WEBVTT 00:00:07.530 --> 00:00:10.529 Howdy Star Gazers and welcome to this episode 00:00:10.529 --> 00:00:14.089 of Star Trails. My name is Drew and I'll be your 00:00:14.089 --> 00:00:16.690 guide to the night sky for the week of January 00:00:16.690 --> 00:00:20.789 the 11th through the 17th. This week we're going 00:00:20.789 --> 00:00:25.070 to focus on a single constellation, Orion, and 00:00:25.070 --> 00:00:28.129 explore how to use it as a signpost to the night 00:00:28.129 --> 00:00:31.420 sky. We'll look at its lore, its relationship 00:00:31.420 --> 00:00:34.759 to ancient civilizations, its deep sky objects, 00:00:35.159 --> 00:00:39.079 stars, and its secrets. We'll also travel back 00:00:39.079 --> 00:00:41.979 thousands of years to Egypt where an intriguing 00:00:41.979 --> 00:00:45.939 theory involving Orion and the pyramids has captivated 00:00:45.939 --> 00:00:50.240 archaeologists and astronomers for ages. Later 00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:52.399 in the show, we'll take a look at this week's 00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:56.359 sky and go over some recent space news, the discovery 00:00:56.359 --> 00:00:59.460 of an unusual object astronomers are calling 00:00:59.460 --> 00:01:03.640 Cloud 9. Whether you're tuning in from the backyard 00:01:03.640 --> 00:01:06.500 or the balcony, I'm glad you're here, so grab 00:01:06.500 --> 00:01:09.319 a comfortable spot under the night sky and let's 00:01:09.319 --> 00:01:14.730 get started. I know it sounds like a tagline 00:01:14.730 --> 00:01:17.829 or something tuning in from the backyard or the 00:01:17.829 --> 00:01:21.170 balcony, but both of these locations are fine 00:01:21.170 --> 00:01:24.629 places to conduct astronomy from. Here at home, 00:01:24.790 --> 00:01:27.489 I keep a pair of binoculars at the ready right 00:01:27.489 --> 00:01:30.430 beside my balcony door so I can slip out and 00:01:30.430 --> 00:01:33.569 do a little stargazing. I have a view to the 00:01:33.569 --> 00:01:36.150 south, so it's great to catch the moon making 00:01:36.150 --> 00:01:39.709 its way across the sky and some prominent constellations. 00:01:40.239 --> 00:01:43.719 Of course, the backyard is better, as it opens 00:01:43.719 --> 00:01:47.200 up the rest of the sky. But whichever of these 00:01:47.200 --> 00:01:49.920 locations I choose, there's one constellation 00:01:49.920 --> 00:01:53.180 that stands above all else in the sky, and that's 00:01:53.180 --> 00:01:56.599 Orion, the mighty hunter. It's likely one of 00:01:56.599 --> 00:01:59.299 the first groups of stars that fills observers 00:01:59.299 --> 00:02:02.400 with wonder, and he's been doing that for millennia. 00:02:04.169 --> 00:02:08.050 Orion is one of the oldest figures humanity ever 00:02:08.050 --> 00:02:11.750 traced into the stars. In Greek myth he was a 00:02:11.750 --> 00:02:15.069 giant hunter, strong, confident, sometimes noble, 00:02:15.469 --> 00:02:17.550 sometimes reckless, depending on who's telling 00:02:17.550 --> 00:02:23.030 the story. In some versions Orion boasts no beast 00:02:23.030 --> 00:02:26.250 alive can defeat him, earning him the wrath of 00:02:26.250 --> 00:02:29.740 the gods. In others, he's a tragic figure, killed 00:02:29.740 --> 00:02:33.860 by a scorpion sent by Gaia or Artemis, then placed 00:02:33.860 --> 00:02:36.719 in the sky as both a warning and a memorial. 00:02:38.099 --> 00:02:41.340 Orion was a mirror, a way for ancient people 00:02:41.340 --> 00:02:44.979 to project ideas about strength, pride, punishment, 00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:48.759 and fate onto something vast and dependable. 00:02:49.979 --> 00:02:53.300 In the night sky, the constellation depicts Orion 00:02:53.300 --> 00:02:57.490 mid -stride, frozen in an eternal hunt. One arm 00:02:57.490 --> 00:03:00.969 is raised, often imagined holding a club or a 00:03:00.969 --> 00:03:06.310 bow, while the other carries a shield. His belt, 00:03:06.469 --> 00:03:10.370 those three unmistakable stars, cuts cleanly 00:03:10.370 --> 00:03:13.370 across his waist, anchoring the entire figure. 