Celestial Gearbox

Like many great discoveries, the Antikythera Mechanism was found by accident. In time, however, analysis using X-ray and other advanced imaging revealed its true nature, and the Antikythera Mechanism is now considered as important for technology and sciences as the Acropolis for the architecture and arts. The object is the remains of the earliest known analog computer. Now we know that it was an extremely advanced mechanism that could be used to calculate and predict astronomical events. This article shows how researchers from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, used sophisticated imaging tools to gather data and create a working model to test their theories against the recreated mechanism itself.