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Pytheas was a contemporary of Aristotle and Alexander the Great. He reached the Arctic Circle in his search for new sources of tin (essential for the making of bronze) and amber (usually sourced from the German coast) around 330 to 325 BC... As Pytheas continued his journey north along Britain's west coast he came across Ireland and rounded the tip of Scotland. At that point in his journey, he learned of an island situated further north at a distance of six days sailing which he refers to as "Thule" (most probably Iceland). Geminus of Rhodes (1st century BC) quoting directly...

Latest image reveals Ultima Thule’s surface features Laurel Kornfeld January 27th, 2019 Ultima Thule as imaged by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. Image Credit:NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research InstituteThe most detailed image of Ultima Thule returned by New Horizons reveals surface details, including pits on both the object’s lobes and contrasting patterns of darkness and light in various regions.Taken by the wide-angle Multicolor Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC), part of the spacecraft’s Ralph instrument, this latest image, sent back on January 18-19, has a resolution of 440 feet (135 meters) per pixel. It was taken at 12:26 am EST on...

The earliest people in the North American Arctic remained isolated from others in the region for millennia before vanishing around 700 years ago, a new genetic analysis shows. The study, published online Thursday, also reveals that today's Inuit and Native Americans of the Arctic are genetically distinct from the region's first settlers. Inuit hunters in the Canadian Arctic have long told stories about a mysterious ancient people known as the Tunit, who once inhabited the far north. Tunit men, they recalled, possessed powerful magic and were strong enough to crush the neck of a walrus and singlehandedly haul the massive...

A new island has been discovered in the Arctic after rising temperatures melted the giant ice sheet which covered it. The rocky mass - dubbed Warming Island - lies 400 miles north of the Arctic Circle in eastern Greenland, reports The Sun. It was found by US explorer Dennis Schmitt 60 and is seen as further proof of global warming. Danish mapping expert Hans Jepsen said: "It was clearly detached from the mainland when the connecting glacier-bridge retreated southward." Explorer Schmitt said: "There is a dark side to this. We were all aware of the dire consequences."

A US Air Force C-141 is scheduled to leave Thule, Greenland at midnight. During the pilot's preflight check, he discovers that the latrine holding tank is still full from the last flight, so a message is sent to the base, and an airman who was off duty is called out to take care of it. The young man finally gets to the air base and makes his way to the aircraft, only to find that the latrine pump truck has been left outdoors and is frozen solid, so he must find another one in the hangar, which takes even more...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The United States will return to Denmark a section of the U.S. air base at Thule in northern Greenland, the Danish government announced Tuesday. For decades Greenland, a semiautonomous Danish territory, has bristled at U.S. military restrictions on the so-called Dundas area, which is within the base but no longer used. The local government of Premier Jonathan Motzfeldt wants to give the area back to the Inuit population who consider it an important hunting region. NATO-member Denmark handles the foreign and defense policy of the world's largest island. Thule is 310 miles south of the North...