The 6,000 year old view of the death of a star: Himalayan stone carving revealed as earliest image of a supernova ever found For decades, the elaborate carving was thought to depict a hunting scene. Now believed the image shows Supernova HB9 visible from Earth in 3600 BC HB9 would have had a brightness comparable to the moon
The stone painting was found in a rock wall with the stone facing inside in in the Burzahama region in Kashmir, India, in the 1960s, and the site has been dated to 2100 BC.
mena7 Member # 20555
posted
Mena: Beautiful 6000 years Himalayan sky map carving from Kashmir depicting the Supernova star, the Sun and the constellations. It most have been amazing for the Ancient Black Indians to look up in the sky and see the Supernova star shining making it look like there was two Suns in the sky. I think the Ancient Egyptian also recorded the Supernova because an Egyptian priest told a Greek philosopher that the Ancient Egyptians saw the sun rise were it set twice.
a Skymap of the region of HB9 in the sky chart for 5700 BC. To facilitate easy comparison with the drawing, rough patterns are drawn in the map. The constellation names as per current identification are given. The big spot at the center is the full Moon in the month of August in roughly 4500 BC, and the circle on the right indicates the position of HB9.
Researchers say the event shows Supernova HB9, which would have been visible on Earth in 3600 BC with a brightness comparable to that of the moon. Pictured, a stock image of a supernova
A 'clean' version of the image, which shows two hunters, a bull, and two beaming disks in the sky initially speculated to be two suns.
Archaeologists say a mysterious stone carving found in the Himalayan territory of Kashmir could be the earliest picture of a supernova ever found.
For decades, the elaborate carving was thought to depict a hunting scene.
However, two objects in the carvings that look like stars triggered a new study into the strange rocks.
Indian astronomers now say the Kashmir rock drawings may be the oldest depiction of a supernova ever discovered.
'We suggest that this is not a terrestrial hunting scene but is actually a sky-map giving location of prominent constellations and the Moon on the day the supernova was first observed,' the team from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai and Astrophysikalisches Institut in Potsdam, Germany wrote in the Indian Journal of History of Science.
The stone painting was found in a rock wall with the stone facing inside in in the Burzahama region in Kashmir, India, in the 1960s.
The site has been dated to 2100 BC.
It shows two hunters, a bull, and two beaming disks in the sky initially speculated to be two suns.
Researchers first ruled out there being two suns, then also ruled out a sun and a moon, writing the objects 'cannot be sun and moon since, with such proximity to the sun, the moon would be in a partial phase around the new and hence not very bright.'
The team led by astrophysicist Mayank Vahia then scoured astronomical records of ancient supernovae for one which matched the drawing.
They found one, Supernova HB9, which would have been visible on Earth in 3600 BC with a brightness comparable to that of the moon.
We suggest that this is not a terrestrial hunting scene but is actually a sky-map giving location of prominent constellations and the moon on the day the supernova was first observed,' write the researchers, who superimposed a sky map of the HB9's region on the ancient drawing and found notable astronomical clues.
'The image of one of the hunters coincides with the Orion; the central stag is same as the Taurus.
'The hunter on the right may have been formed from stars of Cetus and other animal on the right may be Andromeda and Pegasus.
'The long, curved line in the carving, traditionally interpreted as spear, may well be an arc of bright stars.'
posted 
