Everyone loves a good legendary lost city. Oodles of movies, stories, attractions and even hotels are named after the famed lost city of Atlantis. I have a personal bond with the Disney movie dedicated to Atlantis and this weird Mole character. Since my name is Mollie some people shorten it to Mol, which is correctly pronounced like mall but of course all my really nice friends pronounce it as MOLE. Real attractive, no? No.

That short personal connection aside.. imagine my excitement when I first heard about a REAL lost city that was found using remote sensing and space imaging. The city of Ubar is believed to be located deep under the sands of the Sahara desert. I first heard about it at a lecture by my astronomy professor and former astronaut, Linda Godwin, last spring. I was intrigued and awestruck. They found this city using images taken from space and “thermatic mappers” which gather information in different light spectrums, thus providing us with imaging and views that we could not normally see with our own limited eyesight.

PBS has this great interactive site with a pictures, articles and interviews explaining the whole process for people to easier understand.

These archaeologists are out there doing works of fiction. They are doing what all these fables and movies said they would. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure that none of the archaeologists and scientists working on the Ubar site actually look or act like like Mole from the movie, much to my disappointment.

When asked what their favorite Disney movie is most girls might respond with a tale of love and royalty such as Cinderella or Tangled, but my favorite was always Atlantis. And now it’s as if Atlantis is REAL. I love it when things that sound like myths actually turn out to be plausible and all of this is happening because of what science has to offer. All it takes is a little curiosity and the right tools (brought to you courtesy of NASA).

Atlantis isn’t the only Disney movie to become a reality either, a group of scientists also made a house fly, just like in the movie UP.

The scientific world sure is a wonder. What movie do you want to see be made into a reality next?