Did you know that your ancestor was an astronomer?

*This text was written by a columnist. TecMundo; finally learn more.

The fascination with the stars has existed since the birth of our species. It was clear to our ancestors that the periodically occurring changes and movements in the night sky were directly related to world events. Such movements indicated when game animals would migrate from one place to another, when the weather would be cold or hot, and even when some plants would produce edible fruits.

Tens of thousands of years ago it was very important for a human to know how to recognize these patterns in the stars. When repetitive patterns in the movement of the stars are broken by a phenomenon such as a comet, many cultures have associated such a phenomenon with bad omens such as a bad harvest, plague, epidemics, social conflicts, wars or deaths. kings and princes.

From this we can understand that in societies that have no means of explaining phenomena, whether related to the movements of comets in space or to everyday life, the explanation adopted is always mystical or supernatural. For example, in the 17th century, a comet appeared in 1665 and was directly associated with a great fire that destroyed the English capital London the following year. Today we know that comets It comes from a distant region of the solar system called the Oort Cloud, which was predicted by Dutch astronomer Jan Oort in the early 20th century.

Comet 1665 was one of the last comets to be linked to bad events shortly after. Isaac Newton He published his masterpiece Principia, which included, among many other contributions to science, the Law of Universal Gravity, which mathematically explains the motion of the stars.

The British scientist Edmond Halley, after whom the famous comet was named, correctly predicted that he would return in 1758, years after his death, supported by Newton’s contributions. And if you’re reading this in 2061, you probably know that the comet is back. Such predictive power over what will happen years later is something no prophet could have imagined.

Already in the original American civilizations, there was also the habit of observing the stars to measure time and predict changes in the environment. The Mayans, a civilization living in southeastern Mexico and Central America, had a 260-day calendar that predicted the motion of the Sun, Moon, and other planets with the best precision in the world at the time.

Unfortunately, much of the Mayan record and culture was destroyed under the Spanish occupation under the pretext of colonizing and indoctrinating Native American peoples. But a report by the journal Science shows that archaeologists and their descendants are working together to restore such information as best as possible.

The tradition of observing the sky, even out of necessity, has been lost, although today there is a fascination with phenomena that are still very common in our society, such as eclipses or comets. One way or another, it’s interesting to think that we’re all descendants of astronomers, whether we like it or not.

Rodolfo Lima Barros Souzaphysics professor and columnist Tekworld. He holds a Master’s degree in Physics and Science and Mathematics Teaching from Unicamp in Public Perception of Science. It is featured on social networks as @rodolfo.sou.