a tiny island

00:35:27somewhere in the middle of the ocean.

00:35:29Well, we would be wrong,

00:35:31because this continent was once

00:35:33as large as the entire territory

00:35:35of the United States.

00:35:37For a long time, geologists

00:35:39have wondered if a huge piece

00:35:41of contemporary Australia

00:35:43had not become volatile.

00:35:45Some thought it was just a carpet

00:35:47somewhere at the bottom of the ocean.

00:35:49But thanks to Dutch specialists

00:35:51and seven years of research,

00:35:53we now know that pieces

00:35:55of this lost land have found themselves

00:35:57mixed with the soil of the luxurious jungles

00:35:59of Southeast Asia.

00:36:01The continents we see today

00:36:03are like scattered puzzle pieces.

00:36:05You can even do a little experiment

00:36:07to find out for yourself.

00:36:09Find a map of the world online

00:36:11and print it.

00:36:13Cut all the continents

00:36:15and have fun collecting them.

00:36:17You will notice that they all fit together.

00:36:19The most striking thing you will see

00:36:21is probably how much South America

00:36:23adapts perfectly to the African coast.

00:36:27If you fill the oceans that have formed

00:36:29over the last 200 million years,

00:36:31the continents seem to form

00:36:33a gigantic letter C.

00:36:35And this C is what

00:36:37the specialists call the supercontinent of the Pangaea.

00:36:39It floated in an ocean called

00:36:41Pantalasa.

00:36:43And the inner part of this letter C

00:36:45encompassed a stretch of smaller water

00:36:47called Tethys.

00:36:49It is in this small ocean

00:36:51that things get a little rough.

00:36:53During the Jurassic period,

00:36:55this lost continent,

00:36:57which scientists first called Argonaut,

00:36:59is now known as

00:37:01the Argo Plains.

00:37:03Geologists first believed that all this

00:37:05was due to a subduction process.

00:37:07This is when part of the earth's crust

00:37:09plunges under another

00:37:11and recycles within the mantle of the planet.

00:37:15Usually, specialists can observe

00:37:17this continental disappearance

00:37:19through erosion.

00:37:21This is how they discovered, for example,

00:37:23that India had hit Asia,

00:37:25resulting in the formation of the majestic

00:37:27But for Argonaut,

00:37:29things were a little more complicated.

00:37:31Fragments were found in places

00:37:33such as Burma and Indonesia.

00:37:35But they seemed to be relics

00:37:37of a revolutionary time,

00:37:39and seemed much older than when Argonaut

00:37:41was supposed to have separated from Australia.

00:37:43This immediately raised the question

00:37:45if a continent can behave

00:37:47in such a strange way,

00:37:49how many others are likely to do the same?

00:37:51Fortunately, scientists have now

00:37:53reconstructed the entire chronology

00:37:55of Argonaut and solved its mystery.

00:37:57It neither sank nor was engulfed.

00:37:59It simply transformed

00:38:01into Argo Pelago,

00:38:03breaking into smaller pieces,

00:38:05called microcontinents,

00:38:07and drifting away from Australia.

00:38:09These tiny continents

00:38:11then made their way a little bit

00:38:13before ending up in the jungles

00:38:15of Southeast Asia.

00:38:17This discovery fits perfectly

00:38:19into the puzzle of the Pangaea.

00:38:21It helps us better understand

00:38:23a single discovery revealing

00:38:25many secrets about biodiversity

00:38:27and the climate of the past.

00:38:29If you want to discover other secrets

00:38:31about history, civilizations

00:38:33or everyday objects,

00:38:35do not hesitate to give a thumbs up

00:38:37to this video and subscribe to the channel.

00:38:39Let us now look at the mystery

00:38:41of this invisible border

00:38:43of species in Indonesia.

00:38:45It is called the Wallace Line,

00:38:47named after the British explorer

00:38:49Alfred Russel Wallace.

00:38:51During his time, Wallace

00:38:53traveled around the Malay archipelago,

00:38:55crossing several thousand islands.

00:38:57What he discovered was that

00:38:59the animals on one side of this invisible line

00:39:01were considerably different

00:39:03from those on the other side.

00:39:05This border forms like a wall

00:39:07between tigers and marsupials,

00:39:09or between trogons and mellifera.

00:39:11But we now know that

00:39:13about 35 million years ago,

00:39:15Australia separated from Antarctica

00:39:17and hit Asia.

00:39:19This love triangle

00:39:21caused major changes.

00:39:23It not only altered

00:39:25the landscape,

00:39:27it also disturbed the animal species

00:39:29on each side of the Wallace Line.

00:39:31Most recently, a group of specialists

00:39:33published a study

00:39:35stating that this collision

00:39:37and this climate chaos

00:39:39allowed Asian species

00:39:41to thrive in the Malay archipelago.

00:39:43On the other hand,

00:39:45Australian fauna was not

00:39:47too humid for some animals,

00:39:49and others simply could not

00:39:51adapt to tropical life styles.

00:39:53The discovery of this

00:39:55continental drift to Asia

00:39:57could also explain the recent discovery

00:39:59of another human species

00:40:01that seemed to challenge the agreement.

00:40:03It turns out that in a hidden cave

00:40:05in the Philippines, archaeologists

00:40:07came across a new ancestor of man.

00:40:09It seems that about 50,000 years ago,

00:40:11on the island of Luzon,

00:40:13there was this ancient species of hominid.

00:40:15A 16-year-old researcher estimated

00:40:17that this discovery was crucial

00:40:19to understand human evolution in Asia.

00:40:21And he named this new species

00:40:23after its native island,

00:40:25Homo luzonensis.

00:40:27Now, here's where things

00:40:29get a little confusing.

00:40:31There was a little problem

00:40:33with the bones discovered

00:40:35by archaeologists.

00:40:37They showed a strange mixture

00:40:39of characteristics

00:40:41that had never been observed

00:40:43before.

00:40:45It was a mixture of hands

00:40:47and feet,

00:40:49which looked more like

00:40:51those of our ancestors.

00:40:53It was their archaic members

00:40:55in particular that linked

00:40:57this human species

00:40:59to this southern territory

00:41:01for a long time.

00:41:03They showed the same primitive

00:41:05aspect as Australopithecus africanus,

00:41:07for example.

00:41:09Except that these two species

00:41:11were not extinct.

00:41:13But this could also explain

00:41:15why living beings are affected

00:41:17by the constant movement

00:41:19of the ground under their feet.

00:41:21Just because they haven't changed

00:41:23much during our existence

00:41:25doesn't mean that our continents

00:41:27will always look like this.

00:41:29They evolved from this vast supercontinent,

00:41:31and they will probably end up

00:41:33in a similar position in the future.

00:41:35In this regard,

00:41:37a geologist from the University of Lisbon

00:41:39found a strange mixture

00:41:41of characteristics

00:41:43that had never been observed

00:41:45before.

00:41:47It was a mixture of hands

00:41:49and feet,

00:41:51which looked more like

00:41:53those of our ancestors.

00:41:55It was a mixture of hands

00:41:57and feet,

00:41:59which looked more like

00:42:01those of our ancestors.

00:42:03It was a mixture of hands

00:42:05and feet,

00:42:07which looked more like

00:42:09those of our ancestors.

00:42:11It was a mixture of hands

00:42:13and feet,

00:42:15which looked more like

00:42:17those of our ancestors.

00:42:19If this happened,

00:42:21an area of subduction

00:42:23could extend from the Mediterranean

00:42:25to Ireland,

00:42:27bringing its waters of volcanoes,

00:42:29earthquakes,

00:42:31and new mountains

00:42:33to these regions.

00:42:35This is not the only possible scenario, however.

00:42:37Novopangaea could be another, and it is easy to predict.

00:42:41The Atlantic would remain open, and the Pacific would be closed,

00:42:44then comes the scenario of the continent of Amasia.

00:42:46In its case, it would be necessary to imagine that the Arctic Ocean closes

00:42:50and that the Atlantic and the Pacific remain open.

00:42:53Everything would move north around the pole, except Antarctica.

00:42:56A last scenario is known under the name of Pangaea Ultima.

00:43:00If the drift of the continents slowed down in the Atlantic,

00:43:03a new plate of subduction would appear on the east coast of the Americas.

00:43:07Anyway, if all the continents collide again in the future,

00:43:11some say that it will not be a pleasure.

00:43:14It is estimated that within nearly 250 million years,

00:43:17we will have the impression of being trapped in a suffocating and muddy plastic bag.

00:43:22Strangely, this bag will still remain the most pleasant place to live on Earth.

00:43:26The coastal areas.

00:43:28As for the inner lands, they will be burning, like a burning desert.

00:43:32Many species of animals that we know today will not survive.

00:43:35As for us humans, we will have to show creativity if we want to survive this heat.

00:43:40We should consider ourselves happy, however.

00:43:4316 digital projections allow us to test all kinds of interesting theories.

00:43:48How would these supercontinents disturb the tides, for example?

00:43:52By envisioning our future travels in space,

00:43:55such models can help us understand the climate of exoplanets.

00:43:59In other words, those that are located outside our solar system.

00:44:03There are entire communities of unusual small organisms

00:44:06that live in the lagoons in Patagonia.

00:44:09And they are among the first forms of life ever to exist.

00:44:12No one knew them until two scientists, Brian and Maria,

00:44:17went to explore certain areas in Patagonia.

00:44:19Patagonia occupies almost half of Argentina, and few people live there.

00:44:24Only a few farmers and sheep farmers, who mainly stay near the rivers

00:44:29and cultivate things like apples, pears and alfalfa.

00:44:33A long time ago, it was a wild and remote place where Indian tribes lived.

00:44:38For example, the Tewelch.

00:44:40But this time, we will follow the traces of life forms that appeared long before humans

00:44:45and take a closer look at these interesting microorganisms that Brian and Maria found.

00:44:50These two had to drive for nine hours on difficult roads to reach their destination.

00:44:56They stayed in a small village. Only 35 people live there.

00:45:00Six genes depend on a single source because it almost never rains there.

00:45:04On the last night in the village,

00:45:06Brian realized that the satellite images he had taken showed a set of lagoons,

00:45:11which were only 16 kilometers away.

00:45:14The next day, the little team jumped in a car

00:45:17and went back up the road as far as they could,

00:45:20until it became too difficult to drive.

00:45:23They continued to hike the rest of the way.

00:45:26It was difficult because they had to carry water to face the intense sun.

00:45:31In some places, they ended up sinking to their knees in a salt bath.

00:45:36Up there, there were 12 lagoons with perfectly clear waters.

00:45:39The place itself did not offer much apart from very acid and salty water and a direct and intense sun.

00:45:45But it was a bit like a time travel,

00:45:47because these conditions looked like what the Earth looked like many, many years ago.

00:45:53When Brian examined the lagoons,

00:45:56he was surprised to see many unusual microorganisms there.

00:46:00We call them.

00:46:01And they are so small that we can't even see them without a microscope.

00:46:05But they come together and form large communities.

00:46:09In the past, many unusual species lived this way.

00:46:13For example, cyanobacteria.

00:46:15They were important at the time because they produced oxygen.

00:46:20The Earth, at its beginning, did not have much of this gas in its atmosphere.

00:46:26The first stromatolites could have been formed by different types of bacteria

00:46:30that did not necessarily produce oxygen, but simply lived their peaceful lives there.

00:46:35They formed layers, piling up on top of each other,

00:46:39so that at least some of them could receive a bit of sunlight.

00:46:43They used sand and glue to stay close to each other.

00:46:48Brian was also incredibly surprised

00:46:50because it was one of the largest living stromatolites he had ever seen.

00:46:55Living stromatolites usually grow up to more than 1 meter high.

00:46:59But those that had just been discovered were 5 meters wide and a few feet high,

00:47:05which is gigantic compared to those living in other places.

00:47:09And the fossils were even bigger.

00:47:12A long time ago, they could have grown bigger than today

00:47:15because there were not many other species that could eat or harm them.

00:47:19In addition, there are many other organisms today

00:47:22that can develop faster and more massively than them and take their place.

00:47:27This is why stromatolites can only survive in rare places

00:47:32where almost nothing else can live.

00:47:34Like in these salty lagoons located at high altitudes,

00:47:38more than 3,650 meters, in the Apuna of Atacama.

00:47:42The stromatolites found there are the most famous

00:47:44because they could be among the best examples of the first forms of life on our planet.

00:47:49However, they are not really the first form of life on Earth.

00:47:54The oldest of their fossils are 3.5 billion years old,

00:47:58while other evidence we have

00:48:00tells us that life on our planet appeared about 4.1 billion years ago.

00:48:05Maybe some stromatolites also lived at that time.

00:48:09But the Earth has changed a lot since then,

00:48:11and the places where they could have lived have not survived.

00:48:15All this may not seem like much at first glance,

00:48:17because no one has yet found an exotic and strange beast

00:48:21that our world has never seen before.

00:48:23But these are notable examples of what life search elsewhere in the universe could look like.

00:48:29Scientists interested in studying Mars

00:48:31often come to this place because it could look like what the Red Planet looked like a long time ago.

00:48:37If fossils were hidden in ancient rocks on Mars,

00:48:41they could look like these stromatolites.

00:48:44Another distant country has revealed some of its secrets.

00:48:47It is Antarctica with an ancient lost world found under its ice.

00:48:51Antarctica has not always been this isolated and icy land of snow and ice.

00:48:56In the past, it was part of the supercontinent Gondwana,

00:48:59with what is now South America, Africa, Australia, the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian subcontinent.

00:49:05But at some point, it separated and began to build a separate life.

00:49:11It formed when other terrestrial masses began to move,

00:49:15which formed its coast.

00:49:16But Antarctica was also different in many ways at that time.

00:49:20It was a land covered with magnificent forests and rivers full of life.

00:49:25Scientists used radars and satellites to explore a mysterious world hidden under the ice there.

00:49:31This ancient land, which is close to the Indian Ocean,

00:49:34is as large as the American state of Maryland or Belgium.

00:49:37It is more than 14 million years old.

00:49:39Some studies say that this area was formed more than 34 million years ago,

00:49:43long before Antarctica fell into its great ice.

00:49:46At first, the temperatures were higher there.

00:49:49Maybe like the weather in Patagonia,

00:49:51or the rainy, cold-tempered forests of Tasmania, New Zealand,

00:49:55or maybe even more tropical than that.

00:49:58But as the climate became cooler,

00:50:00small glaciers began to form on the hills near the rivers.

00:50:04The valleys sank more because of all this ice covering them.

00:50:08And then, the temperatures dropped again.

00:50:11And a huge layer of ice covered the entire continent, hiding these ancient glaciers.

00:50:16Rivers shaped this lost world a long time ago,

00:50:19long before they ended up being covered with ice almost 3.2 kilometers thick in some places.

00:50:25Scientific studies in this region have shown that these landscapes were filled with high lands and mountains.

00:50:31The ice that had formed on Antarctica made the entire region very cold,

00:50:36so that the landscape could no longer erode.

00:50:38This means that everything remained essentially the same and intact

00:50:42under the ice for millions and millions of years.

00:50:45What is interesting is that we know less about this land hidden under the ice than on the surface of Mars.

00:50:51One way to explore it more would be to forest ice caps to check for sediment samples below.

00:50:58It could tell us more about the flora and fauna frozen below.

00:51:03This is not a new method.

00:51:05A similar method has been used to collect samples from 2 million years ago in Greenland.

00:51:10Australia also has its own secret world.

00:51:13Ancient organisms have been found hidden in rocks from the north of the continent,

00:51:17dating from about 1.6 billion years ago.

00:51:21These microscopic things are part of a family called eukaryotes.

00:51:25The members of this family that exist today include plants,

00:51:29mushrooms, animals, and even these tiny organisms have a single cell, such as amoebas.

00:51:36All living beings with nuclei in their cells, including us,

00:51:40can trace their genealogical tree to one of the oldest members of this family.

00:51:45This is called the last common ancestor, eukaryote,

00:51:49and it lived more than 1.2 billion years ago.

00:51:52These ancient organisms were more complex and larger than bacteria.

00:51:57Perhaps they were the first predators on Earth, hunting bacteria.

00:52:04Soon we could start building lots of things on the Moon.

00:52:08Indeed, the Indian lunar mission, Chandrayaan 3,

00:52:12has recently detected sulfur near the south pole of our natural satellite.

00:52:16This chemical element may prove very useful

00:52:19when we start our infrastructure work on the night star.

00:52:24This is the first time we have discovered this highly trapped chemical element on the Moon.

00:52:30On Earth, it is mainly found near volcanoes.

00:52:34Its appearance on the Moon tells a long story about the volcanic history of the satellite

00:52:38and about 16 past atmospheric conditions.

00:52:43The rover of the mission detected this chemical element

00:52:46less than a week after landing at about 70 degrees from the south pole of the Moon,

00:52:50on August 23, 2023.

00:52:54This historic landing on the lunar surface

00:52:57made India the fourth country to succeed in the launching of a mission.

00:53:03It is also the first spacecraft to land so close to the south pole of our satellite.

00:53:09This is an important strategic zone,

00:53:11because it is thought to shelter water ice deposits.

00:53:16If this is true, future missions could be able to collect this ice

00:53:20to transform it into drinking water or even into fuel for rockets.

00:53:26For two weeks, the lander collected data,

00:53:29mainly focused on the analysis of the lunar soil and its extremely dry atmosphere.

00:53:35During this time, the solar rover Pragyan began its quest for frozen water on the Moon.

00:53:42As for the lander, it made a new feat on September 3.

00:53:47The spacecraft started its engines and rose about 41 cm in the air.

00:53:53It then made a small jump to land about 40 cm from its initial position.

00:53:59It is really a feat.

00:54:02It is essential for future missions to be able to launch a lander to the surface of the Moon.

00:54:07This shows that it will be possible to send back to Earth,

00:54:10and safely, samples of soil and astronauts after a lunar mission.

00:54:16In September, the Indian probe was put on watch.

00:54:21The 14-day lunar night was approaching,

00:54:23and the probe was not designed to collect scientific data during this period.

00:54:29On this day, several major results of the mission were communicated to us.

00:54:33One of them concerns the measurement of the temperature of the upper layer of the Moon at different depths.

00:54:39Curiously, the surface of the satellite in this region turned out to be warmer than expected.

00:54:46It was thought that the temperature could be between 20 and 30 degrees Celsius at the surface.

00:54:52But it was close to 70 degrees.

00:54:55A real surprise.

00:54:59The other discovery concerns the presence of several chemical elements, including oxygen.

00:55:05In addition, the data received confirm the presence of aluminum, calcium, iron, titanium, silicon,

00:55:11and other chemical elements on the lunar surface near the South Pole.

00:55:19The rover also used special instruments designed to measure tremors and underground rumbles,

00:55:25in order to determine seismic activity.

00:55:29And this brings us back to the detected sulfur, thanks to the rover's spectroscope.

00:55:35Scientists are currently looking to find out if this element formed on the surface in a natural way,

00:55:40or if it is the result of volcanic activity, or a collision with a meteor.

00:55:46Another amazing discovery on the Moon.

00:55:48A stone.

00:55:50It may be the oldest terrestrial rock ever discovered.

00:55:54This 2-centimeter-wide splinter found in the middle of a large amount of rock brought back to our planet

00:55:59by the astronauts of the Apollo mission could turn out to be a fragment of the Earth 4 billion years old.

00:56:06And that could help us better understand the violent shocks that the Earth has undergone in the dawn of its life.

00:56:11Here is what scientists suspect.

00:56:16Shortly after the formation of this rock, an asteroid impact would have projected it out of the Earth.

00:56:21At the time, our satellite was three times closer to our planet than it is today.

00:56:28The collision would have been so powerful that this stone would have landed on the Moon.

00:56:33Later, this fragment would have been engulfed in a lunar breach, a kind of heterogeneous rock.

00:56:40Finally, the rock was brought back to Earth by the astronauts of Apollo 14.

00:56:45We had already found meteorites from Mars and the Moon,

00:56:49but it was the first time that a rock from the Moon turned out to be a terrestrial meteorite.

00:56:54Scientists have also discovered that the rock had formed in an environment rich in water,

00:56:59at a temperature and a pressure corresponding to those that reign about 19 kilometers below the surface of our planet.

00:57:07In 2019, the Chinese mission Shange 4 entered history by landing on the hidden side of the Moon.

00:57:15The rover of this mission allowed researchers to visualize the structures buried under the surface of the satellite,

00:57:22revealing billions of years of lunar history.

00:57:25The rover Yutu 2 made this discovery thanks to its lunar penetration radar.

00:57:30It obtained images in depth and made an echography of the structures hidden under the surface of the Moon.

00:57:41It turned out that these structures were at a depth of nearly 300 meters.

00:57:47Research suggests that the first 40 meters under the surface are made up of layers of dust, earth and rock.

00:57:54The instruments used also discovered a hidden crater that must have formed after a large object hit the surface of the Moon.

00:58:02A long time ago, lava probably flowed into these depths.

00:58:09According to the researchers, the rocks broken around this formation would be debris produced by the impact.

00:58:15They also found that the closer the layers of volcanic rocks were to the surface,

00:58:21the thinner they were.

00:58:23Such variation in the thickness of the flows would indicate a decrease in the number and magnitude of eruptions over time.

00:58:30Thus, volcanic activity would have gradually decreased since the formation of the Moon about 4.5 billion years ago.

00:58:40On the hidden side of the Moon is one of the largest and oldest impact craters of our solar system, the South Haitian Pole Basin.

00:58:48Unfortunately, from the Earth, we can only see its outer edge, which looks like a huge mountain range.

00:58:55It is a huge cavity of 13 kilometers deep, which extends over more than 2,500 kilometers in diameter and covers a quarter of the surface of the Moon.

00:59:05Astronomers are certain that this crater appeared during the collision of an asteroid with the Moon, about 4 billion years ago.

00:59:13And now, look at this gigantic piece of metal. It is four times the size of the Connecticut.

00:59:20As for its weight, expressed in pounds, it is enough to know that it has 18 zeros.

00:59:25This mysterious mass is hidden about 290 kilometers below the surface of the Moon, somewhere in the middle of the South Haitian Pole Basin.

00:59:34It was discovered during the data collection carried out by the GRAIL mission, or Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, of NASA.

00:59:44By examining this information, scientists noticed that at a place on the surface of the Moon, there was a strange change in gravity.

00:59:53After studying this phenomenon, they concluded that something mysterious must be weighing on the bottom of the basin.

01:00:00So far, researchers have not found the origin of this strange block. But there are several theories.

01:00:08According to one of them, it would be a dense piece of oxide, appeared when the Moon began to form.

01:00:15At that time, the satellite was still covered with oceans of magma, and the piece could be formed at the last stage of its cooling.

01:00:23However, most scientists support another theory.

01:00:28This strange mass would actually be a piece of the giant asteroid that once created the South Haitian Pole Basin.

01:00:34This mass being metallic, it is probably the iron and nickel core of the asteroid.

01:00:42Not so long ago, astronomers received topographic data, and discovered a huge cave under the surface of our satellite.

01:00:53It could be the result of an intense volcanic activity dating back more than 3 billion years.

01:01:01The lava flows hardened, creating a thick and hard crust outside.

01:01:06But inside, the lava continued to flow, melting the rock and creating tunnels and caves.

01:01:13Many small wells discovered by NASA at the surface of the Moon seem to be the openings of these lava tunnels.

01:01:20If this theory is confirmed, these underground tunnels could not only be very practical for future inhabited space missions,

01:01:27but also constitute water reserves of vital importance for astronauts.

01:01:34In 1968, a chemist named Spencer Silver was working for a company.

01:01:39His task was to create a new adhesive that was strong and powerful.

01:01:43It had to be much better than anything available at the time.

01:01:47After a lot of experimentation, Spencer ended up with an adhesive that stuck, but which was also easy to remove.

01:01:54At that moment, he probably felt like he had failed.

01:01:58But he did not know that he was going to change the history of adhesive notes forever.

01:02:02He created the Post-It.

01:02:08Cornflakes have also been created by accident.

01:02:11Dr. Kellogg experimented with various cereals.

01:02:14It is a bit vague when it comes to determining the exact moment when Kellogg's Cornflakes were invented.

01:02:20Several family members and employees of the sanatorium claimed the paternity of the creation.

01:02:25According to the company's history, in 1898, a cereal dough made from wheat was accidentally left aside for a prolonged period.

01:02:35This caused the fermentation of the dough.

01:02:37It was then spread out in thin sheets and cooked.

01:02:40The slightly moldy dough produced large thin flakes that were crispy and tasty.

01:02:47Over time, it was discovered that corn produced even more crispy flakes than wheat.

01:02:53By 1909, Will's company produced 120,000 boxes of Cornflakes a day.

01:03:01Some kitchen appliances were also created by chance.

01:03:05Percy Spencer was an engineer working on radar equipment.

01:03:08One ordinary day, while he was working, he happened to have a chocolate bar in the pocket of his jacket.

01:03:14At some point, it began to melt.

01:03:17It made him think.

01:03:19Could it be the microwaves from the radar's magnetron that caused it?

01:03:23To test his theory, he took a few grains of corn and, one by one, looked at them burst.

01:03:29In a blink of an eye, Percy developed the very first microwave oven, which was put on the market in 1946.

01:03:35It's amazing how a melted chocolate bar led to the invention of something that revolutionized cooking.

01:03:42In 1938, there was a chemist named Roy Plunkett.

01:03:47He was trying to develop a new type of soda.

01:03:50Something unexpected happened to his products.

01:03:52By playing with gas, he noticed that it was turning into a solid and syrupy substance.

01:03:58This accident led to the creation of polytetrafluoroethylene, or what we now call Teflon.

01:04:03We thank him for the pans in our kitchens.

01:04:06However, this material is actually used in various industries.

01:04:10I mean, it is even used as a protective coating on spaceships.

01:04:17Another huge discovery was made in 1921.

01:04:21Two scientists managed to isolate the insulin of a dog's pancreas.

01:04:25This marked a turning point in the treatment of diabetes.

01:04:29This problem has existed for a very long time, more than 3,000 years.

01:04:33The oldest recording we have is in a papyrus manuscript dating from 1,500 BC.

01:04:39Now, let's go back to insulin and pancreas.

01:04:43In the 19th century, an experiment was carried out to remove all the pancreas from a dog.

01:04:49These dogs developed severe diabetes, just like humans.

01:04:53This was a surprise because, at the time,

01:04:57scientists thought that pancreas had little to do with diabetes.

01:05:00During this time, the first antibiotic in the world also appeared by pure chance.

01:05:06In 1928, bacteriologist Alexander Fleming came back from vacation.

01:05:11He realized that he had forgotten to clean one of the plates he used in the laboratory.

01:05:17He discovered mold growing on this forgotten plate.

01:05:20It turned out that the mold had involuntarily contaminated the dish.

01:05:24When the scientist looked closer,

01:05:26he noticed that the area around the mold was completely free of bacteria.

01:05:31He called his discovery penicillin,

01:05:34according to the species of Penicillium notatum mushroom.

01:05:37Today, penicillin is the most commonly used antibiotic in the world.

01:05:44A pharmacist named John Walker conducted chemical experiments

01:05:48when he accidentally scratched a tinned stick.

01:05:51To his great surprise, the stick caught fire.

01:05:54This gave Walker an idea.

01:05:56In 1927, he began to sell friction matches in his pharmacy.

01:06:01Walker's matches were cardboard sticks coated with potassium chloride and antimony sulfur.

01:06:07They caught fire when they were rubbed against glass paper.

01:06:11Walker's invention quickly gained popularity.

01:06:14But he made an unusual choice.

01:06:16He did not patent it.

01:06:18As a result, others copied his design and began to sell their version.

01:06:22Over time, they eclipsed his role as an original inventor.

01:06:26Unfortunately for Walker,

01:06:28he did not receive recognition as the creator of the first friction match.

01:06:32Some accidental inventions can be as small as a matchbox.

01:06:37And others can be as big as a ship.

01:06:40In 1982, near Cache, in southern Turkey,

01:06:44a sponge diver came across something incredible.

01:06:47It was an ancient wreck from the late 14th century BC.

01:06:51He first discovered a few objects

01:06:53and described them as metallic biscuits with ears.

01:06:59Interestingly,

01:07:01experts later identified these objects as lingoxides.

01:07:06This discovery aroused the excitement of archaeologists.

01:07:10They sent a team to investigate more on the site of the wreck.

01:07:14Over the next decade,

01:07:16eleven expeditions took place, each lasting a few months.

01:07:20The divers made more than 22,000 dives during this period.

01:07:26They discovered an extraordinary collection of artifacts from the Bronze Age.

01:07:31The ship itself was about 10 meters long.

01:07:34The ship's most likely route was from Cyprus or Syria to Greece.

01:07:39Its mission was to deliver goods.

01:07:41Among the loads, there were tons of copper and lingo,

01:07:45as well as gold and silver jewels, tools,

01:07:48and various edible goods.

01:07:51Today, you can see the incredible shipwrecks

01:07:54at the Baudrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology.

01:07:57They even rebuilt the ship.

01:08:03In 2017, something unusual happened in Portugal.

01:08:07A man discovered what is probably

01:08:10the largest dinosaur skeleton in Europe.

01:08:13He was working on constructions in his garden,

01:08:15then he came across fossilized bone fragments.

01:08:19A team of researchers started working on it.

01:08:22It was rare to find massive dinosaur bones so well preserved.

01:08:26They even found all the ribs still in their original anatomical positions.

01:08:30This dino was part of a species that roamed the earth

01:08:34about 100 million years ago.

01:08:36There could be other parts of the dinosaur skeleton nearby.

01:08:40This means that the experts must continue to dig.

01:08:46Speaking of people who discover incredible things in their garden,

01:08:50we should look at Berinkuyu.

01:08:53This place is located in Turkey, in Cappadocia.

01:08:56This place is known for its striking chimneys

01:08:59and its colorful hills.

01:09:01There is also a hidden city that has been hidden for centuries.

01:09:05This underground structure extends over 85 meters below the surface.

01:09:10It has a complex labyrinth of 18 levels of tunnels.

01:09:13It is the most widely excavated underground city in the world.

01:09:17Its history is also very rich.

01:09:19It changed hands, from the Persians to the Byzantines.

01:09:22The city was a sanctuary for up to 20,000 people,

01:09:26providing shelter for prolonged periods.

01:09:29This amazing discovery did not take place until 1963.

01:09:33A local resident stumbled upon the place

01:09:36when he was looking for his lost hens.

01:09:38When he renovated his house,

01:09:40his hens continued to disappear into a new space formed.

01:09:43After a thorough examination and some digging,

01:09:46the man discovered a hidden tunnel.

01:09:48It was only the beginning.

01:09:50More than 600 similar entrances were later discovered.

01:09:53The Hittites were often credited with building the oldest levels.

01:09:58Today, we think that the Phrygians,

01:10:01skilled architects of the Iron Age,

01:10:03played a significant role in the expansion of the underground city.

01:10:07Finally, there is a natural medicine called quinine,

01:10:11which comes from the bark of the tree in Kankina.

01:10:14People have been using it to fight malaria since the 1600s.

01:10:18Legend has it that an indigenous man

01:10:21may have started using it even earlier.

01:10:24The story goes that a man with a severe fever

01:10:27got lost in the jungle.

01:10:29He had to drink water from a pond surrounded by trees,

01:10:32in Kina Kina.

01:10:34He thought he was poisoned.

01:10:36But surprisingly, he recovered.

01:10:39After that, his whole village started using the bark of Kina Kina.

01:10:43Malaria is still a major concern today.

01:10:46People have tried to make quinine in laboratories

01:10:49because it is very useful.

