The Stonehenge altar stone originally came from hundreds of miles away.

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When archaeologists dig through layers of dirt to tell stories of the past, their discoveries sometimes contain intriguing implications for humanity.

Ongoing excavations inside the ancient city of Pompeii have uncovered the remains of a man and a woman inside a small bedroom buried under ash and obsidian in AD 79 from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

The couple apparently took refuge in the temporary sleeping place while the house was being renovated. After her death, the woman still kept a collection of earrings and gold, silver and bronze coins.

Meanwhile, a team aiming to restore a neglected, earthquake-damaged archaeological site in Turkey has found a tiny 3,500-year-old cuneiform tablet. The tiny piece of clay, covered in wedge-shaped writing, resembles a purchase receipt and could provide insight into a Late Bronze Age society.

New discoveries about a famous Neolithic monument may shed light on the people who built it.

Mysteries still surround Stonehenge thousands of years after its massive stones were erected in what is now southern England. But a new study of the altar stone, which sits at the heart of the horseshoe-shaped monument, suggests the stone had to travel a long way to get there.

A mineral analysis has found that the stone probably originated 435 miles (700 kilometers) away in present-day north-east Scotland, not Wales, upending a century-old theory.

“This is the longest recorded journey of any stone used in a monument of that period,” said Nick Pearce, professor of geography and earth sciences at Aberystwyth University in Wales.

Researchers believe the stone may have been transported across open water, suggesting that ancient Britain and its citizens were more advanced 5,000 years ago than previously thought.

In 1607, German astronomer Johannes Kepler used a projector to help him map the sunspots he had seen just a few years before the first telescopic observations of these features.

Now, the drawings have helped scientists solve a centuries-old mystery about the sun.

Astronomers use sunspots to help them track the sun’s 11-year cycle. The Sun goes through periods of increasing and decreasing activity. But between 1645 and 1715, the Sun experienced a phenomenon known as the Maunder Minimum, a period of extremely weak and abnormal solar cycles.

A new analysis of long-ignored Kepler charts shows that two of the solar cycles before this grand minimum occurred naturally, meaning there are likely as-yet-unidentified precursors to what was considered an anomaly.

The world’s largest iceberg has been slowly circling the Southern Ocean for months with no end in sight.

The iceberg, known as A23a, first broke off from the Filchner-Rooney Ice Shelf in Antarctica in 1986, forming a mass of ice slightly larger than the state of Rhode Island.

After drifting over a seamount, it was caught in a whirlpool caused by ocean currents hitting the underwater mountain, causing the iceberg to rotate about 15 degrees per day.

This phenomenon has puzzled scientists, as they monitor the frozen mass to see how long it can remain trapped in the vortex while it gradually melts.

The InSight mission may end in 2022, but data from NASA’s lander has revealed evidence of a reservoir of water deep beneath the surface of Mars.

New estimates suggest there may be enough water trapped in tiny cracks and pores in the rocks in the middle of Mars’ crust to fill oceans on the planet’s surface.

The water lies between 7 and 12 miles (11.5 and 20 kilometers) below the surface, making it inaccessible.

But if scientists can access this water, they believe the underground reservoir could represent a new place to look for life on the Red Planet.

Chinese astronomers first spotted what they called a “guest star” in 1181, and for six months the dying star appeared as bright as Saturn in the night sky. The supernova, which was spotted long before telescopes, has puzzled researchers ever since.

In 2013, amateur astronomer Dana Bachik found a remnant called a nebula, or a giant cloud of gas and dust, associated with the supernova. Now, scientists have created a model of supernova evolution and revealed a cosmic surprise.

The event that created the nebula may have been a rare compact supernova, or the result of two white dwarf stars colliding and leaving behind a “zombie star.” The so-called zombie star has shown intriguing signs of recent activity that could reveal insights into the lives and deaths of stars.

Discover these unexpected stories:

NASA will soon announce its decision on how Boeing’s Starliner crew will return to Earth amid looming issues like limited food supplies aboard the International Space Station.

—A fossil hunter made an amazing discovery when he found a massive, intact tusk of an Ice Age mammoth in a Mississippi creek.

— Invasive spiders of the Guru species continue to spread and build their massive webs almost everywhere, and how the spiders “keep their cool under pressure” may explain why, according to the lead author of a new study on spider heart rates.

— The wreck of a World War I warship that was torpedoed off the coast of Scotland has been found in “incredible condition,” according to divers, but the shipwreck comes with a tragic story for those who were on board when it sank.

Scientists have discovered that the asteroid that hit Earth 66 million years ago, causing the events that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs, was a rare clay ball rich in clay.

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