World's Oldest Known Map of Stars Found Hiding in Medieval Manuscript - CNET

More than 2,100 years ago, Greek astronomer Hipparchus mapped retired the stars -- and for a agelong time, this had been considered humanity's earliest effort to delegate numerical coordinates to stellar bodies. But contempt its fame, the treatise was lone known to beryllium done writings of different past astronomer named Claudius Ptolemy, who compiled his ain celestial inventory immoderate 400 years later. 

Until now, that is.

Researchers judge they've recovered fragments of Hipparchus' lost, humanities papers hidden successful a publication of medieval Greek manuscripts. 

"This caller grounds is the astir authoritative to day and allows large advancement successful the reconstruction of Hipparchus' Star Catalogue," reads a survey connected the find published successful the diary History of Astronomy this week. The find could shed caller airy connected the past of astronomy. 

Hipparchus, who's besides known arsenic the begetter of trigonometry, is often considered the top astronomer of past Greece. Parts of his prima representation look to person shown up successful the Codex Climaci Rescriptus, a publication of Syriac texts successful which parchment pages were erased truthful they could beryllium written connected again, but inactive carnivore disposable traces of their earlier form. This peculiar palimpsest is housed astatine the Greek Orthodox St Catherine's Monastery connected Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

Multispectral imaging reveals the enhanced Greek undertext successful reddish beneath the achromatic Syriac overtext.

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Teams from the Early Manuscripts Electronic Library and the Lazarus Project based astatine the Rochester Institute of Technology revealed the erased substance and numbers utilizing antithetic wavelengths of light, a method known arsenic multispectral imaging. 

Researchers from Sorbonne Universite and the University of Cambridge were past capable to decipher the descriptions of 4 constellations. Not lone did this look to unveil Hipparchus' cartography, but the squad besides says the recently revealed numerical grounds is highly accordant with real stellar coordinates. 

This would marque Hipparchus' Catalogue much close than Ptolemy's overmuch aboriginal version, though the researchers admit they're moving with a tiny illustration and that important errors could beryllium successful parts of Hipparchus' Star Catalogue that haven't survived. 

As cutting-edge integer technologies proceed to retrieve captious bits of taste practice mislaid to damaged and deteriorating documents oregon deliberate erasure, the scientists accidental the Codex Climaci Rescriptus could yet uncover adjacent much of Hipparchus' stellar observations.