01:10:51In 1820, some scientists discovered

01:10:54how to obtain quinine from the bark of Kankina.

01:10:57However, it took more than 100 years for chemists

01:11:00to obtain the exact chemical structure of quinine.

01:11:04It was a breakthrough in the world of chemistry.

01:11:07Unlike many other funerary sites in Ancient Egypt,

01:11:11the King Tutankhamun's tomb remained hidden,

01:11:14in the shelter of thieves,

01:11:16for nearly 3,000 years.

01:11:18One of the reasons was that this tomb was smaller than the average

01:11:21and that it was hidden in the site of the Valley of Kings.

01:11:24This region was already widely explored

01:11:26at the time when it was found by chance

01:11:28on the site of the Pharaoh's tomb.

01:11:30The entrance was completely buried

01:11:32under the debris from the construction of a neighboring tomb,

01:11:35which also helped to preserve its secret.

01:11:38There was also no inscription outside the tomb.

01:11:41Time has also played a role

01:11:43in its remarkable state of preservation

01:11:45until the 1920s,

01:11:47when a man named Howard Carter finally arrived there.

01:11:52But was Carter a hero?

01:11:55Recent discoveries suggest

01:11:57that he could have been less honest than we might have thought.

01:11:59Carter was not only considered

01:12:01a renowned treasure hunter,

01:12:03he was a true archaeologist.

01:12:05He had, long before Tutankhamun,

01:12:07dived into the quest for Egyptian artifacts.

01:12:09He had discovered his interest

01:12:11in these unusual objects from childhood

01:12:13and had quickly begun to reproduce the sculptures

01:12:16and inscriptions discovered in the ancient tombs.

01:12:19After discovering the remains of King Tutankhamun,

01:12:22Carter spent nearly a decade

01:12:24processing and consigning all kinds of objects,

01:12:26such as gold thrones,

01:12:28chariots,

01:12:30and statues from the tomb,

01:12:32shipping them along an island

01:12:34to the Egyptian museum in Cairo.

01:12:36At least, that was the official history.

01:12:38More recent discoveries claim

01:12:40that all these objects

01:12:42would not have been handed over to the Egyptian officials.

01:12:44A letter found

01:12:46seems to reveal what Carter's policy was.

01:12:48Ten for them and one for me.

01:12:50And one.

01:12:52The letter in question had been sent

01:12:54to Sir Alan Gardiner,

01:12:56a philologist and friend of Carter,

01:12:58who had discovered the tomb

01:13:00and asked his friend for some advice.

01:13:02In another letter from 1934,

01:13:04Gardiner seemed to thank Carter

01:13:06for an amulet

01:13:08that would have been sent to him

01:13:10as a gift of thanks.

01:13:12Carter insisted that it did not come from

01:13:14Tutankhamun's tomb,

01:13:16but apparently,

01:13:18it did come from there.

01:13:20The British director of the Egyptian museum

01:13:22was himself aware of Carter's activities,

01:13:24but could not prove them.

01:13:26He compared Gardiner's amulet

01:13:28to the tomb of Tutankhamun

01:13:30and, to his surprise,

01:13:32they looked very similar.

01:13:34Gardiner was so embarrassed

01:13:36to have been put in such a delicate situation

01:13:38that he complained to Carter in another letter.

01:13:40As a good friend,

01:13:42Gardiner preferred not to throw the dirty water

01:13:44on the famous archaeologist.

01:13:46Instead, he advised Carter

01:13:48to return his stolen objects to the quay.

01:13:50Just as he would advise you

01:13:52to give this video a thumbs up

01:13:54and subscribe to the channel

01:13:56for more incredible videos

01:13:58like this one.

01:14:00This is not the only creepy element

01:14:02concerning Carter's behavior

01:14:04after the discovery.

01:14:06In 1947,

01:14:08a man named Alfred Luca,

01:14:10who had worked alongside

01:14:12the controversial archaeologist,

01:14:14delivered information

01:14:16to an obscure Querote magazine.

01:14:18He claimed that Carter had discreetly

01:14:20forced the door of the funeral chamber

01:14:22by himself,

01:14:24after which he had closed it

01:14:26as if nothing had happened

01:14:28The same theory suggests

01:14:30that Carter and his team

01:14:32could have penetrated the tomb sooner

01:14:34in order to get hold of some old treasures.

01:14:36Of course,

01:14:38these people could not risk

01:14:40selling such objects to their survivors

01:14:42but would make sure

01:14:44that they would be sold at auction

01:14:46after their death.

01:14:48Carter, however,

01:14:50never admitted anything.

01:14:52He did not issue any official denials either,

01:14:54but the Egyptian government

01:14:56could not risk other unexplained disappearances.

01:14:58Some have associated these disappearances

01:15:00with the curse of King Tutankhamun.

01:15:03If you have never heard of it,

01:15:05know that this frightening story

01:15:07fascinated the crowds

01:15:09shortly after the discovery

01:15:11of the Pharaoh's grave.

01:15:13It was claimed that anyone who interfered

01:15:15with the young king's tomb

01:15:17would be pursued by the curse.

01:15:19It is not as spectacular

01:15:21as a mummy throwing itself after you.

01:15:23But it is rumored

01:15:25that all those who disturbed

01:15:26the tomb would meet

01:15:28mysterious and premature endings.

01:15:30The most remarkable death

01:15:32linked to this alleged curse

01:15:34is that of George Herbert,

01:15:36the 5th Count of Carnarvon.

01:15:38It was this British aristocrat

01:15:40who financed the quest for this tomb

01:15:42and he died just one year

01:15:44after the opening of the cave.

01:15:46Today, people like to see

01:15:48a great mystery there.

01:15:50But it turns out that Herbert

01:15:52was already in very poor health

01:15:54when he arrived at Caire

01:15:57Now, let's talk numbers.

01:15:59Many people found themselves

01:16:01linked to the opening of this tomb.

01:16:03Security guards, archaeologists

01:16:05and many workers.

01:16:07And of course, some of them died

01:16:09shortly after the tomb

01:16:11began to receive visitors.

01:16:13But as attractive as this curse

01:16:15in our story is,

01:16:17statistically,

01:16:19if you have a group of people

01:16:21involved in the opening of a tomb,

01:16:23you should expect a few deaths

01:16:24The average lifespan

01:16:26of all those who would have been struck

01:16:28by the old curse

01:16:30was more than 20 years

01:16:32after the spell was cast on them.

01:16:34Herbert's daughter

01:16:36even lived until the 80s,

01:16:3850 years later.

01:16:40And Howard Carter himself

01:16:42lived until 1939,

01:16:4416 years after the great discovery.

01:16:46Some have suggested

01:16:48that all this curse

01:16:50was nothing more than a carefully

01:16:52elaborated communication strategy.

01:16:54Howard Carter was careful

01:16:56to keep the journalists out of it.

01:16:58Thus, he could have invented

01:17:00a curse weighing on anyone

01:17:02who would have approached

01:17:04the young king's grave.

01:17:06But what could have been

01:17:08stolen from Tutankhamun's tomb?

01:17:10Well, to begin with,

01:17:12some jewelry.

01:17:14It could have been stolen

01:17:16by Howard Carter himself,

01:17:18according to a French specialist

01:17:20who carried out an in-depth research

01:17:22by examining old photos

01:17:24of various objects

01:17:26from museums and auction houses.

01:17:28And he quickly began

01:17:30to trace the itinerary

01:17:32of some of Tutankhamun's jewels.

01:17:34First of all, there is this necklace

01:17:36which once adorned

01:17:38the pharaoh's chest.

01:17:40It was broken into several pieces

01:17:42and some parts were sent

01:17:44via Carter to the Nelson-Atkins

01:17:46Museum in Missouri.

01:17:48During this time,

01:17:50other pieces were rearranged

01:17:52by people who tried

01:17:54to steal them.

01:17:56But Carter did not deny the facts

01:17:58as he confirmed the information

01:18:00on his own website.

01:18:02And then there is the famous

01:18:04Tutankhamun's headdress.

01:18:06Some pearls of this headdress

01:18:08would also have been stolen by Carter.

01:18:10They were then put on

01:18:12to form a new necklace

01:18:14which is now kept

01:18:16at the Saint Louis Art Museum.

01:18:18Another elegant necklace

01:18:20made of enamel ceramics

01:18:21which has been kept

01:18:23for more than a decade.

01:18:25It seems that it was,

01:18:27as one might expect,

01:18:29also stolen by Carter.

01:18:31Despite the missing articles,

01:18:33Tutankhamun's tomb

01:18:35still revealed a multitude

01:18:37of incredible objects

01:18:39that allowed us to learn

01:18:41more about this ancient culture.

01:18:43Let's start with the famous

01:18:45funerary mask.

01:18:47It is a huge gold work

01:18:49of 53 cm in diameter

01:18:51and a headdress

01:18:53topped with a cobra and a vulture.

01:18:55On the back,

01:18:57a spellbook from the Book of the Dead

01:18:59was supposed to ensure his passage

01:19:01into the afterlife.

01:19:03Tutankhamun was apparently

01:19:05also passionate about

01:19:07board games,

01:19:09including Senet.

01:19:11Four of them were found

01:19:13in his tomb,

01:19:15some of them in ivory.

01:19:17Archaeologists also found

01:19:19a pair of gold sandals,

01:19:21some of them in silver.

01:19:23Speaking of fashion articles,

01:19:25it seems that Tutankhamun

01:19:27was a rather flirtatious ruler.

01:19:29We even found a mannequin

01:19:31in his tomb that was used

01:19:33to choose, adjust and store

01:19:35his outfits and jewels.

01:19:37The young king also seems

01:19:39to have appreciated music,

01:19:41according to the two trumpets

01:19:43that historians found

01:19:45in his tomb.

01:19:47Although it was played

01:19:49in 1939

01:19:51by the Neandertalians,

01:19:53our humanoid cousins

01:19:55of Pleistocene,

01:19:57with their wide noses

01:19:59and their bowed forehead,

01:20:01they traveled through

01:20:03Europe and Asia for more than

01:20:05350,000 years before disappearing.

01:20:07It was about the same time

01:20:09that our ancestors,

01:20:11the Homo Sapiens,

01:20:13decided to leave Africa

01:20:15and explore the world.

01:20:17We may never know

01:20:19what happened to the Neandertalians

01:20:21We now know a little more about them.

01:20:25One of the theories explaining their disappearance is that the climate did not suit them anymore.

01:20:30The supporters of this idea believe that Mother Nature would have turned against the Neanderthals and would have annihilated them.

01:20:37However, if we examine the archaeological sites of the Neanderthals, in Italy for example,

01:20:42we find no sign of a climate disaster that could have damaged this species.

01:20:48Others think that there could have been a certain competition for resources between the Neanderthals and humans.

