Orion above Easter Island
Why were the statues on Easter Island built? No one is sure. What is sure is that over 800 large stone statues exist there. The Easter Island statues, stand, on the average, over twice as tall as a person and have over 200 times as much mass. Few specifics are known about the history or meaning of the unusual rock sculptures, but many believe that they were created about 700 years ago in the images of local leaders of a lost civilization.
Featured here, one of the ancient Moai sculptures was imaged in 2016 before the constellation of Orion, including the famous line of three belt stars and brilliant stars Betelgeuse (far left in red) and Rigel (upper center). The stone giant appears, however, to be inspecting the brightest star in the night sky (far right): Sirius.
Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas Observatory, TWAN)
https://www.instagram.com/yuribeletsky/
#nasa #space #naturalphenomena #EasterIsland
Beautiful picture with the colors of the stars. But it struck me, although it's logical, that seen from the Southern hemisphere, Orion is capsized: the Orion Nebula is above the Orion's Belt, while it's below in our latitudes. And Rigel and Betelgeuse seem to have exchanged their positions.
ReplyDeleteI remember astronomy class and looking at the telescope at Purdue. I think it was galaxy M33 or M35 in the belt of Orion. I remember feeling so small looking thru that telescope and seeing something light years away. The constellation Orion has always meant something since then
ReplyDeleteThanks for shared Miss Corina.....:-)
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