Which would make a bigger news event - discovery of an alien spaceship or discovery of Noah's Ark?

The former, without doubt! The latter derives from the ancient story of the flood, in the land of Sumer, between the Tigris, and Euphrates rivers, in the Middle East, which flooded semi regularly, and so it would have been prudent for a wise man to build a vessel capable of holding some cattle, food, and family, for the several weeks it took to subside. It was old before the various supposed accounts which were compiled into the Old Testament (various mental health professionals consider that some of the them suffered from [possibly related to poor diet] schizophrenia. If someone these days gets a message from god that he has to sacrifice his son: such may well be the diagnosis). The idea to build an ark may have been of similar origin: Noah perceived a disembodied voice, which, to a simple, uneducated man, could only be explained as coming from god: there was going to be a flood: better prepare! The concepts of an afterlife, and of one god came from Egypt. The people of Judah, being located between the two, adopted both into their mythology, which has now become the basis of the Christian, Moslem, and Jewish religions.