Callaway, K. R. “Lost Ancient Greek Star Catalog Decoded by Particle Accelerator.” Scientific American, January 30, 2026. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lost-ancient-greek-star-catalog-decoded-by-particle-accelerator/.

> The synchrotron that was employed in the new experiment operates at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, Calif…. Newer inks on the palimpsest’s top layers contained more iron, whereas those used to transcribe Hipparchus’s catalog a few hundreds of years earlier left a calcium-rich residue that researchers zeroed in on with the x-ray imagery…. Some analysis will have to wait until the new images can be processed, but the researchers are already able to decode text from many of the raw data. “It’s one of the rare examples in research where you know very quickly that you have gotten good results,” says Uwe Bergmann, a physics professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who is overseeing the experiment’s x-ray scanning.

#ancientScience

Astronomy in ancient Babylonia was more than study—it was administration.

Celestial observations governed seasons, taxes, and statecraft through meticulously kept clay tablet ledgers.

#Babylon #AncientScience #Brewminate

https://brewminate.com/celestial-ledgers-how-babylonian-astronomy-governed-seasons-taxes-and-empire/

🚀 Wan Hu, a legendary Chinese official, once tried to launch himself into space with gunpowder rockets.

Real or myth, the story captures a deep truth: we’ve always dreamed of the stars.

Read how medieval China imagined space and Earth's atmosphere:

https://brewminate.com/wan-hu-and-the-celestial-quest-dreams-of-earths-atmospheric-shell-in-medieval-china/

#WanHu #AncientScience #ChinaHistory #Brewminate

We finally published a #PleiadesGazetteer place record for the Antikythera shipwreck:

https://pleiades.stoa.org/places/333218450

"The so-called Antikythera #shipwreck dates to the second quarter of the first century BCE. Sponge divers discovered the shipwreck near Point Glyphadia on the Greek island of Antikythera in 1900. The wreck has produced numerous artifacts, including an object known commonly as the Antikythera mechanism."

#archaeology #ancientScience

h/t @serviliusahala

How Eratosthenes measured the earth: part 4 of 4.

The angle of the sun is the last hurdle Eratosthenes had to overcome with his data collection methods.

Here we review the popularly believed story -- measuring shadows of sticks -- before looking at a more likely and methodologically simpler alternative.

Concludes with a bibliography.

(Reading time: 15 minutes)
#ancientscience #eratosthenes #geography #ancientgreece
https://kiwihellenist.blogspot.com/2023/07/eratosthenes-4.html

How Eratosthenes measured the earth, part 3 of 4: distance.

How did Eratosthenes find out the distance from Syene to Meroë? What units did he use, and what do they mean in modern units?

(Reading time: 18 minutes)
#ancientscience #eratosthenes #geography #ancientgreece
http://kiwihellenist.blogspot.com/2023/06/eratosthenes-2b.html