Two new studies have been released that illustrate that the dry Martian lakebed that is currently being explored by NASA’s Curiosity rover was home to a habitable environment for over 700 million years, and possibly for well over a billion years.
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Excavations at Peru’s Huaca Prieta archaeological complex have uncovered evidence that habitation in the area stretches back to nearly 15,000 years ago. The site itself is home to a 7,800-year-old pyramid mound, with the area previously believed to have been inhabited for thousands of years. However, this new find is part of a growing body of evidence that humans had settled the Americas far earlier than scientists had originally thought.
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The United Kingdom’s National Archives has announced that 18 documents pertaining to UFOs that were withheld from release alongside thousands of other UFO documents in 2013 won’t be released until after the UK’s general election in June. UFO researchers are hoping that the twice-delayed papers will contain new information on the 1980 Rendlesham Forest incident, an event that occurred over the course of two nights that involved military personnel from the nearby Bentwaters Royal Air Force base.
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The definitive dating of the remains of the extinct hominin Homo naledi has been completed, and the results have left researchers’ original assumptions about the age of the creature in the dust: initially thought to be 2.5 million years old, the remains have been found to be only one-tenth of that age, at roughly 250,000 years — meaning that this species co-existed with modern humans.
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