By Tara MacIsaac, Epoch Times
Skeptics and proponents of the ancient aliens theory have faced off for decades on the issue of the Dogon tribe’s allegedly advanced astronomical knowledge.
Here’s a look at some of the arguments on both sides concerning this tribe from Mali, Africa, and its purported knowledge of the motions of a star not visible on Earth without modern telescopes.
What The Dogon Are Said to Have Known
Sirius is the brightest star in the sky and had a prominent place in many ancient cultures. Sirius, which is about 8.7 light years from Earth, has a white dwarf companion star, Sirius B. Sirius B cannot be seen with the naked eye, and astronomers first guessed at its existence in the 1830s. They mathematically developed a theoretical model of its orbit around Sirius (now referred to as Sirius A) later in the 19th century.
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Sirius A and Sirius B as seen by the Hubble Space
Telescope. The white dwarf can be seen to the lower left. (NASA, ESA, H.
Bond/STScI, M. Barstow/University of Leicester/CC BY 3.0)
The Dogon are said to have known all of this centuries before Western astronomers began contemplating it. For them, Sirius is a three-star system. They allegedly accurately describe Sirius B: they say it is a companion star for Sirius that is invisible from Earth, that it has a 50-year orbital period, that it travels around Sirius A along an elliptical path, and it is made of a heavy substance not found on Earth.
A Dogon diagram said to represent Sirius B’s elliptical orbit around Sirius A. (CC BY SA 3.0)
The Dogon are also said to have understood that the Earth and other
planets rotate on their axes, that they orbit the sun, that Jupiter has
four moons, and that Saturn has a ring around it.An article by NASA’s Chandra observatory stated: “Carl Sagan commented in his book, ‘Broca’s Brain,’ the conclusion about planetary orbits, though a rare insight, is one that can be achieved without high technology, as demonstrated by some Greeks and Copernicus. As for the moons of Jupiter, and Saturn’s ring, with a combination of extraordinary eyesight and perfectly clear skies, it just might be possible to see them without a telescope.”
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Could The Dogon Have Somehow Seen Sirius B Themselves?
But skeptics and ancient aliens proponents generally seem to agree that the Dogon could not have observed Sirius B or its orbit around Sirius A themselves.The only way Sirius B would have been visible to the Dogon (and all other cultures) is if it were a red giant a few thousand years ago, according to Liam McDaid, an astronomy professor at Sacramento City College and a senior scientist for non-profit organization The Skeptic Society. If this were the case, anyone could have easily observed both Sirius A and Sirius B in action. Some say the ancients indeed described Sirius as a red giant.
But, McDaid explained in an article written for the society: “One problem with this idea is that Sirius B has been a white dwarf for at least tens of thousands of years. If Sirius B had been a red giant only a few thousand years ago, there would still be a bright and noticeable planetary nebula around it today. No such nebula is seen.”
