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Ancient Egyptian Art Reveals Early Milky Way Depictions

Ancient Egyptian art includes representations of the Milky Way galaxy

From Hacker News Original Article Hacker News Discussion

The article discusses an ancient Egyptian coffin depicting Nut with a unique curve thought to represent the Milky Way, highlighting historical astronomical knowledge.

Why it matters: It suggests ancient Egyptians may have accurately represented the Milky Way and its dark dust lanes centuries before telescopes.

The big picture: This reflects early human attempts to understand the night sky and connect celestial features with mythology.

The other side: Some fear such findings could be misused to support unscientific theories about ancient aliens or lost technologies.

Commenters say: Readers share personal awe of seeing the Milky Way and caution against conflating ancient astronomy with speculative conspiracies.