If John Barentine is right, we may have to rethink the history of astronomy in America. Native Americans have never been credited with following celestial events, but Barentine, of Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, says he has found Native American art that shows the supernova of AD 1006, which is known from observations in Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
Barentine came across a carving of a scorpion and an eight-pointed star while hiking in the White Tank Regional Park in Arizona. 鈥淚 had just been reading about the supernova of 1006 and I knew it appeared in the constellation Scorpius, so the connection flashed into my mind.鈥�
Barentine and Gilbert Esquerdo at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, used planetarium software to determine that the supernova and the scorpion-shaped constellation would have appeared just above the edge of the rock in 1006, in the orientation depicted in the carvings.
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鈥淚t鈥檚 by no means conclusive, but I think it is strong circumstantial evidence that the art depicts the supernova,鈥� Barentine says. He announced his discovery on Monday at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society Meeting in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think enough credit has been given to the ancient Native Americans in the past, but that might change now.鈥�
