Ancient Origins articles related to Science & Space in the sections of history, archaeology, human origins, unexplained, artifacts, ancient places and myths and legends.
The IceCube Observatory carries the distinction of being the most remote astronomical facility on Earth. Anchored deeply in the ice of Antarctica, in the very definition of the middle of nowhere, the...
In 2009, scientists made a groundbreaking discovery that was ultimately traced to a remote corner of the world. In a box obtained from the Italian Museum of Natural History in Florence, Italy, they...
For many years, space exploration seemed to be largely an American obsession. NASA was the only space agency on the planet with ambitious plans and the consistent financing to carry them out. But...
Scientists visiting Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic discovered something remarkable and fascinating . Led by Catherine LaFarge, a geologist from the University of Alberta in Edmonton (Canada...
In September 2012, a photograph snapped by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity caught the attention of Internet sleuths everywhere. This picture appears to show a large rat hiding among some Martian rocks,...
Many people were shocked by the deathbed revelations of Ben Rich, the former director of Lockheed Skunk Works (a secret research and development facility). Rich claimed that UFOs were alien...
Anthony Sinclair / The Conversation A 210,000-year-old human skull could provide new evidence that our species left Africa much earlier than previously thought. A new study published in Nature of two...
The huge, strange, cigar-shaped object known as ‘Oumuamua’ originated beyond our solar system and “is consistent with a natural origin” and “probably not" an alien controlled interstellar spaceship,...
Many people are convinced the Moon lacks an atmosphere. They believe it is directly exposed to the vacuum of space. But this is incorrect. In fact, there is an atmosphere on the Moon. It is far less...
A lot of intriguing evidence has been collected over the years in support of the idea that life once existed on Mars. No definitive proof has been found, in the form of indisputable fossil evidence,...
Using voluminous data left behind by our ancestors, modern scientists have discovered a correlation between volcanic activity and periods of bitterly cold weather in Ireland. They uncovered this...
It hasn’t been widely publicized, but the most extensive search for extraterrestrial intelligence ever undertaken has been up and running for more than four years. Breakthrough Listen is a 10-year, $...
Antarctica has been covered with ice for thousands of years, and only recently have we been able to fully identify its underlying features. Scientists have turned the spotlight on the topography of...
A few decades ago, who would have imagined that we’d be able to photograph a hydrogen atom? Given what we know about quantum mechanics, the whole concept would have been dismissed as absurd. But in...
Europa is one of Jupiter’s 79 moons. It is one of four large moons that revolve around the planet, and is slightly smaller in size than our moon. Europa was discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei, and...
On March 7, 2009, NASA launched the Kepler space telescope into orbit around the Sun. Outside the Earth’s atmosphere, it would be free to peer deeply into a cross-section of our galaxy in search of...
Subatomic particles are a gateway into a world of mystery and uncertainty. In this fuzzy land, our usual assumptions about matter and energy are turned upside down. At this level, the laws of physics...
On September 5, 1977, NASA launched Voyager 1, a small 700 kg space probe with a special mission: to boldly go where no one or no thing has gone before. The Voyager 1 was designed to explore the...
Analysis of data collected by the Mars Curiosity Rover revealed evidence of a past cataclysmic event that would have ended all life on the surface of the red planet. The event could have involved...
Conditions on Mars are harsh. Its atmosphere is made up mostly of carbon dioxide and is 100 times thinner than Earth’s. Temperatures on the surface can plummet to minus-126 degrees Celsius. But the...
The first sample of dust and soil analysed by NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover in August 2012 was found to contain a substantial amount of water . This discovery provided new hope that a manned mission to...
Experiments in sound or acoustic levitation are common and ongoing. Dozens of researchers have managed to use sound waves to levitate and move tiny particles and liquid droplets. Multiple vibrating...
Most of us have seen the science fiction series Star Trek and are familiar with their concept of teleportation, in which characters are ‘beamed’ off the ship to another spacecraft or to the surface...
The origin of the Moon has been a subject of research for many years and theories about its creation abound. Hypotheses vary from non-scientific proposals, such as that the Moon is a spaceship, to...