01:20:55This is why specialists have also dug around several other archaeological sites

01:21:00where Neanderthals and Homo sapiens could have met for about 3,000 years.

01:21:06In this case, it seems that the Neanderthals were a little late in terms of equipment.

01:21:12Their technology was comparable to that of cell phones in Clapey, in the face of virtual reality.

01:21:20But who knows if these two species really met in this particular region?

01:21:25The evidence is still uncertain.

01:21:27The way they disappeared is not the only information about the Neanderthals that arouses our curiosity.

01:21:34Other scientists, for example, try to decrypt certain molecular barcodes of the Neanderthals

01:21:40in order to identify their specific traits.

01:21:43Some of them could be 12 common beings. Believe it or not.

01:21:47Certainly, the Neanderthal species as a whole has gone extinct.

01:21:51But that does not mean that the remains of their DNA do not end up in humans.

01:21:55Well, you know how things go when people live close to each other.

01:22:00A certain genetic mixing may occur.

01:22:04The proof? A little bit of Neanderthal DNA found in people today.

01:22:09And that's where things go wrong.

01:22:12Researchers first think that Neanderthals had never lived in Africa.

01:22:17Their DNA would not be found in modern African populations.

01:22:23However, it turns out that Africans also have about 0.5% Neanderthal DNA.

01:22:30This does not mean that our Neanderthal parents simply teleported across African territories without leaving a trace behind them.

01:22:39What this discovery implies, in reality, is that the first humans would have visited Europe,

01:22:44mixed their genetic material with that of the Neanderthals, and then returned to Africa.

01:22:50That's a lot of migration.

01:22:52How did we come across this Neanderthal DNA today, you might ask?

01:22:58Researchers have brought together thousands of people from all over the world.

01:23:02The participants came from East Asia, Europe, South Asia, America and Africa.

01:23:08The percentages may vary.

01:23:10Of course, but about 20% of the DNA found in Neanderthals is still in our modern genes.

01:23:18Of course, at the moment, we only have 1.2% of this caveman look.

01:23:24If you come from certain places, or from certain families,

01:23:27which have a little more Neanderthal DNA in their genetic soup,

01:23:31you can reach 3% at most.

01:23:35Is there something special that we have been sharing with our humanoid cousins for a long time?

01:23:41It turns out that our Neanderthal ancestors offered us much more than their simple company for thousands of years.

01:23:48They also passed on to us the incredible heritage of their nose.

01:23:52Neanderthals had very efficient teeth.

01:23:55It was not just a matter of aesthetics, it was also an asset in cold climates.

01:24:00The kind of cold that makes your eyebrows wrinkle and your teeth itch,

01:24:04or your breath itch even before you swallow your saliva.

01:24:08At that time, Neanderthals' noses faced off with the chlorophyll personnel,

01:24:12reshuffling and humidifying the air through it and sequestering the spirulents.

01:24:17For these extreme climatic conditions,

01:24:19these impressive nasal skyscrapers turned out to be very practical.

01:24:23When our homo sapiens ancestors decided to leave the sunny savannahs of Africa

01:24:27to go and freeze them in Eurasia,

01:24:29they came across the Neanderthals.

01:24:31This encounter led not only to an exchange of kindness,

01:24:35but also to an exchange of genetic codes in view of a larger nose.

01:24:39This new genetic nugget was discovered by scientists

01:24:43who searched in the DNA of more than 6,000 volunteers.

01:24:46To complete the study, these scientists carefully compared these genetic data

01:24:50to clichés of the face of the volunteers.

01:24:53They measured the distances between different points of each face,

01:24:57such as the height of the nose ridge, for example.

01:25:00They then played a little game of identifying the genetic marker

01:25:04to determine whether certain features of the face were linked to specific lipid genes.

01:25:08At the end of this exciting chase, they unhooked the jackpot.

01:25:14A remarkable gene, called ATF3,

01:25:17has been traced back to our Neanderthal ancestors

01:25:20and seems to be the one that determines the size of the nose.

01:25:23The participants of Amerindian origin

01:25:25possessed this gene inherited from Neanderthals,

01:25:28which explained their higher nose.

01:25:30Let's consider the gene ATF3 as a gift from the Neanderthals

01:25:35to the man who had left Africa to settle in rougher climates.

01:25:39It is interesting to note that this is not the first time

01:25:42that our ancestors played at transmitting genes.

01:25:45In 2021, the same team of researchers discovered a gene

01:25:49influencing the shape of the lips, called TBX15.

01:25:54This gene was a love word of the Denisovans,

01:25:57another group of our ancestors,

01:25:59who lived in Asia and went extinct about 30,000 years ago.

01:26:03Another part of the scientific community

01:26:06thinks that our Neanderthal friends

01:26:09had a strange genetic peculiarity in their brains.

01:26:12Is this why they did not survive?

01:26:15This theory suggests that we, humans,

01:26:18should turn our brain to a singular genetic mutation.

01:26:22This mutation gave our neocortex,

01:26:25the smartest part of the brain,

01:26:28a small boost in terms of population in the neuronal department.

01:26:33This extraordinary gene is not so different from the Neanderthal version.

01:26:37It only lacks an amino acid,

01:26:40a bit like ordering a coffee with sugar instead of black.

01:26:43This small modification is found in almost all modern humans.

01:26:47On the other hand, our missing parents,

01:26:50the Neanderthals, the Denisovans and other primates,

01:26:54all missed the memo of the mutation, at least according to the study.

01:26:58But hey, let's not go too fast into need.

01:27:01It is not because we have more neurons

01:27:04that we are necessarily geniuses in comparison.

01:27:07These results suggest, all the more,

01:27:10that we may have reorganized the brain

01:27:13in a way that gave us a long way ahead on the cognitive level.

01:27:16Moreover, it is not only a difference between two amino acids.

01:27:19It is only a piece of the puzzle.

01:27:22Scientists have already discovered 416 differences

01:27:25between our DNA and that of Neanderthals,

01:27:28which could have had an impact on the different results obtained by the species.

01:27:32The study of the DNA of Neanderthals

01:27:35also allowed us to better understand their relationship.

01:27:38In fact, we now have tangible evidence

01:27:41of what a Neanderthal family looked like.

01:27:44And, surprisingly, it is not so different from ours.

01:27:48For this study, researchers have collected information

01:27:51on an archaeological site of Neanderthals located in Asia.

01:27:55They discovered that a particular family

01:27:58included a careful Neanderthal father,

01:28:01his teenage daughter, and a young boy full of guts

01:28:04who was perhaps their nephew or cousin.

01:28:07The group also included an older woman,

01:28:10perhaps an aunt or a grandmother.

01:28:13Well, our young lady would have ended up packing her bags

01:28:16with tearful goodbyes and leaving her dad's house

01:28:19when she found shoes on her feet.

01:28:23She would have been a happy housewife.

01:28:26But don't worry, she wouldn't have gone to a foreign world.

01:28:29Her new community would probably have familiar and friendly faces.

01:28:33But how did scientists predict the end of this story?

01:28:37By exploring their genetic heritage,

01:28:40researchers were able to determine

01:28:43that the social structure of Neanderthals was patrilocal.

01:28:46This means that most Neanderthal women

01:28:49left their homes when they chose a partner

01:28:52and began a new life in another family.

01:28:55The same research shows that our cave clans

01:28:58probably didn't live isolated either.

01:29:01The families living nearby

01:29:04probably went to the same rock extraction areas

01:29:07to make their stone tools,

01:29:10the equivalent of a neighborhood quincunx.

01:29:13And when they didn't make tools,

01:29:16they made wild horses, bison and other wandering creatures.

01:29:19Scientists, however, took care to add

01:29:22that this old family portrait

01:29:25was perhaps not representative of the whole social life

01:29:28of Neanderthals.

01:29:31So they kindly asked future archaeologists

01:29:34to obtain more Neanderthal DNA.

01:29:37Hang on, dear space enthusiasts,

01:29:40because we are about to discover together

01:29:43the cosmic secrets that have been revealed this year.

01:29:46Giant stars with organic molecules,

01:29:49this year are among the best hosts for astronomers.

01:29:52So let's catch up on everything you may have missed in 2023.

01:29:55To begin with,

01:29:58we have discovered real stellar monsters.

01:30:01Imagine looking up at the night sky

01:30:04to see stars that are not only big,

01:30:07but absolutely huge.

01:30:10Scientists used a point telescope,

01:30:13the James Webb Space Telescope,

01:30:16to explore the first days of the universe.

01:30:19And during their journey,

01:30:22these researchers came across ancient stars

01:30:25that were 10,000 times larger than our sun.

01:30:28Yes, you heard right, 10,000 times!

01:30:31These giants of the stellar world were among the very first stars

01:30:34to form in the universe several billion years ago.

01:30:37Imagine a globular cluster like a gigantic cosmic conglomerate

01:30:40where each group has 100,000 to 1,000,000 members.

01:30:43These clusters are like gigantic family reunions,

01:30:46all the stars are born at about the same time.

01:30:49But what makes these monsters

01:30:52so particularly recently discovered?

01:30:55Well, their cores, in other words their hearts,

01:30:58are much warmer than what we usually observe in the stars.

01:31:01Researchers think that this intense heat

01:31:05could be due to the combustion of a large amount of hydrogen

01:31:08at very high temperatures.

01:31:11A bit like a gigantic galactic barbecue.

01:31:14Something fascinating is happening in these globular clusters.

01:31:17The small stars crash on their supermassive neighbors

01:31:20and thus acquire additional energy,

01:31:23a bit like an update.

01:31:26But the hiccup is that most of these clusters are aging

01:31:29and that these supermassive stars have disappeared for a long time.

01:31:32What we observe today only reveals clues to their existence.

01:31:35Scientists study them from the mysterious traces

01:31:38left by their presence.

01:31:41The discovery of these monstrous stars is extremely important

01:31:44for our understanding of the universe.

01:31:47If scientists manage to gather more evidence

01:31:50to confirm their existence,

01:31:53it would be a major step forward.

01:31:56This would allow us to know more about globular clusters

01:31:59and about supermassive stars in general.

01:32:02But this was only the first fascinating discovery of 2023.

01:32:05The next one is rather sad.

01:32:08You see these beautiful rings that give your Saturn its ravaging look?

01:32:11Well, guess what?

01:32:14It could disappear in the near future.

01:32:17Finally, on an astronomical scale.

01:32:20NASA's Cassini mission, which explored Saturn

01:32:23from 2004 to 2017,

01:32:27during the grand final of the Cassini race,

01:32:30during which it performed breathtaking maneuvers

01:32:33through the orbit of Saturn,

01:32:36scientists noticed something surprising.

