binarystar

Sirius A and B: A Double-Star System in the Constellation Canis Major

from Smithsonian Institution

• 1 older comment, and then…
• biotron said:

  'Dogon' brilliant

• waro2006 said:

  It is very disappointing to find, that for at least 70 years a substantial number of Astronomical scholars during that period time in our history, were aware that a North African tribe of people known as the Dogon, carried with them precise astronomical details, not only about the star system of Sirius, but also details of the Earths planetary system, and yet these scholars had made no attempt to publicly acknowledge this fact. These wonderful people had retained this accurate astronomical data For at least 3000 years, and yet none of these details were ever seriously debated by the astronomical societies. These Dogon people were aware of the elliptical orbits of our planets; the moons around Saturn etc, long before Kepler and every other famous scientist were born. For thousands of years the Dogon had named the Neutron star, that orbits the star Sirius, “Digitaria.” One would have thought during some part of our history, as a mark of respect, the astronomical hierarchy would have suggested that the name of this neutron star be changed from Sirius “B” To “Digitaria”. The fact that none of these emeritus scholars made any attempt to do this, speaks volumes about the flaws in their sense of justice. There is no excuse why this long over due name “change” can not now go ahead. I would be very interested to learn how many other people in this forum agree with this suggestion? WARO

• biotron said:

  The story is indeed fascinating. No doubt various ancient civilisations possessed incredibly "advanced" astronomical knowledge based on countless patient centuries of observation. I'd be interested to know what other people in this forum think of the following pages: www.philipcoppens.com/dogonshame.html www.ramtops.co.uk/dogon.html

• lyrical wing said:

  Thanks for the picture.. its brilliant...

• duiceburger said:

  Hi, I'm an admin for a group called NASA - Public Domain, and we'd love to have this added to the group!