Hipparchus Long-Lost Star Catalog Found Below Christian Manuscript

• Researchers discovered that the oldest known human beings were found in star map beneath the text of a Christian manuscript, according to new study.
• The long-lost inventory was created by HipparchusBetween 162 and 127 BC.
• The first known attempt at this was made by the ancient Greek astronomer. Chart the whole night sky

Researchers believe they may have found a fragment of a long-lost star mapHipparchus, an ancient Greek Astronomer, created this chart. Hipparchus was the first person to map the entire night sky.  

In a paper published in the Journal for the History of AstronomyOn Tuesday, scientists described what they believed to be a 2,000 year-old section of a starmap. On top of the map was written the text of a Christian manuscript. It was drawn on medieval parchment. The Christian text is from Egypt’s Saint Catherine’s Monastery, and is now in Washington, DC’s Museum of the Bible. 

Hipparchus’ starmap, which was made sometime between 162 BC – 127 BC, is an attempt by Hipparchus to accurately position celestial objects and provide fixed coordinates.

Researchers say the star map was scraped away so the parchment could be reused — a common practice at the time. Multispectral imaging is a technique that allows researchers to see the parchment through different wavelength cameras. This allowed them to decode layers of text that had been cut.

The imaging technique revealed numbers stating the length and width of the constellation Corona Borealis in degrees, and coordinates for the stars at the constellation’s farthest corners.

Victor Gysemberg is the study’s leader researcher and a science historian at France’s National Center for Scientific Research. He said that he was “very excited” from the start. Nature was told. “It was instantly clear that we had star coordinates.”  

“The new evidence is the most authoritative and permits major progress in reconstruction of Hipparchus’ Star Catalog,” says the The study authors wrote.

Apart from compiling the first ever star catalogue, Hipparchus is creditedBeing the first to witness the Precession on Earth — meaning how it wobbles on its axis — as well as the first to develop accurate calculations about the motions of the SunAnd moon.