Geologists have long puzzled over the shape of the land close to the town of Köfels in the Austrian Alps, but were unable to prove it had been caused by an asteroid.
Now researchers say their translation of symbols on a star map from an ancient civilisation includes notes on a mile-wide asteroid that later hit Earth - which could have caused tens of thousands of deaths.
The circular clay tablet was discovered 150 years ago by Sir Austen Henry Layard, a leading Victorian archaeologist, in the remains of the royal palace at Nineveh, capital of ancient Assyria, in what is now Iraq.
...Now Alan Bond, the managing director of a space propulsion company, Reaction Engines, and Mark Hempsell, a senior lecturer in astronautics at Bristol University, have cracked the cuneiform code and used a computer programme that can reconstruct the night sky thousands of years ago to provide a new explanation.
They believe their calculations prove the tablet - a copy made by an Assyrian scribe around 700 BC - is a Sumerian astronomer's notebook recording events in the sky on June 29, 3123 BC.
The pair say its symbols include a note of the trajectory of a large object travelling across the constellation of Pisces which, to within one degree, is consistent with an impact at Köfels.
Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Easter 3 - "For it is the hour of true sorrow,
when I will be to you dead, with all the joy, comfort and assurance you had
from me, and you yourselves will be totally lost. However, my dear little
children, only think of these words and forget not entirely what I now say
to you. It shall not be so forever. A little while I shall be lost and not
be seen."
-
*Complete Sermon - Third Sermon: Christ’s Death and Resurrection; the
Comfort Christ Ministers to his Disciples, and the World’s Joy*
*THIRD SUNDAY A...
2 hours ago
No comments:
Post a Comment