An ancient rock drawing depicting a supernova explosion

The plot of rock paintings is often hunting. One of the ancient artists placed two luminaries above the silhouettes of people and beasts. Scientists have suggested that this is evidence of a rare astronomical phenomenon.

Not all scientists agreed with this conclusion, and an international group of astrophysicists from Germany and India engaged in a new study. The version that it is the Moon and the Sun was excluded at once: the full moon never appears in the sky near the Sun. Then the scientists put forward the supposition of a supernova explosion near the solar system.

A stone depicting an unusual hunt was later embedded in the wall of a house built around 2100 BC. And the first traces of a man in this part of the Hindustan Peninsula date back to 4100 BC. Thus, the approximate time frame for creating a drawing was outlined.

No less interesting was another discovery, made based on the results of studying the stone.

Scientists believe that the drawing is not associated with hunting: it depicts a fragment of the starry sky and its constellations. A hunter with a bow and an arrow can symbolize Orion, a deer is a Taurus, a man with a spear is part of the constellation Pisces, and a dog is the Andromeda galaxy. Thus, the image is a diagram of the sky - the oldest known to science.