Contrary to the belief that only small groups resided in the vast rainforest, these revelations paint a different picture. Archaeologists estimate that this mysterious city thrived between 3,000 and 1,500 years ago, potentially housing tens of thousands of people. As we unravel the secrets of this vanished civilization, questions linger about the fate that befell this once-flourishing society.

The groundbreaking discovery of the ancient Amazonian civilization was led by France’s National Centre for Scientific Research, guided by Professor Stephen Rostain. While utilizing advanced LIDAR technology, the team unraveled long-concealed secrets in Bolivia’s dense rainforest. This technology is a game-changer, opening avenues for transformative research and exploration in the mysterious Amazonian landscape.

Scientists from the UK and Germany uncovered 26 settlements, with 11 new sites, in Bolivia’s Amazon. In Ecuador, an ancient city revealed 6,000 raised platforms across 300 sq km, indicating structures and dwellings along with fields and drainage canals. The survey unveiled an extensive network of straight roads, the longest spanning 25 km. These findings redefine our understanding of Amazonian civilizations, emphasizing their richness and complexity.

In ancient settlements, residents strategically built straight roads, meticulously excavated five meters deep, deviating from natural contours. Subsequent excavations revealed evidence of ditches and defensive structures, suggesting potential conflicts among inhabitants. These findings illuminate the strategic foresight and challenges faced by ancient people in the vibrant Amazonian landscape. With this new technology, who knows what other secrets the Amazon will hold.

Europa is one of Jupiter’s moons and arguably the most interesting one for scientists because it holds the best prospects for extraterrestrial life in the Solar System. So, it was a great day for science when the Juno spacecraft recently made a flyby over the icy moon and took detailed images of its surface.

Juno Took High-Resolution Photos of Europa

The Juno spacecraft made the first close approach to Europa in 22 years and sent images taken during a flyby from 219 miles above the moon’s surface. This is closer than most satellites are to the surface of the Earth and is a great leap forward in the effort to learn more about the enigmatic world. At the same time, the flyby has moved the spacecraft into a tighter orbit with respect to Jupiter. In the first days of 2000, the Galileo mission marked the last time a spacecraft made a close approach to Europa as it swooped low over its icy surface. Europa is Jupiter’s fourth largest moon, and scientists have such great interest in it because it has a great ocean that seems to contain twice as much water as all of Earth’s oceans. This ocean is believed to be unfathomably deep and considered the most promising place to look for life beyond Earth.

Juno Carries a Camera and Other Instruments

Juno’s new images will probably be studied for a long time, just like those made by Galileo, and launch hundreds of scientific papers. Another spacecraft isn’t expected to make a close approach to Europa in at least eight years, so scientists will certainly look at every detail with interest. The JunoCam has produced high-resolution images of 0.6 miles per pixel and astronomers expect to learn a lot from the new observations.

In addition to its JunoCam, the spacecraft has other instruments that can produce images from the ultraviolet, radio, and microwave parts of the spectrum. It also carries gravity sensors and high-energy particle detectors that will send important data back to Earth.