• Forums Software Updates

    The forums will be undergoing updates on Sunday 10th November 2024.
    Little to no downtime is expected.
  • We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Ancient 'Ritual Artifact' May Reveal Secrets of Deep Space

maximus otter

Recovering policeman
Joined
Aug 9, 2001
Messages
15,184
A mysterious ancient artifact could help reveal the whereabouts of a star that exploded as a supernova thousands of years ago and is no longer visible.

The artifact, which was found in Italy, is a stone disk featuring engravings that researchers believe form a celestial map of the night sky.

Intriguingly, the "ritual" stone may represent one of the oldest, if not the oldest, celestial maps ever discovered, according to the scientists, although further research is required to understand more about the object's nature.

The stone, which is about the size of a car tire, was found at the site of an ancient hill fort in Rupinpiccolo, northeastern Italy.

Rupinpiccolo-stone-disk-1-a-Radiance-scaling-and-lattice-visualizations-of-the-disk-with.png


ln total, researchers have identified 29 marks: 24 on one face of the stone and five on the other. Intriguingly, the scientists were able to use software to map these marks to specific groups of stars in the constellations of Scorpius, Orion and Cassiopeia, as well as the star cluster known as the Pleiades, based on how they appeared in the sky during the period when the castelliere at Rupinpiccolo was in use.

[An] unidentifiable mark looks like the others and therefore was probably made on purpose. To explain this, the researchers suggest it could represent a star in the Orion cluster that was present at the time the stone was carved but that later produced a supernova.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/othe...-may-reveal-secrets-of-deep-space/ar-AA1mep8i

maximus otter
 
Back
Top