Erich von Däniken, the father of ancient astronaut theory, passed away at the age of 90 on January 11, 2026, at a hospital in Interlaken, Switzerland.

Born in the Swiss town of Schaffhausen in 1935, von Däniken authored the seminal 1968 book Chariots of the Gods? that launched the idea that ancient cultures such as the Egyptians and Maya were visited and influenced by extraterrestrial cultures. Over the course of his literary career von Däniken would go on to author more than two dozen books on the subject of ancient astronauts, positioning himself as an ardent advocate of the possibility that the gods of myth were based on actual beings encountered by members of early human societies.

Considered to be a controversial figure for his revolutionary take on archaeology, von Däniken’s views were dismissed as pseudoscientific by mainstream researchers, offering ideas that rattled the status quo to the point that he was awarded the inaugural Ig Nobel Prize for literature in 1991 “for raising the public awareness of science through questionable experiments or claims,” according to the prize’s description.

“This is my last book,” von Däniken said of 2024’s, Notizen aus meinem Leben (Notes from my Life), an autobiography in which he recounts “his adventures in distant lands to his encounters with scientists and skeptics, to the discoveries that shaped his worldview,” according to the book’s description. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Elisabeth Skaja, his daughter Cornelia, and two grandchildren.