01:32:39The rings lost a lot of their mass every second,

01:32:42tons to be honest.

01:32:45This means that this superb aureole will only remain there

01:32:48for a few hundred million years, at most.

01:32:51It may seem long for humans,

01:32:54but what we have to remember is that we have discovered

01:32:57that the huge rings, like those of Saturn,

01:33:00do not last forever.

01:33:03They end up disappearing.

01:33:06At least, neither you nor I will be there to witness this moment.

01:33:09Scientists have a funny theory about what will happen

01:33:12when Saturn's rings disappear.

01:33:15They think that the other ice and gas giants of our solar system,

01:33:18such as Uranus and Jupiter,

01:33:21have lost their mass.

01:33:24But over time, these rings have crumbled

01:33:27to take on the appearance of thin bands of asteroids,

01:33:30like those currently possessed by Uranus.

01:33:33Saturn's rings are mainly made up of ice,

01:33:36but they are also sprinkled with rocky dust.

01:33:39This comes from asteroids and tiny meteorites

01:33:42that crash on other celestial bodies and disintegrate.

01:33:45It's a bit like a storm of icy particles

01:33:49Research has also revealed that Saturn's rings

01:33:52appeared a long time after the formation of the planet itself.

01:33:55They were still forming

01:33:58when the dinosaurs populated the Earth.

01:34:01In terms of age, they are quite recent,

01:34:04as they are only a few hundred million years old.

01:34:07This discovery excited astronomers,

01:34:10because it means that a large-scale event

01:34:13occurred in the past of Saturn to create this amazing icy disk.

01:34:17But this is a mystery that is yet to be clarified.

01:34:21Scientists would like to understand

01:34:24what exactly caused the formation of these rings

01:34:27and why they have such a breathtaking structure.

01:34:30Let's hope they succeed.

01:34:33But let's move on to something more optimistic,

01:34:36because we have another exciting news from space.

01:34:39Recently, scientists studied

01:34:42one of the most distant galaxies in the universe

01:34:45and they found something amazing there.

01:34:48Organic molecules.

01:34:51The galaxy in question is named after

01:34:54SPTO 41847.

01:34:57It is more than 12 billion light years away

01:35:00from our little blue planet.

01:35:03Can you imagine such a distance?

01:35:06It is the most distant galaxy where complex organic molecules have never been detected.

01:35:09This is why observing this galaxy

01:35:12reminds us of the time when the universe was just a baby.

01:35:15We have no idea of the actual aspect of it.

01:35:18The light that reaches us corresponds to what it was

01:35:21when the universe was only one and a half billion years old.

01:35:24Imagine being able to see things

01:35:27that go back so far in the past.

01:35:30What we found there bears a very complicated name.

01:35:33A polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecule

01:35:36or simply a molecule of HAPE.

01:35:39You are probably wondering what this thing is.

01:35:42Well, guess what?

01:35:45We can actually find these molecules right here, on our good old planet.

01:35:48They can be found in things like

01:35:51car exhaust smoke or in forest fires.

01:35:54HAPE molecules are made up of

01:35:57carbon atom chains.

01:36:00And this is what they matter to us.

01:36:03They are considered as the basic elements of life.

01:36:06The basic elements of life,

01:36:09these tiny carbon chains,

01:36:12have been discovered in a very distant galaxy.

01:36:15It's like finding a needle in a haystack.

01:36:18Researchers have also discovered that the gas floating in this galaxy

01:36:21was filled with heavy elements.

01:36:24This is not nothing, because it suggests that many stars

01:36:27have succeeded in this galaxy, creating all these amazing elements.

01:36:30This means that this galaxy is potentially rich

01:36:34This discovery opens up a world of possibilities

01:36:37and raises so many exciting questions.

01:36:40How were these molecules formed in such a distant galaxy?

01:36:43And since we are looking into the past,

01:36:46what happened to these organic molecules during this period?

01:36:49Were they able to evolve towards life?

01:36:52We are only making the surface of incredible things bloom

01:36:55that are still waiting to be discovered.

01:36:58By the way, if all this is happening so far away,

01:37:01how did the scientists manage to discover such a thing?

01:37:04Well, once again, they had an instrument,

01:37:07the James Webb Space Telescope.

01:37:10This sophisticated machine was launched recently

01:37:13and has the ability to decouple observations of the universe.

01:37:16When the scientists studied this distant galaxy,

01:37:19they encountered a small problem.

01:37:22The light coming from these distant objects

01:37:25was so weak that it was difficult to see or detect.

01:37:28But guess what?

01:37:31They had a brilliant idea to solve this problem.

01:37:34They used what is called the gravitational lens,

01:37:37which is a bit like the magnifying glass of nature.

01:37:40Imagine two perfectly aligned galaxies,

01:37:43as for a photo shoot.

01:37:46The light from the distant galaxy, the one in the background,

01:37:49is heading towards us.

01:37:52But during its journey, it crosses the foreground galaxy,

01:37:55What happens next?

01:37:58The gravity of the foreground galaxy curves the light,

01:38:01in the form of a magnifying glass,

01:38:04making it even bigger and brighter.

01:38:07It's as if we had a cosmic zoom for our telescopes.

01:38:10This curvature of light creates a super cool shape

01:38:13called Einstein ring.

01:38:16It is a halo or a ring of light

01:38:19surrounding the foreground galaxy.

01:38:22The S.S. magic power.

01:38:25Thanks to Einstein's gravitational lens

01:38:28and his magnificent rings,

01:38:31scientists can see objects further away more clearly

01:38:34and learn amazing things about the distant universe.

01:38:37And thanks to all this,

01:38:40they managed to discover the hidden chemical interactions

01:38:43of the first galaxies.

01:38:46Isn't it amazing?

01:38:49It's hard to find such complex organic molecules

01:38:52in such an incredibly distant galaxy.

01:38:55And who knows?

01:38:58This may only be the beginning of a fascinating cosmic epic.

01:39:01So keep your eyes on the stars, dear space explorers.

01:39:04The universe is full of surprises,

01:39:07and who knows what other stunning discoveries await us?

01:39:10We can only hope to learn more about it in the future.

01:39:13Have you heard of the lander Philae

01:39:16and his rodeo on a comet called 67P in 2014?

01:39:19The landing was supposed to be smooth,

01:39:22but things skidded when some parts of the machine

01:39:25were not activated.

01:39:28And Philae bounced on the comet like a rubber ball,

01:39:31like in an animated cartoon.

01:39:34Fortunately, Philae was able to send a message to Earth

01:39:37to confirm that it was still working,

01:39:40but no one knew where it was.

01:39:43Philae was left alone for almost two years,

01:39:46until images taken by a nearby probe revealed

01:39:49the uncomfortable position of Philae.

01:39:52Lying on the side, his spider legs in the air,

01:39:55stuck in a crack of 67P.

01:39:58And that's not all.

01:40:01The collected data suggests that Philae would have tried

01:40:04a second landing for two minutes,

01:40:07but scientists do not know where it happened.

01:40:10A planetologist from the European Space Agency

01:40:13said that they still had one last mystery

01:40:16to solve about Philae.

01:40:19The good news is that scientists were able to discover

01:40:22the second landing site of Philae

01:40:25and learn more about 67P.

01:40:28It turns out that when Philae hit its surface,

01:40:31it tore off a layer of dust and debris

01:40:34about 25.4 cm deep

01:40:37to reveal the frozen interior of the comet.

01:40:40The ice was so bright that the team could still see it

01:40:43on images taken almost two years after the accident.

01:40:46They felt like they were discovering a treasure

01:40:49hidden in the comet's belly.

01:40:52That's not all.

01:40:55The way it all happened allowed them to determine

01:40:58the quality of this subsurface.

01:41:01The data from Philae's magnetometer

01:41:04showed that the inside of the comet was as muddy

01:41:07as freshly fallen snow.

01:41:10Imagine a comet with more flaky rocks than the foam of a cappuccino.

01:41:13Now that the planetologists understand better

01:41:16the physical characteristics of a comet,

01:41:19they can prepare future missions with much more precision.

01:41:22And that's where things get exciting.

01:41:25They hope to be able, thanks to the Ambition project,

01:41:28to bring back for the first time a cryogenic sample

01:41:31of a comet.

01:41:34Philae may not have had the most pleasant landing,

01:41:37but it allowed us to discover fascinating things.

01:41:40When it comes to comets,

01:41:43our star is probably Halley's comet.

01:41:46It's a periodic comet.

01:41:49It visits Earth every 75 years or so,

01:41:52which means you could see it twice in your life.

01:41:55The last time it passed was in 1986

01:41:59This comet was named after the English astronomer Edmond Halley

01:42:02when he understood that the three comets observed in 1531,

01:42:051607 and 1682

01:42:08were actually the same object.

01:42:11He predicted that it would return in 1758

01:42:14and so he was given its name,

01:42:17even if he was no longer there to see it.

01:42:20Halley's comet was observed for the first time

01:42:23in 239 BC.

01:42:26Many Asian astronomers of the time

01:42:29have recorded its passage in their chronicles.

01:42:32It was believed that comets announced disasters

01:42:35or great changes,

01:42:38but we know today that there is none.

01:42:41Around 1900, Mark Twain said

01:42:44that he had arrived with the comet in 1835

01:42:47and that he would probably leave with it.

01:42:50He died the day after his approach in 1910.

01:42:53The Hale-Bopp comet also caught our attention in 1997.

01:42:56It was so bright that we could see it

01:42:59with the naked eye for about a year and a half,

01:43:02especially in the northern hemisphere.

01:43:05In fact, it was a thousand times brighter than Halley's comet.

01:43:08Even inhabitants of very bright areas, like Chicago,

01:43:11could see its blue and white tails.

01:43:14The Hale-Bopp comet was discovered by

01:43:17Alan Hale in New Mexico and Thomas Bopp in Arizona.

01:43:20While they were observing the sky,

01:43:23they suddenly noticed a blurry object nearby.

01:43:26We had never seen it before.

01:43:29Astronomers were excited.

01:43:32They used telescopes to study the comet as it approached.

01:43:35And NASA even used the Hubble Space Telescope

01:43:38to observe it more closely.

01:43:41The core of Hale-Bopp was huge,

01:43:44about 30 to 40 km in diameter,

01:43:47The Hale-Bopp, the M-M-M-Bopp song of the Hansen brothers,

01:43:50was a worldwide success in 1997.

01:43:53Is it related?

01:43:56Anyway, 5,000 years ago,

01:43:59another comet touched our sun,

01:44:02offering a beautiful show to the civilizations of Eurasia and North Africa.

01:44:05Unfortunately, this mysterious visitor

01:44:08is not mentioned in the historical stories,

01:44:11but scientists are very clever.

