Epic 9-Day Road Trip: Exploring Wyoming & Montana | Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Glacier National Park

November 26th, 1922, Egypt. The ancient civilization of the pharaohs is being rediscovered from beneath the desert sands. Its treasures are so magnificent, many are speculating whether its monumental constructions were the work of men or of gods from the stars. In the Valley of the Kings, the famous archeologist Howard Carter breaks the seal to a 3,200-year-old royal tomb. As he passes a candle inside, he realizes this will be one of the greatest discoveries in history. Someone says to him, what do you see inside? And as he peers through into the darkness, the beam of light falling upon the glittering objects within, he says, wonderful things. They came to find over 3,000 artifacts in there, many made of solid gold. Incredible craftsmanship. It had to have taken his breath away. These were riches beyond belief. But the most incredible object in the tomb is in a second room hidden deep in the chamber. So in the tomb, there's a room called the treasury, and within this room, Carter discovered a box made of ebony and ivory. And inside this box, they found a necklace that had different symbols on it, and then in the center of the necklace, there is this beautiful scarab. This scarab is not made of gold like so many of the artifacts are. It's made of a very unusual yellow gemstone, something that is not readily recognizable. Was it manmade? Was it natural? Did it have some kind of other origin that scientists at that point couldn't imagine? They just didn't know. In the 3,200-year-old tomb of King Tut, Egyptologists uncover a jewel made of a rare cosmic substance. For the ancient Egyptians, a gemstone carved into the shape of a scarab is a powerful symbol. Desert scarabs are sacred creatures, and they possess an intimate connection to the workings of space. In the Egyptian mythology, the scarab is associated with Ra, the sun god. The ancient Egyptians believe Ra is guided across the heavens each day by Kepri, a god represented as a scarab. When scientists analyze the scarab jewel, they make an extraordinary discovery that connects it to the celestial world. It's glass, but it's no ordinary glass. Cobalt and iridium were found, which are rare trace elements. They're not found very often on Earth. This mysterious object, which the Egyptians believed to be connected to this celestial being. For years, the origin of the jewel remains a mystery. But then, explorers make a discovery. Glass fragments matching the necklace are found scattered across an area deep inside the Libyan desert, several hundred miles from King Tut's tomb. It's found over an area about the size of New York City. So spread over a pretty considerable area. The glass has the same basic composition as the surrounding sandstone and sand. So now, we have to think of a scenario under which we could take the material that's out there and fuse it. What does it require? It requires heat. But it doesn't make sense. The Libyan desert is one of the hottest deserts on Earth, with midday temperatures soaring to 136 degrees Fahrenheit. But to make this gem would require 3,000 degrees of heat, a heat that some scientists believe can only have come from space. There is a theory that this glass was formed by a meteor impact. That when it hit the Earth, it superheated the sand and turned it to glass. This rare glass is literally born from the materials of space. But again, things don't add up. There doesn't appear to have been any meteor strike here. The region where the glass is found doesn't have evidence of a crater. The only evidence is the existence of this glass. So what exactly is the process that led to it being there? Scientists are trying to establish the origin of a mysterious jewel found in a pharaoh's tomb. There's a possible clue when in 2013, a powerful explosion lights up the skies above Chelyabinsk, Russia. It's a meteor, but there's no impact. Not every meteor that comes to Earth and enters Earth's atmosphere actually hits the ground. A lot of them blow up in the air. As the meteor travels through Earth's atmosphere, on the front side, the pressure is really high. On the backside, the pressure is really low. And this pressure differential creates huge forces on the meteor that can cause it to just explode. And we call those an airburst. The Chelyabinsk meteor is 66 feet across. NASA believes that a larger piece of space debris, like a comet, would explode in the atmosphere with far greater power. Perhaps, just perhaps, creating enough heat to fuse desert sands into tough glass. There is no direct evidence of a comet exploding over Egypt, at least until 2013. And it came in the form of a little black pebble. And by analyzing that pebble and its chemical composition, it was determined that the origin of the pebble was what? A cup. NASA scientists believe the jewel at the center of King Tut's necklace might have been created by one of the most terrifying events in history. Hundreds of feet across, exploding in the atmosphere above the Sahara. An event eerily similar to a description recorded in an ancient Egyptian scroll. One of the papyrus scrolls that archeologists have found speaks of a circle of fire in the sky. And this sounds a lot like an intense, energetic explosion coming from outer space. This terrifying blast from space would have been invested with great religious significance. The scarab god, Capri, pushing the great sun god, Ra, down to earth. It's interesting that the Egyptians carved this glass into the shape of a scarab, because had any humans been around, when this air burst occurred, it would have looked like a second sun in the sky. So, way to go Egyptians.