A new study reveals the role of the Milky Way in ancient Egyptian religion and culture, specifically its relationship with the sky-goddess Nut.
Astrophysicists shed light on the relationship between the Milky Way and the Egyptian sky-goddess Nut . The paper draws on ancient Egyptian texts and simulations to argue that the Milky Way might have shone a spotlight, as it were, on Nut 's role as the sky. It proposes that in winter, the Milky Way highlighted Nut 's outstretched arms, while in summer, it traced her backbone across the heavens.
Nut is goddess of the sky, who is often depicted as a star-studded woman arched over her brother, the earth god Geb. She protects the earth from being flooded by the encroaching waters of the void, and plays a key role in the solar cycle, swallowing the Sun as it sets at dusk and giving birth to it once more as it rises at dawn.
"This sparked my interest and I decided to combine both astronomy and Egyptology to do a double analysis -- astronomical and cross-cultural -- of the sky-goddess Nut, and whether she really could be linked to the Milky Way." "My research shows how combining disciplines can offer new insights into ancient beliefs, and it highlights how astronomy connects humanity across cultures, geography, and time. This paper is an exciting start to a larger project to catalogue and study the multicultural mythology of the Milky Way."Astronomers have discovered a small black hole outside the Milky Way by looking at how it influences the motion of a star in its close vicinity.
Astrophysics Milky Way Egyptian Nut Religion Culture
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