00:03:14.090 --> 00:03:17.689 His shoulders and feet blaze with uneven intensity, 00:03:18.169 --> 00:03:21.270 giving the figure a sense of motion and imbalance, 00:03:21.729 --> 00:03:24.110 as if he's caught in the act rather than posing 00:03:24.110 --> 00:03:28.770 for display. Orion doesn't rest in the sky, he 00:03:28.770 --> 00:03:32.629 advances across it, rising in the east, dominating 00:03:32.629 --> 00:03:35.629 winter evenings and eventually slipping away 00:03:35.629 --> 00:03:39.050 into daylight, forever chasing, forever just 00:03:39.050 --> 00:03:44.449 out of reach. As a kid, I remember gazing at 00:03:44.449 --> 00:03:47.050 the three bright belt stars from the backseat 00:03:47.050 --> 00:03:50.509 of the car on rides home at night. Those three 00:03:50.509 --> 00:03:54.330 stars in a nearly perfect line, all bright, seemed 00:03:54.330 --> 00:03:56.889 almost overbearing for the rest of the night 00:03:56.889 --> 00:04:00.330 sky. Why were they so prominent? And what did 00:04:00.330 --> 00:04:03.629 they mean? What were they trying to say, if anything? 00:04:04.750 --> 00:04:07.689 It wasn't long before I read a little night sky 00:04:07.689 --> 00:04:10.110 guide and learned that these were the three belt 00:04:10.110 --> 00:04:14.530 stars of Orion, or Orion, as my child's mind 00:04:14.530 --> 00:04:17.730 thought it was pronounced. It didn't take long 00:04:17.730 --> 00:04:20.649 to realize Orion was a special constellation. 00:04:21.310 --> 00:04:24.230 This wasn't just a random grouping of stars, 00:04:24.569 --> 00:04:27.350 and unlike most of the constellations, it actually 00:04:27.350 --> 00:04:30.329 resembles what it's representing. If you kind 00:04:30.329 --> 00:04:35.069 of imagine it as a stick figure in the sky. Digging 00:04:35.069 --> 00:04:37.810 deeper, I learned Orion was home to some of the 00:04:37.810 --> 00:04:41.209 most beautiful deep sky objects in the cosmos. 00:04:41.399 --> 00:04:44.279 Even today, when I look up at the winter sky, 00:04:44.600 --> 00:04:52.379 I first check on Orion. So today, in keeping 00:04:52.379 --> 00:04:55.980 with our January plan aimed at new stargazers, 00:04:56.040 --> 00:04:58.779 we're going to take a closer look at this iconic 00:04:58.779 --> 00:05:02.480 constellation. Orion isn't just our destination, 00:05:02.699 --> 00:05:06.060 he's our guide. He shows up clearly early in 00:05:06.060 --> 00:05:08.600 the evening at a time of the year when many people 00:05:08.600 --> 00:05:11.310 are just beginning to look up again. You don't 00:05:11.310 --> 00:05:15.230 have to hunt for him, he finds you. And that 00:05:15.230 --> 00:05:19.610 alone makes Orion special. But Orion also does 00:05:19.610 --> 00:05:22.829 something else. Once you learn his shape, he 00:05:22.829 --> 00:05:25.709 teaches you how to move through the sky, how 00:05:25.709 --> 00:05:29.009 stars point to other stars, how patterns lead 00:05:29.009 --> 00:05:32.310 outward, how the night sky stops being just a 00:05:32.310 --> 00:05:35.750 scattering of lights and starts becoming an organized 00:05:35.750 --> 00:05:40.170 place. So let's turn our gaze upward and look 00:05:40.170 --> 00:05:43.970 for Orion's belt, that line of three bright stars, 00:05:44.529 --> 00:05:47.769 almost evenly spaced. Once you see it, you'll 00:05:47.769 --> 00:05:52.610 never unsee it. Follow the belt downward, away 00:05:52.610 --> 00:05:55.589 from Orion's shoulders, and your eye will land 00:05:55.589 --> 00:05:59.480 on Sirius. Sirius is the brightest star in the 00:05:59.480 --> 00:06:03.019 entire night sky, and it often flickers wildly 00:06:03.019 --> 00:06:06.379 near the horizon, flashing colors as Earth's 00:06:06.379 --> 00:06:09.680 atmosphere bends its light. Many people mistake 00:06:09.680 --> 00:06:13.160 it for a planet. In reality, it's simply close 00:06:13.160 --> 00:06:18.019 and luminous. And congratulations, that's a successful 00:06:18.019 --> 00:06:21.300 star hop. You didn't need a chart, and you didn't 00:06:21.300 --> 00:06:25.290 need an app. Now follow the belt in the opposite 00:06:25.290 --> 00:06:29.029 direction, upward, and you're led toward Aldebaran, 00:06:29.410 --> 00:06:32.889 a warm orange star marking the eye of Taurus 00:06:32.889 --> 00:06:36.310 the Bull. Keep going up and you'll arrive at 00:06:36.310 --> 00:06:40.189 the Pleiades, a small misty clump of stars that 00:06:40.189 --> 00:06:43.149 people often mistake for the Little Dipper, because 00:06:43.149 --> 00:06:46.689 it does sort of resemble that shape. While you're 00:06:46.689 --> 00:06:49.209 there, look at the Pleiades with your binoculars. 