Was Ancient Supernova Recorded by Ancient North Americans?
Thursday June 8, 2006
Paul Sutherland, of the Sky Mania blog reports on a hiking astronomer who happened upon a rock in the White Tank Mountain Regional Park in Arizona, which seems to depict the Supernova of 1006. The rock showed an 8 pointed star alongside a drawing of a scorpion. John Barentine, a professional scientist at the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, said he recognized the supernova right away, because of its proximity to the constellation Scorpio. Many other ancient civilizations have also recorded the event. Barentine says, "If confirmed, this discovery supports the idea that ancient Native Americans were aware of changes in the night sky and moved to commemorate them in their cultural record."
Michael Cabbage, of the Orlando Sentinel's Write Stuff blog says Sky and Telescope is reporting on the scientific debate that is currently happening around the discovery. Some scientists are skeptical.
Live Science writer, Ker Than, says they may have reason to be. A reader of his Space.com article on the discovery wondered what the odds were that Native Americans and Ancient Greeks both thought of the same group of stars as a scorpion. John Barentine says that the constellation Scorpio appeared in the lore of most nations where scorpions could be found, so it's really not that surprising. Still, there are many questions to be answered before we know for sure.
- Related Article: Astronomy 101 - Lesson 1 - Early History of Astronomy
- Definition: Supernova
- Pictures Gallery: Stars Pictures Gallery.
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