Researchers at Italy’s Nationwide Institute for Astrophysics found a celestial map believed to be from between 1800 to 400 BC. Scientists say there’s one star on it that does not match our sky.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
If you search for on the night time sky, what do you see? A map that was not too long ago found in Italy offers a glimpse at what folks 1000’s of years in the past might need seen.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Researchers at Italy’s Nationwide Institute for Astrophysics found a celestial map believed to be from between 1800 to 400 BC – that’s over 2,400 years in the past, making it one of many oldest celestial maps ever found in Italy.
SHAPIRO: The map is fabricated from white stone and is in regards to the dimension of a automotive tire. It is believed to have been made with a hammer and a few form of chisel. It is made up of 29 engravings unfold out throughout the round stones. Researchers used a software program program that was in a position to match the markings to stars we see in the present day, and so they say it is fairly correct.
SUMMERS: The constellations of Orion, Scorpius and Pleiades had been marked on the stone, main researchers to imagine that this was no accident and that these carvings had been probably used to maintain observe of the altering seasons.
SHAPIRO: However scientists say there’s one star within the engraving that doesn’t match our present night time sky, and so they’re not solely positive why. They speculate it might need as soon as been a star that produced a supernova – an explosion of the star throughout its closing levels of life. And so they assume that would have resulted in a black gap.
SUMMERS: Scientists say that extra analysis is required. And regardless of that little bit of uncertainty, we nonetheless assume this discovery is out of this world.
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