00:06:49.290 --> 00:06:54.220 It basically explodes with stars. So following 00:06:54.220 --> 00:06:57.379 the same line gave us two completely different 00:06:57.379 --> 00:07:01.720 destinations, and we can keep going. Beetlejuice 00:07:01.720 --> 00:07:05.139 marks Orion's shoulder and glows with a deep 00:07:05.139 --> 00:07:09.379 reddish hue. Rigel, at the opposite foot, burns 00:07:09.379 --> 00:07:13.879 icy blue -white. If you look at Orion's upper 00:07:13.879 --> 00:07:16.980 body, his shoulders and raised arm, and extend 00:07:16.980 --> 00:07:20.259 that line upward, you're naturally led toward 00:07:20.259 --> 00:07:24.079 the constellation Gemini. There, you'll find 00:07:24.079 --> 00:07:27.680 the twin stars Castor and Pollux, sitting side 00:07:27.680 --> 00:07:31.240 by side like a pair of beacons. Once you know 00:07:31.240 --> 00:07:33.699 where to look for them, Gemini becomes one of 00:07:33.699 --> 00:07:36.579 the easiest winter constellations to recognize, 00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:40.240 and it feels almost as if Orion is gesturing 00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:45.040 in their direction. Orion can also help you complete 00:07:45.040 --> 00:07:47.920 one of the most useful shapes in the winter sky, 00:07:48.300 --> 00:07:52.000 the Winter Triangle. You already know one corner 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:55.629 of it. Sirius. Another corner is Betelgeuse. 00:07:56.149 --> 00:07:58.990 Draw an imaginary line between those two and 00:07:58.990 --> 00:08:01.790 the third point of the triangle appears almost 00:08:01.790 --> 00:08:05.730 automatically. Procyon in the constellation Canis 00:08:05.730 --> 00:08:10.649 Minor. Look downward instead toward Rigel and 00:08:10.649 --> 00:08:13.850 you'll find something quieter. Just below is 00:08:13.850 --> 00:08:17.389 the constellation Lepus, the hare, placed quite 00:08:17.389 --> 00:08:22.019 literally at the hunter's feet. Lepus is fainter 00:08:22.019 --> 00:08:25.000 and easier to miss, especially from light polluted 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:28.360 skies, but Orion tells you exactly where to look 00:08:28.360 --> 00:08:32.519 for it. And if you follow Rigel's line away from 00:08:32.519 --> 00:08:35.639 Orion, the sky opens into something much larger, 00:08:36.139 --> 00:08:39.980 Eridanus, the river. It winds away in a long 00:08:39.980 --> 00:08:43.559 meandering path across the sky, far larger than 00:08:43.559 --> 00:08:48.299 most people realize. Star hopping away from Orion 00:08:48.299 --> 00:08:51.279 like this turns the constellation into basically 00:08:51.279 --> 00:08:55.519 a roadmap for the sky. Suddenly, large swaths 00:08:55.519 --> 00:08:58.519 of the sky feel navigable, and you're well on 00:08:58.519 --> 00:09:01.639 your way to becoming a seasoned naked eye observer. 00:09:05.159 --> 00:09:07.779 Now, let's turn our attention back to those three 00:09:07.779 --> 00:09:12.779 belt stars. They are Alnitak, Alnilum, and Mentaka. 00:09:13.500 --> 00:09:16.740 Despite their neat alignment, they are separated 00:09:16.740 --> 00:09:20.580 by vast distances in space, with Al Neelum being 00:09:20.580 --> 00:09:24.360 the most distant. That alignment is just a happy 00:09:24.360 --> 00:09:27.399 accident, and reminds us that the sky isn't a 00:09:27.399 --> 00:09:31.059 flat plane, but these stars are at varying distances 00:09:31.059 --> 00:09:36.620 from us. Hanging from the belt is Orion's sword, 00:09:37.039 --> 00:09:39.759 and this is where the constellation quietly changes 00:09:39.759 --> 00:09:43.700 character. At the sword's center lies the Orion 