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People both modern and ancient have long bonk ofthe Pleiades , or Seven Sisters , a small ingathering of stars in the configuration Taurus .
But this celebrated fabrication could aim the way to the world ’s old story , one tell by our ascendent in Africa intimately 100,000 years ago , a high-risk unexampled discipline has project . To make this case , the composition ’s authors draw on similarity between Greek and autochthonic Australian myths about the constellation . But one expert told Live Science that similarities in these myths could be pure prospect , not a sign they emerged from a uncouth origin .
The Pleiades star cluster is also called the Seven Sisters. It may have gotten that name from the oldest story ever told.
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The Pleiades are part of what stargazer call an open star bunch , a grouping of stars all have around the same time . Telescopes have identified more than 800 stars in the region , though most humans can spot only about six on a clear , dark Nox .
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The Pleiades is a small cluster of stars within the Taurus constellation.
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Yet cultures around the world have often referred to this configuration with the act seven , calling them the " Seven Sisters , " " Seven Maidens " or " Seven Little Girls . " This question scratcher has beat many scientists , such as astrophysicist Ray Norris of Western Sydney University and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation ( CSIRO ) Astronomy and Space Science in Australia .
Norris has worked with Indigenous Australians and learn many of their sky narrative , include those of different radical who name the Pleiades as seven girls being chased by the configuration Orion , who is a huntsman in these tales . This plot line is extremely interchangeable to the one in ancient Greek legends about these constellations .
The Pleiades is a small cluster of stars within the Taurus constellation.
" I ’ve always thought , ' Oh that ’s really uncanny , ' " Norris told Live Science .
The case is n’t alone surprising , return that both Orion and the Pleiades are vivid and large supernal features , and thatEarth ’s rotation pretend it calculate to us like the former is chase the latter across the Nox sky . Some researchers have tried to explicate the narration resemblance through simple cultural interchange , tell Norris , given that Europeans arrived in Australia more than two centuries ago . But such a timescale is not longsighted enough for the story to have become so profoundly embedded across different , far - flung Australian cultures , he added .
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Norris noted that one of the Seven Sisters — a star known as Pleione — is often lost in the blaze of a nearby star call Atlas , making it inconspicuous to most human eye . But 100,000 class ago , when humans were first emerging from the African continent and spreading over the world , the two stars would have been more part in the Nox sky , perhaps describe for why the Pleiades are named for seven organism in many stories . In other Scripture — our ancestors who had not yet left Africa first come up with the tale , then carried this account about the night sky with them as they migrate to Europe , across Asia , and eventually to Australia .
" You ’ve become these two bits of circumstantial evidence , " said Norris . " Together they make an interesting hypothesis . " Along with a carbon monoxide - source , he posted a composition Jan. 25 about this hypothesis to the pre - print databasearXiv . Their study has been accepted to , but not yet published in , a peer - reviewed journal .
While observe that it ’s a " fun and resonant idea , " stargazer and archaeo - historiographer Bradley Schaefer of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge , who was not involved in the oeuvre , did not think the explanation likely .
" human are man , " so they will populate the sky with manly and distaff figures . By chance alone , about half the time , you would require a given constellation to be tie in with work force , and half the clip with fair sex . Which entail that " about one - one-fourth of that time , Orion will be masculine and the Pleiades will be distaff , " Schaefer order .
Given the huge bit of traditional stories , unsubdivided coincidences between any give two cultures are likely to crop up , Schaefer said . He also orient out that the Norris paper used outdated stellar positioning information to model the aloofness between Pleione and Atlas 100,000 years ago . The right data places them two times stuffy during this epoch , mean there would n’t be much significant modification in how the configuration appeared to our ancestors .
Norris ’ composition does n’t entirely hinge on this fact , note that the whiz in the Pleiades are thought to motley with luminosity , and perhaps 100,000 years ago one of the very weak lead was much more visible , though no one knows how much these stars deviate in brightness over the long - term .
It ’s possible the supposition is right , Schaefer said , but the available grounds is n’t very convincing . It provides a " moral of what it takes to prove something like this , " he added .
He gave as a counterexample the Big Dipper , another well - live constellation , that cultures across Eurasia describe as a bear . In this case , evidence suggests at least some tales about the Big Dipper likely did emerge from a coarse origin story , he said .
For instance , in a meaning number of these , the " ladle " of the Dipper is give as the body of the bear , and the three stars of the " handle " are identified as its rear ( though bears do n’t have recollective bum . )
Yet in many of the traditional stories of Siberian citizenry in Eastern Russia , where the great unwashed also recognize the Big Dipper as a bear , there is an alteration . The ladle is still the bear ’s body , but the three stars of the handle are trademark as three hunting watch chasing the bear . Mizar , the central star of the grip , has a small faint companion known as Alcor , and in the Siberian stories Alcor is a shuttle helping lead the hunters to the bear , Schaefer said .
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A meaning number of Native American narrative , told by the great unwashed spread across the North American continent north of the Rio Grande , have a very similar setup for the Big Dipper — admit the bear , hunters and direction bird , he added . Given that a peachy deal of other evidence show that humans migrated over an ancient land bridge in the Bering Strait between New - day Russia and Alaska G of years ago , Schaefer thought it was much more likely that these Big Dipper stories share a common origin .
Even this explanation is not universally accepted by archeo - historians , he append . But the many shared " characteristic mean that it is an evocative , sport , and likely true floor , " he said . It might not be the titanic 100,000 - year intimate timespan of Orion and the Pleiades , but have a tale that ’s at least 14,000 years old is still quite impressive , Schaefer said .
" That makes the Great Bear the oldest cerebral belongings of humanity , " he said .
Originally release on Live Science .
