Researchers around the world have been wondering about the Antikythera machine more than a century ago, as it was discovered by divers in 1901, and it was considered the first computer in the world to be designed 2,000 years ago.

Today, scientists from University of London (UCL), which is internationally recognized for its academic excellence, believe that they have solved the mystery of this pioneering calculator, according to a report by the French newspaper Le Point.

They started building an exact replica of the device with modern means, before they did the same with antiquity techniques, The Guardian revealed on Friday, March 12th.

This astronomical calculator was able to display the movement of the universe and predict the movement of the five planets known at that time, as well as the solar eclipse and the lunar eclipse and its phases.

This supercomputer was discovered in the middle of a treasure found from a merchant ship that collapsed off the Greek island of Antikythera. This supercomputer consists of damaged fragments of brass and 30 sprockets of bronze attached to disks and indicators.

However, two-thirds of the structure was never found.

After decades of academic work, scientists concluded that this discovery was indeed a masterpiece of mechanical engineering.

Michael Wright, a former curator of the Science Museum in London, was the first to rebuild a large portion of the machine, building a functional, but incomplete replica, to achieve a better result. UCL teams combined the illustrious curator's work with engravings. They discovered the mechanism and a mathematical method described by the ancient Greek philosopher Parmenides, as they explained in the journal Scientific Reports.

Many questions

And the hard work allowed the scientists - according to the Guardian - to understand the ancestral mechanism that is able to display the movement of the sun, moon, and the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

The creators of this instrument at the time believed that all of these stars revolved around the Earth, making it extremely difficult to assess their path.

UCL teams have yet to research the materials used by manufacturers to develop such a device.

Several sub-questions remain;

Including: Was the Antikythera machine a toy, an educational tool, or had it another purpose?

And if the ancient Greeks were able to build such a machine, could they create other tools of the same type?

"Although the mineral is precious, it is strange that nothing similar has been found or discovered," Adam and Jake, a scientist at the University of California, told The Guardian.

British scientists will have to answer many questions to unlock all the secrets of this amazing machine.