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The question about the origin of oceans on Earth is one of the most important questions with respect to the formation of our planet and the origin of life. The most popular theory is that water was brought by impacts of comets and asteroids. Data from the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) instrument aboard the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft indicate that terrestrial water did not come from comets like 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The findings were published today in the journal Science. Researchers agree that water must have been delivered to Earth by small bodies at a later...

Explanation: Sweeping quickly through southern skies on March 5, Comet PanSTARRS (C/2011 L4) follows the Sun toward the western horizon in this twilight scene. In the foreground is Australia's CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope, a 64 meter wide steerable dish that is no stranger to the space age exploration of comets. In March of 1986 the Parkes dish tracked ESA's Giotto spacecraft as it flew by Comet Halley and received the first ever closeup images of Halley's nucleus. At naked-eye visibility, Comet PanSTARRS made its closest approach to planet Earth on March 5. Its closest approach to the Sun will be...

The smirking face of the Devil has been discovered hidden in a fresco by the Italian medieval artist Giotto after remaining undetected for more than 700 years in the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi. The Satanic image went unnoticed until now because it is artfully hidden in the folds of a cloud and is invisible from ground level. The discovery of the face, in a fresco which depicts the death of St Francis, was made by Chiara Frugoni, a medievalist and an expert on the saint. "It's a powerful portrait, with a hooked nose, sunken eyes and two dark...

The Shroud of Turin was made by medieval artist Giotto, it was claimed yesterday. The 14ft length of fabric, said to be the burial cloth of Christ, bears a faint image of a man and appears to be stained by blood. However carbon-dating tests have suggested it was produced between 1260 and 1390. Now Italian art expert Luciano Buso has suggested that the original cloth deteriorated and Giotto was asked to make a copy. After months of careful examination of photographs of the Shroud - the relic is kept locked away and not available to be viewed unless on special...

In our last “class” on Greco-Roman, Early Christian and Byzantine Art, we saw how the realism of Greece and Rome was repudiated for more spiritual abstraction. The Christians saw the soul as more important than the weighty, physical body, and thus their works were flat and filled with the gold of paradise. My connection to spiritual twentieth century abstraction received mixed results, but that’s fine. Today, we’ll see how artists gradually added some bulk and realism to their work from 1000-1400. Then in the next “class,” we’ll study how the Italian Renaissance united a rebirth of Greco-Roman realism with Christian...

Museums may not be the first places to spring to mind when it comes to the uptake of cutting-edge technology. But David Reid finds hi-tech is playing an important role in bringing history to life in Italy. The problem with Italy's antiquities and culture is that there is simply too much. How do you conserve ancient and priceless artefacts at the same time as letting people come and see them? Technology can help solve both problems. One of the most pivotal images of the Renaissance, Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper, is now so fragile that only a few people can...

After eight months of restoration, the scaffolding finally came down March 18 on one of the world's great art treasures, the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy. The 700-year-old chapel contains frescoes depicting more than 100 scenes from the Bible painted by the early Renaissance painter Giotto between 1303 and 1305, and they are considered his masterpiece. The frescoes are seen as one of the major turning points in the history of European painting. For centuries, painting had followed a slavish, almost formulaic pattern that became highly stylized and was descended from the Byzantine tradition. Figures were flattened and perspective was...