Where did much of the knowledge of astronomy come from in ancient times?

On a clay tablet found on Mount Kuyunjik, a huge number is recorded: 195 955 200 000 000, known as the "Holy Number of Ninabu". You know, even at the height of Greek civilization, all the numbers never exceeded 10,000.

Anything greater than this number is simply said to be "infinity".

Nearly a century after this figure appeared, no one knows for sure what it means. In 1975, Maurice Chadrand of France succeeded in deciphering this number. He divided this number by the number of seconds in a day, and it was exactly 100 million days, which was converted into more than 600 million years for adults.

What is the significance of more than 6 million years? Chadrán made various calculations and found that it was a common multiple of the time of the orbit of the celestial bodies of the solar system around the sun. At this point, the "Sacred Number of Ninabu" was completely deciphered.

But how did the Sumerians know this value? You know, you can't see Neptune and Pluto with the naked eye. Without long-term observation by high-tech equipment, without the calculation of electronic computers, the "holy number of Ninabu" is unthinkable.

In Mesoamerica BC, an advanced ancient society emerged, the Maya. The colorful Mayan culture rivals the ancient civilizations of China, Egypt, India, and Babylon. But all this is full of all kinds of incomprehensible mysteries.

Nothing beats the Maya's knowledge of astronomy. The Mayans knew a lot about stars and planets that could not be observed at night, even with the help of telescopes. They calculated that the cycle of a solar year is 129 days, which is only 7 seconds away from the currently accepted solar year.

The most amazing feature of the Mayan chronicles is that it has a particularly large unit of calculation, they have a unit called "Alphondon", which is equivalent to 23 billion days! Such a huge unit was only useful for measuring interstellar distances and interstellar voyages, but it appeared in a primitive, agricultural tribe of the Americas! They also calculated the time it would take for Venus to make one revolution, and the famous formula for Venus was probably calculated using an electronic computer.

They also figured out ways to correct the accumulating errors in the solar calendar.

Another strange find: in Tiahuanaco, where the Mayans lived, there is a huge statue carved in red sandstone, covered with hundreds of various symbols. Recently, archaeologists have concluded that these symbols record countless astronomical knowledge, and that this knowledge is built on the basis that the earth is circular.

The symbols also record the starry sky 27,000 years ago, presumably left by the ancients to future generations.

Where did the astronomical knowledge of many ancient peoples come from? This question has puzzled many historians throughout the ages. They tried to solve this mystery, so they came to the ruins where the ancient peoples had lived one after another.

Through their investigations, they came to a variety of conclusions. The many interpretations can be divided into two main schools, one that believes that the astronomical knowledge of ancient peoples came from aliens, and the other that all civilizations come from humans themselves. These two factions are still debated today.

What the mystery is is still to be solved in the future.

From the Encyclopedia of the Universe).

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, six calendars were popular, including the Yellow Emperor, Zhuan, Xia, Shang, Zhou, and Lu.

These calendars were borrowed and promulgated by the vassal states at that time, and the length of their return year was 365 days, but the calendar was different, and the year was different.

During the more than 500 years of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were frequent changes of political power, and astrologers went their own way, which attracted the attention of princes to stellar observation.

Ancient astronomy in China thus formed two main lines of calendar and astronomy.

The period from the Western Han Dynasty to the Five Dynasties was the period of development and perfection of ancient astronomy in China.

From the "Taichu Calendar" of the Western Han Dynasty to the "Futian Calendar" of the Tang Dynasty, in addition to arranging the calendar, China's calendar has added a number of special contents such as solar terms, synodic hope, intercalation, eclipse and timing, etc., the system is more and more perfect, the data is more and more precise, and new observation methods and calculation methods are constantly invented.

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, astronomy was still developing.

The "Great Ming Calendar" completed by the outstanding scientist Zu Chongzhi is a highly accurate calendar, such as the number of months and days of each node it calculates, which is close to modern observations.

During the Sui and Tang dynasties, the calendar was re-compiled and the positions of the stars were re-determined.

Astronomers such as Seng Yixing and Nangong Shuo conducted the world's earliest actual measurement of the length of the meridian.

According to the results of astronomical observations, people have drawn a series of star maps, reflecting the superb level of astrological observation in ancient China.

The Song Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty were the heyday of the development of astronomy in China.

During this period, the most calendars were promulgated and the data were the most refined; At the same time, there are the most large instruments and the most diligent observation of stars.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, on the basis of introducing the knowledge of Western astronomical calendars, China's ancient traditional astronomical calendars have been newly developed and many new achievements have been made.

Astronomical charts.

Astronomy is one of the oldest natural science disciplines. The content of early astronomy was, by its very nature, astrometry. Chronicle of Celestial Phenomena in Ancient China As early as the Neolithic Age, Chinese ancestors noticed that there was a close relationship between the periodic changes of the weather and the celestial phenomena, so they began to observe the sun, moon and other celestial phenomena.

Since then, the Chinese have devoted themselves to observing and recording celestial phenomena for a long time, and have made brilliant achievements, leaving behind various records about sunspots, comets, meteors, novas, and so on. These celestial chronicles are not only detailed and chronological, but many of them are the earliest records in the world, and still play an important role in the study of modern astronomy, <>

The development of the calendar and astronomy is closely linked, and China is one of the earliest countries in the world to produce astronomy, and it is also one of the earliest countries to have a calendar. More than 5,000 years ago, China had a lunisolar calendar, which has 366 days a year. During the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC and 1066 BC), there was a special ** responsible for the astronomical calendar, which was used at that time, and the leap month was placed at the end of the year, called "thirteen months".

During the Western Zhou Dynasty (1066 B.C. 771 B.C.), astronomers used gui and table to measure the shadow of the sun, and determined the winter solstice, summer solstice, and the 24 solar terms of the year to guide agricultural and animal husbandry production.