01:44:14Here is the Atlas comet, or C2019 Iger 4,

01:44:17which appeared in 2020.

01:44:20Unfortunately, Atlas ended up disintegrating

01:44:23into a rain of frozen fragments.

01:44:26But a new study carried out with the Hubble Space Telescope

01:44:29from NASA allowed astronomers to discover

01:44:32that Atlas was a piece of this ancient comet

01:44:35from 5,000 years ago.

01:44:38A real family reunion.

01:44:41One of the most famous examples is the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9,

01:44:44which fell apart on Jupiter in 1994.

01:44:47But Atlas is a little weird.

01:44:50It broke when it was far from the sun,

01:44:53which is strange,

01:44:56because it should have happened when it passed

01:44:59closest to our star.

01:45:02How did it survive its last passage 5,000 years ago?

01:45:05By studying how it disintegrated,

01:45:08scientists can learn more about how the comet was formed.

01:45:11They thus discovered that a fragment of Atlas

01:45:14disintegrated in a few days,

01:45:17while for another, it took weeks.

01:45:20One part of the core was therefore stronger than the other.

01:45:23But we still don't know why it disintegrated.

01:45:26It may be centrifugal forces

01:45:29or super-volatile ice

01:45:32that made this fragment explode in such a spectacular way.

01:45:35One thing is certain,

01:45:38the little piece of Atlas that survived will not come back before the 50th century.

01:45:41In the meantime,

01:45:44we will have to be content to admire the other beauties of our night sky.

01:45:47The following funny story concerns

01:45:50a group of astronomers on the island of Maui.

01:45:53One evening, they were relaxing by observing the stars

01:45:56with their sophisticated telescope when they suddenly noticed something strange.

01:45:59It was a comet,

01:46:02but not just any comet.

01:46:05It moved very quickly and had a very strange shape.

01:46:08So strange that they even thought

01:46:11it could be an alien spaceship.

01:46:14They named it Oumuamua,

01:46:17which means in Hawaiian,

01:46:20a messenger from far away has arrived first.

01:46:23You are probably wondering if our friends then discovered a civilization from far away.

01:46:26Well, not quite.

01:46:29Isn't it cool?

01:46:32When comets cross our solar system,

01:46:35they accelerate because of the gravity of the sun

01:46:38and the dust on their surface.

01:46:41But Oumuamua was too small and had no dust.

01:46:44It did not have this luminous halo that we generally observe.

01:46:47So why did Oumuamua accelerate?

01:46:50According to a hypothesis, it would be a strange effect.

01:46:53The small bodies would absorb the photons of the sun

01:46:56in the form of propulsive panaches.

01:46:59But this does not explain the acceleration of Oumuamua.

01:47:02There were three possible explanations left.

01:47:05The propulsion by nitrogen, carbon monoxide or molecular hydrogen.

01:47:08And guess what?

01:47:11According to a theory, Oumuamua was rich in water,

01:47:14composed of hydrogen and oxygen.

01:47:17Some think that before the comet entered our solar system,

01:47:20the water froze and turned into amorphous ice.

01:47:23The ice is porous and has pockets, like my jeans.

01:47:26According to this theory,

01:47:29the cosmic radiation would have caused the rupture of a part of the hydrogen

01:47:32contained in the water molecules,

01:47:35which then accumulated in the ports like fuel in tiny tanks.

01:47:38By entering the solar system,

01:47:41the comet would have warmed up enough

01:47:44for the ice to become crystalline,

01:47:47thus closing the ports and expelling the hydrogen.

01:47:50This theory would have provided the propulsive push

01:47:53and would explain the acceleration.

01:47:56If all this is fair, there are no aliens,

01:47:59but our scientists are really super cool. Aloha!

01:48:02Since Plato created the allegory of Atlantis,

01:48:05humanity is fascinated by the possibility

01:48:08of discovering one day a flourishing underwater civilization.

01:48:11Do you want to join us to visit some historical underwater sites?

01:48:14Let's see what we can understand

01:48:17about these ancient civilizations.

01:48:20The first on our list is what we call the Stonehenge submarine.

01:48:23Researchers have recently discovered

01:48:26a mysterious pile of cores that extends

01:48:29for miles under the mirroring waters of Lake Constance

01:48:32on the borders of Switzerland, Germany and Austria.

01:48:35Archaeologists began to search this site in 2015

01:48:38and have not yet been able to determine

01:48:41its precise function.

01:48:44What they know is that there are 170 stones

01:48:47made by man,

01:48:50extending for 20 km under the lake.

01:48:53Researchers say that this is probably the result

01:48:56of the combined work of several villages.

01:48:59This site was probably used for a collective purpose.

01:49:02Its formations are huge,

01:49:05some of them several meters wide.

01:49:08The most amazing discovery so far

01:49:11was about 5,500 years ago.

01:49:14Now, what did we humans do at that time?

01:49:17Well, we lived the best years of what we call

01:49:20the Stone Age.

01:49:23We began to make rudimentary tools

01:49:26and use them to hunt and eat.

01:49:29Can you imagine what your cutlery could look like at the time?

01:49:32It is not a coincidence that scientists

01:49:35nicknamed this site the Stonehenge submarine.

01:49:38It was built around the same time.

01:49:41As you can see, Stonehenge was built

01:49:44about 3,100 years before our era.

01:49:47The two sites have the common feature

01:49:50of being two stone monuments built in a circle,

01:49:53not to mention the fact that scientists

01:49:56have not yet determined how our first ancestors

01:49:59could have felt the need to build such structures.

01:50:02The mystery of Constance Lake has not yet been resolved.

01:50:05But what is the purpose of the neolithic construction of this region?

01:50:08And for what purpose did they deploy so much work

01:50:11and effort to build this huge site made of rocks?

01:50:14Then we take you for a tour of the Ryukyu Islands,

01:50:17just off the Japanese coast.

01:50:20You dive into the depths of this archaeological site,

01:50:23but I must warn you,

01:50:26the waters of the Pacific Ocean are far from calm.

01:50:29It doesn't take you long to see a huge structure

01:50:32thanks to the sunlight that illuminates the seabed.

01:50:35At first, it looks like the ruins of Machu Picchu,

01:50:38which is on the other side of the globe, in Peru.

01:50:41As you approach, you slowly begin to distinguish its contours.

01:50:44A pyramid-shaped structure,

01:50:47arches, stairs,

01:50:50it could easily have been a palace or a castle.

01:50:53Could it be a sign of human activity?

01:50:56Well, what you just saw is now known

01:50:59as the underwater structure of Yonaguni.

01:51:02It is also called the Atlantic of Japan.

01:51:05The entire complex is the size of five football fields

01:51:08and the height of a five-story building.

01:51:11Its most surprising feature is its vast terraces.

01:51:14Explorers and scientists

01:51:17estimate that Yonaguni could be 10,000 years old.

01:51:20But the question of whether it is a structure

01:51:23created by man or a natural formation

01:51:26is still the subject of debate.

01:51:29For one of Japan's most famous marine geologists,

01:51:32Professor Masaaki Kimura,

01:51:35Yonaguni would be the legacy of a lost civilization.

01:51:38He himself dived deep into the ocean

01:51:41to explore its ruins more than 100 times

01:51:44over the last 10 years.

01:51:47According to him, there would be clear signs of human activity below.

01:51:50On the surface of this structure,

01:51:53it is a characteristic of the fountains of the region.

01:51:56A giant turtle is also sculpted on the east side of the structure.

01:51:59According to Kimura,

01:52:02such turtles have a significant cultural significance.

01:52:05Several fragments of stone tools have been found on the site

01:52:08and their age is estimated at about 10,000 years.

01:52:11However,

01:52:14all scientists do not support this theory.

01:52:17For many, Yonaguni is the result of thousands of years of erosion.

01:52:20The fact that the monument is made up of a single massive rock

01:52:23makes them believe that it is not of human origin.

01:52:26Its perfectly defined edges and flat surfaces

01:52:29resemble a natural formation of Northern Ireland

01:52:32known as the Giant Soil.

01:52:35The basalt columns may look like the ruins of a palace,

01:52:38but they are actually the result of volcanic activity in the region.

01:52:41Now, you fly to Greece

01:52:444 hours from Athens.

01:52:47To be precise, you are in the Peloponnese peninsula.

01:52:50You dust off an old tuba

01:52:53and go for a dive excursion on a sunny day.

01:52:56After a while in the water,

01:52:59you begin to notice patterns on the seabed.

01:53:024 meters below the surface,

01:53:05the remains of familiar objects begin to appear one by one.

01:53:08As you continue to swim,

01:53:11what seems to be the outline of an entire city emerges before your eyes.

01:53:14You wonder how water could have engulfed the entire city.

01:53:17These rocks are perfectly aligned

01:53:20in what seem to be the foundations of a building.

01:53:23This is Pavlopetri, an ancient city

01:53:26that you have probably never heard of.

01:53:29It was discovered by Nicholas Fleming,

01:53:32a British oceanographer, while he was on vacation in Greece.

01:53:35He had heard rumors about the existence of Pavlopetri

01:53:38and, indeed, discovered several artifacts

01:53:41lying on the seabed.

01:53:44He returned to the region a year later with a team.

01:53:47They then updated a site filled with pottery,

01:53:50amphorae and tools.

01:53:53This cairn stone, for example,

01:53:56was a tool used to grind grain.

01:53:59The multiple amphorae indicate that this settlement

01:54:02dates from the beginning of the Bronze Age, 5,500 years ago,

01:54:05when people began to settle in cities.

01:54:08Pavlopetri could have existed for more than 2,400 years.

01:54:11Today, Pavlopetri is considered

01:54:14the oldest submerged city ever discovered.

01:54:17And what is impressive is that it was not just a simple village.

01:54:20It was a dynamic port city

01:54:23with stone buildings, a market, streets

01:54:26and even squares.

01:54:29The next step in our journey is one of the most famous

01:54:32underwater cities and which has been transformed into an archaeological park.

01:54:35The city of Port-Royal in Jamaica

01:54:38no longer exists only under the surface.

01:54:41But in 1692, it was one of the richest

01:54:44ports in the Western Hemisphere.

01:54:47Port-Royal was the center of the British colonial empire at the time

01:54:50and an important docking port

01:54:53that attracted people from all over the region.

01:54:56It was also the home of the real pirates of the Caribbean.

01:54:59On the morning of June 7, 1692,

01:55:02the people of Port-Royal had a different fate

01:55:05from all that they had foreseen.

01:55:08The city woke up shaking.

01:55:11People were thrown out of their beds by the power of a terrible earthquake

01:55:14of a magnitude of 7.5 on the Richter scale.

01:55:17A survivor told that he had seen the earth

01:55:20melt and swallow the whole city.

