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The oldest star chart in the world was made inChinamore than 2,300 years ago , a heatedly debatedpreprintstudy find .
Researchers at the Chinese National Astronomical Observatories analyse the " Star Manual of Master Shi , " the oldest survive star catalog in China , using a novel digital image processing proficiency . The method acting , called Generalized Hough Transform , uses a type of hokey intelligence information known as computer vision to find and mitigate meaning misplay between similar image .
The Dunhuang map (not the chart studied in the new research) is an early star map from China dating to the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618 to 907).
They found that the ancient wiz chart actually dates to 355 B.C. — 250 years earlier than previously cogitate — and that it was later update around A.D. 125 . This would make it the oldest - bang ace catalog of its form in the man , foredate a star chart by ancientGreek stargazer Hipparchusby more than 200 year .
" I think this is pretty definitive,“saidDavid Pankenier , a prof emeritus of Taiwanese uranology at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania who was not involved with the research . Pankenier narrate Live Science that the study confirms former enquiry — notably , the work ofJoseph Needham , a British biochemist known for his expertise on ancient Taiwanese skill and technology . And the young study send the holograph ’s origin around the same time the historic Master Shi Shen was thought to have lived .
But other expert are less convinced .
A statue of a Chinese armillary sphere in Beijing.
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historiographer and astronomers have long been puzzled by the aver day of the month variance in Shi ’s star catalogue , in which some measurements seem to be century of year old than others . scientist can date stamp star charts because , from Earth ’s perspective , constellations appear to wander over century of days because of the wobble in our planet ’s axis . ace also have their own motion , which intend that different hundred will have dissimilar - looking map of the night sky .
The fresh subject area chalk this discrepancy up to simulate errors and partial updates , claiming that the manuscript was first produce in the 4th century B.C. and then amended — sometimes inaccurately — hundreds of years later .
However , some expert not need with the study instead indicate that the discrepancies exist because the original instrument used to create the manual was off by a factor of one stage .
Applying this interpretation brings the two seemingly conflicting Seth of dates back into harmony and places the manuscript ’s extraction at around 103 B.C.,Daniel Morgan , a historian who specializes in former Formosan astronomy , mathematics and metrology at France ’s Center for Research on East Asian Civilizations , order Live Science . This logical thinking also aid explain why the catalog employ a global coordinate system , which Taiwanese stargazer adopted after inventing the armillary sphere — a gadget consisting of mesh rings representing thing like constellations ' paths and latitude and longitude pedigree — in the first C B.C.
" It just so materialize that if you take this really anodyne considerateness into account — that maybe they built an instrumental role and it was not perfect — then the astronomers ' data analysis perfectly aligns with the human story , " Morgan said .
He pointed out that laying call to the old star chart ( or any other scientific tool ) has become a source of national brag rights over the last 300 years . Colonialism combined with decades of Eurocentrism have created a sort of " inter - civilizational … competition " whereby res publica feel the need to prove themselves , he enjoin .
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But that same gumption of interior pride may have kept Western investigator from take on ancient Chinese astronomers seriously even as late as 100 years ago , Pankenier say . former 20th - one C analysis of Taiwanese maven charts by Europeans were dismissive of what they saw as inferior technology , even though many of these records proved highly exact .
But disregarding of whether scientist take for the Chinese or the Hellenic star catalog as senior , Babylonian recordsthat mention star topology place far outstrip both ancient Chinese and Hellenic uranologist , as they date to the eighth century B.C. However , these records are written description and are not catalogs that number the genius and portray the dark sky .
The preprint is currently under review at the journalResearch in Astronomy and Astrophysics .
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