This episode proposes that some of history's deadliest epidemics may have extraterrestrial origins, either through microbes arriving on meteorites or through deliberate alien intervention. Ancient astronaut theorists point to medieval accounts during the Black Death describing bronze flying ships releasing strange mists over afflicted cities, suggesting these weren't natural outbreaks but targeted events. The 1917 apparitions at Fatima, Portugal—where 100,000 witnesses reported seeing the sun transform into a spinning disc—occurred less than a year before the Spanish Influenza killed 50 million people, a timing theorists like Philip Coppens find significant. NASA astrobiologist Richard Hoover's 2011 research identifying possible microfossils in meteorites lends scientific weight to panspermia, the idea that life can travel through space, while Giorgio Tsoukalos suggests advanced civilizations might use biological weapons rather than conventional warfare.
Mainstream science explains that influenza viruses mutate naturally through genetic reassortment in animal hosts, requiring no extraterrestrial source, and the Fatima event—whatever witnesses saw—has no established epidemiological connection to the 1918 pandemic's emergence in military camps. Hoover's meteorite findings remain controversial and unconfirmed by the broader scientific community. Yet the episode compellingly highlights genuine mysteries: humanity's historical tendency to associate plagues with celestial phenomena, the appearance of novel pathogens that challenge researchers, and the scientifically valid possibility that organic molecules arrived on Earth via space debris, even if that doesn't mean aliens engineered our diseases.
Antarctica (ALH84001 meteorite find site)
Antarctica · Modern
Theorists reference the 1996 announcement by NASA researchers that meteorite ALH84001, found in Antarctica, contained fossilized remains of Martian life as institutional validation for the concept of life-bearing space rocks capable of delivering biology to Earth. Mainstream science later became skeptical of the biogenic interpretation, with many researchers arguing the features could be explained by non-biological chemistry, though the debate has never been fully closed.
Athens, Greece
Greece · Ancient Greek
Theorists argue the Plague of Athens in 430 BC, which devastated the city during the Peloponnesian War, may have had a non-terrestrial origin, consistent with ancient Greek beliefs that plague was a curse from the gods — potentially extraterrestrial beings. Mainstream historians and scientists attribute the plague to a bacterial or viral pathogen, possibly typhoid fever, spread in the crowded wartime conditions of the city.
Fatima, Portugal
Portugal · Modern
Ancient astronaut theorists argue the 1917 Fatima apparition — in which a spinning disc-like object appeared in the sky before 100,000 witnesses — was an extraterrestrial encounter, and that the Spanish Influenza pandemic that killed 50 million people within a year may have been connected to that event. Mainstream interpretation labels it a Marian miracle or mass hallucination, with the subsequent pandemic attributed to a naturally mutating influenza virus.
Kerala, India
India · Modern
Theorists argue that the 2001 red rain phenomenon in Kerala, in which cells resembling living organisms were found in the red liquid, may be evidence of extraterrestrial biological material entering Earth's atmosphere, echoing ancient myths of blood rains preceding plagues. Biologist Dr. Godfrey Louis collected and studied the samples; mainstream scientists have proposed various explanations including algal spores, though the red rain cells remain a subject of scientific debate.
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
United States · Modern
Theorists cite NASA scientist Richard Hoover's 2011 publication from Marshall Space Flight Center claiming microscopic organisms were found in meteorites as direct evidence for extraterrestrial life, supporting the hypothesis that alien microbes could be delivered to Earth via space rocks. NASA distanced itself from Hoover's findings, and the broader scientific community largely rejected the paper citing contamination issues and lack of peer review rigor.
“from the bacteria and”