01:55:23What he said could be true because it was mainly built

01:55:26on sand. The ground would have swallowed

01:55:29the buildings, the roads, the infrastructure.

01:55:32Everything, in short. Geysers erupted

01:55:35and, to finish, waves as large as

01:55:38ten-story buildings hit the city.

01:55:41About 13 hectares of the city

01:55:44disappeared under the water. Surprisingly,

01:55:47most of these remains of the 17th century are still

01:55:50in good condition under 12 meters of water.

01:55:53Archaeologists have found taverns, warehouses,

01:55:56kitchens, and various leisure establishments.

01:55:59You can also see a large statue of a lion,

01:56:02a submerged bridge, and many picturesque arches.

01:56:05Of course, we kept the best for last,

01:56:08India. Just off its coast

01:56:11is another wonder buried.

01:56:14A site known as the Lost City of Kambé

01:56:17is in the Gulf of the same name. It remained hidden

01:56:20until 2001, when the National Institute of

01:56:23Oceanology mapped its waters.

01:56:26Thanks to sonar technology, which sends

01:56:29sound waves against the seabed, they discovered

01:56:32something that rested far below the surface.

01:56:35The imagery revealed well-defined geometric shapes

01:56:38spread over an area of 8 km.

01:56:41These remains would be more than 9,500 years old,

01:56:44which means that this civilization was

01:56:47engulfed around the end of the Ice Age.

01:56:50The debris recovered on this site included

01:56:53building materials, pottery, pearls,

01:56:56structures, and even bones.

01:56:59Scientists are still debating whether these artifacts

01:57:02really came from the site itself.

01:57:05But if so, then the Lost City of Kambé

01:57:08could be one of the oldest cities in the world.

01:57:11Imagine that you are one of the first people

01:57:14sent to explore Mars. As you approach

01:57:17the red planet, something strange and frightening

01:57:20draws your attention. There, yes, right there.

01:57:23Doesn't it look like a plush bear head?

01:57:26Who, then, could have created the muzzle

01:57:29of a bear in the middle of a crater?

01:57:32Alas, or should we say fortunately, this bear head

01:57:35has nothing mysterious. It is only a striking example

01:57:38of facial pareidolia. It is a very human tendency

01:57:41to distinguish faces in everyday objects.

01:57:44But speaking of this Martian discovery,

01:57:47should we rename the phenomenon as bear pareidolia?

01:57:50Okay, look at this instead. You see this V-shaped hill

01:57:53that looks like a nose. Then there are two craters

01:57:56that look like eyes. Finally, a circular fracture.

01:57:59The head surrounds the nose and eyes.

01:58:02Experts think that this face could have been created

01:58:05when a deposit was deposited on a crater of impact

01:58:08being excavated. As for the nose, it could be a volcanic chimney

01:58:11or mud, surrounded by lava flows or solidified sediments.

01:58:14Anyway, this crater looks like the head of a bear.

01:58:17That's a shame. But thanks to IRIS,

01:58:20the High Resolution Imaging Science experiment camera

01:58:23of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter probe,

01:58:26another of the many acronyms of NASA,

01:58:29we were able to observe many other bizarre craters on the Red Planet.

01:58:32Like smiling faces, a bird or an elephant.

01:58:35First of all, let's take a look at the famous faces of Mars.

01:58:38These images were taken for the first time

01:58:41by the Viking orbiter in 1976.

01:58:44At the time, the resolution was obviously very low

01:58:47and the lighting was tilted.

01:58:50Which produced this result that shocked people in the 1970s.

01:58:53A carved face in the rock looking towards the Earth.

01:58:56Did this mean that another civilization on Mars

01:58:59had created this monument? No.

01:59:02So look at a photo from the same place taken by the current Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

01:59:05The resolution is much better

01:59:08and the face miraculously transformed into an ordinary hill.

01:59:11Or this little Bigfoot whose image was taken in 2008.

01:59:14We say little because this creature

01:59:17only measures a few centimeters.

01:59:20And when the photo was taken, Bigfoot was only a few meters away from the device.

01:59:23And here?

01:59:26A little curious zoomed on a rock and spotted something

01:59:29that looked like a gorilla.

01:59:32It's hard to believe that there were monkeys on Mars.

01:59:35Yes, really.

01:59:38Let me show you some other examples of creatures

01:59:41and imaginary faces of the Red Planet.

01:59:44Most of them come from a series of images taken by the TEMIS camera.

01:59:47It is currently on board the Mars Odyssey probe

01:59:50which only needs 2 hours to complete an orbit around the Red Planet

01:59:53and which carries important scientific instruments.

01:59:56Now let's get to know My Happy Martian.

01:59:59This crater of 3 km wide was photographed in 2008.

02:00:02The next chain of craters looks like a big bee

02:00:05with its wings made of impact debris.

02:00:08The set was probably created by a meteorite

02:00:11falling at a very inclined angle

02:00:14and which broke into pieces just before the impact.

02:00:17Do you see a woolly mammoth here or an elephant?

02:00:20The lava flows of a region of Mars have printed this image on its reddish soil.

02:00:23The region itself, called Elysium Planitia,

02:00:27is famous for harboring the youngest lava flows on the planet.

02:00:30For example, the one that looks like an elephant

02:00:33probably formed over the last 100 million years.

02:00:36Ah, it doesn't make me feel better.

02:00:39Now let's talk about love, or rather its symbol, the heart.

02:00:42Do you like these two hearts on the surface of the Red Planet?

02:00:45This one is actually the top of a mesa

02:00:48underlined by the surrounding ice.

02:00:51And this heart shape is due to an impact crater

02:00:54which tore the dark materials from the surface

02:00:57and exposed a lighter ground below.

02:01:00Part of these materials probably flew away, thus creating this heart.

02:01:03And here is a hummingbird covered in dust.

02:01:06Can you distinguish its long beak and its head?

02:01:09Scientists don't know exactly how this shape appeared

02:01:12but they think that erosion and wind played a role in its creation.

02:01:15The dark mineral deposits on these dunes look like a wolf howling at the moon.

02:01:18And here, do you see a series of embedded gears?

02:01:21And this image looks like the letter T, doesn't it?

02:01:24These fractures at right angles were created

02:01:27by the tectonic stretch of the Martian crust.

02:01:30Do you think that we could discover other letters of the alphabet on Mars?

02:01:33Why not, after all?

02:01:36And now, what to say about another strange thing

02:01:39that astronomers have noticed on the surface of Mars?

02:01:42Is it the door of someone's house?

02:01:45It's the NASA's Rover Curiosity that transmitted this image to Earth.

02:01:48This formation right here, do you see it?

02:01:51It looks like a door.

02:01:54Unfortunately, the scientists, faithful to their Cartesian spirit,

02:01:57didn't take long to disappoint us.

02:02:00They thought that it was simply a natural element of the Martian landscape.

02:02:03Several clues made them think that it wasn't a real door.

02:02:06For example, the opening is tiny, barely one meter high.

02:02:09They are convinced that what we take for a door

02:02:12is actually a fracture in the rock created by natural forces

02:02:15such as wind and erosion.

02:02:18If you look closely at the rock, you may notice strata,

02:02:21i.e. layers of limestone that protrude

02:02:24because they are harder than the material around them.

02:02:27These strata dive here, on the left, and a little higher, on the right.

02:02:30They probably appeared about 4 billion years ago

02:02:33in the bed of a river or a dune swept by the wind.

02:02:36Since these strata have become invisible,

02:02:39the powerful Martian winds have eroded them even more.

02:02:42Look at this. Do you see these cracks?

02:02:45This is how rocks degrade on the red planet.

02:02:48This little cave probably formed when several fractures crossed the strata.

02:02:51A fairly large rock could collapse under its own weight,

02:02:54and this is how the door-shaped opening was born.

02:02:57This theory seems quite plausible,

02:03:00because even if the gravity on Mars is not as strong as on Earth,

02:03:03it is still enough to accomplish this.

02:03:06By the way, do you see this rock on the right of the opening?

02:03:09It has a strangely smooth vertical edge.

02:03:12It must be him who is responsible,

02:03:15and he probably collapsed not so long ago.

02:03:18But the red planet is not the only one to be targeted by these unusual formations.

02:03:21Let's take, for example, this comet.

02:03:24This image was taken by the European Rosetta probe in 2014.

02:03:27Do you see a face on its right side?

02:03:30Or take the Moon again. Here is its famous rabbit.

02:03:33It is sitting upside down, ears pointing down.

02:03:37It can be its face, or its entire body.

02:03:40If someone distinguishes the human figure in its whole,

02:03:43he will generally have the impression that it is wearing a stick.

02:03:46Sometimes, it is a toad.

02:03:49To spot it, just look at the top left of our satellite.

02:03:52The toad is turned up, you see?

02:03:55Now, look at this neutron star rotating on itself.

02:03:58Such a star is the crumbled core of a gigantic star

02:04:01of a total mass of 10 to 25 solar masses.

02:04:04With the exception of black holes and some hypothetical objects,

02:04:07such as quark stars or white holes,

02:04:10neutron stars are the densest and smallest stellar objects we know of.

02:04:13Anyway, let's go back to this particular star.

02:04:16As you can see, this space object,

02:04:19located at 17,000 light-years from Earth,

02:04:22is surrounded by a cloud of energetic particles.

02:04:25This image, taken by Chandra, the X-ray space telescope of NASA,

02:04:28appeared in 2009 and quickly became viral.

02:04:31This is because many people have spotted a structure

02:04:34resembling a hand in the middle of all this suspended space matter.

02:04:37NASA has explained that the star was rotating at a prodigious speed

02:04:40and that it was projecting energy into the surrounding space.

02:04:43This creates complex and intriguing structures,

02:04:46like the Great Cosmic Hand that so many people see here.

02:04:49Now, look at the Nebula of the Horsehead in the Orion constellation.

02:04:52It is a dark and icy cloud of dust and gas

02:04:55that was first observed in 1894.

02:04:58This shadow is sculpted in the dust itself.

02:05:01At the base of the Nebula, there are many bright spots.

02:05:04These are young stars in the process of formation.

02:05:07Rather, observe this extremely bright star

02:05:10at the top left of the Horsehead.

02:05:13Its radiation is so intense that the star begins to erode the cloud around it.

02:05:16This means that in millions of years,

02:05:19the Nebula could no longer look like a Horsehead.

02:05:22We will no longer be there at that moment.

02:05:25Finally, the very large telescope of the European-Austral Observatory

02:05:28has captured an image in which we can observe

02:05:31the collision of three different galaxies.

02:05:34We can even observe the effect they exert on each other.

02:05:37But the most unique thing is that when they collide,

02:05:40they create this recognizable shape.

02:05:43Doesn't it look like a giant space hummingbird?

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