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First known map of night sky found hidden in Medieval parchment

Fabled star catalogue by ancient Greek astronomer Hipparchus had been feared lost.
  1. Jo Marchant

    1. Jo Marchant is a freelance science writer based in London.

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A medieval parchment from a monastery in Egypt has yielded a surprising treasure. Hidden beneath Christian texts, scholars have discovered what seems to be part of the long-lost star catalogue of the astronomer Hipparchus — believed to be the earliest known attempt to map the entire sky.

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Nature 610, 613-614 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03296-1

References

  1. Gysembergh, V., Williams, P. J. & Zingg, E. J. Hist. Astron. 53, 383–393 (2022).

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