00:09:43.700 --> 00:09:47.940 Nebula, a vast stellar nursery visible even without 00:09:47.940 --> 00:09:52.559 optical aid under dark skies. Nearby is the Running 00:09:52.559 --> 00:09:56.100 Man Nebula, a faint reflection nebula shaped 00:09:56.100 --> 00:09:59.799 by young energetic stars whose light is still 00:09:59.799 --> 00:10:04.370 carving paths through the surrounding dust. Deep 00:10:04.370 --> 00:10:07.850 inside the Orion Nebula is a group of stars that 00:10:07.850 --> 00:10:10.649 appear to have been violently ejected from a 00:10:10.649 --> 00:10:15.110 once stable system thousands of years ago. Studies 00:10:15.110 --> 00:10:18.250 suggest a gravitational interaction or stellar 00:10:18.250 --> 00:10:21.850 collision flung these stars outward at high speed, 00:10:22.269 --> 00:10:25.289 leaving behind shock waves still visible today. 00:10:26.090 --> 00:10:29.710 Orion isn't just birthing stars, it's occasionally 00:10:29.710 --> 00:10:35.090 throwing babies out of its nursery. Along the 00:10:35.090 --> 00:10:39.009 eastern belt star, Alnitak, sits the Flame Nebula, 00:10:39.470 --> 00:10:42.730 glowing with hydrogen excited by nearby stars. 00:10:43.149 --> 00:10:45.789 And just beside it, etched in silhouette rather 00:10:45.789 --> 00:10:49.669 than light, is the Horsehead Nebula, a dark knot 00:10:49.669 --> 00:10:53.549 of dust standing starkly against a luminous background. 00:10:55.309 --> 00:10:58.370 Speaking of Alnitak, it's not a single star at 00:10:58.370 --> 00:11:01.629 all, but a multiple star system, with at least 00:11:01.629 --> 00:11:05.330 three components. The primary star is a massive 00:11:05.330 --> 00:11:08.490 blue supergiant whose intense ultra -violent 00:11:08.490 --> 00:11:12.190 radiation sculpts the Flame Nebula and the background 00:11:12.190 --> 00:11:15.309 glow that allows the Horsehead Nebula to appear 00:11:15.309 --> 00:11:19.389 in silhouette. Without Alnitak's violence, some 00:11:19.389 --> 00:11:22.750 of Orion's most iconic sights wouldn't exist. 00:11:24.330 --> 00:11:27.009 While the Orion Nebula is visible to the naked 00:11:27.009 --> 00:11:29.450 eye, you're going to need a good scope to see 00:11:29.450 --> 00:11:32.720 the Horsehead and Flame Nebula. These are rich 00:11:32.720 --> 00:11:35.419 targets for astrophotographers and they come 00:11:35.419 --> 00:11:39.059 alive in brilliant oranges, reds, and magentas 00:11:39.059 --> 00:11:43.419 when captured with long exposures. Betelgeuse, 00:11:43.480 --> 00:11:46.960 at the shoulder, glows a deep orange -red and 00:11:46.960 --> 00:11:49.840 is one of the largest stars visible to the naked 00:11:49.840 --> 00:11:53.379 eye. It's a red supergiant nearing the end of 00:11:53.379 --> 00:11:57.139 its life, swollen, unstable, and variable in 00:11:57.139 --> 00:12:00.159 brightness. Beetlejuice, and by the way, you 00:12:00.159 --> 00:12:04.019 can safely say it three times, holds one of Orion's 00:12:04.019 --> 00:12:08.179 intriguing secrets. Beetlejuice has long been 00:12:08.179 --> 00:12:12.139 suspected of having a companion, and recent observations 00:12:12.139 --> 00:12:16.600 suggest that this may actually be true. In 2022 00:12:16.600 --> 00:12:20.539 through 2024, high -resolution imaging and modeling 00:12:20.539 --> 00:12:23.980 pointed toward a close, faint companion. likely 00:12:23.980 --> 00:12:27.019 a small star orbiting within a few astronomical 00:12:27.019 --> 00:12:31.200 units of Betelgeuse. This companion may help 00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:34.600 explain Betelgeuse's strange behavior, including 00:12:34.600 --> 00:12:38.740 its dramatic dimming in 2019 and 2020, which 00:12:38.740 --> 00:12:42.120 was initially noted as a possible pre -Supernova 00:12:42.120 --> 00:12:45.940 event. If confirmed, this would make Betelgeuse 00:12:45.940 --> 00:12:49.539 not just a dying star, but a binary system in 00:12:49.539 --> 00:12:53.259 its final act. So, as it turns out, one of the 00:12:53.259 --> 00:12:56.419 sky's most famous lonely giants may never have 00:12:56.419 --> 00:13:03.460 been alone at all. Across from it is Rigel, a 00:13:03.460 --> 00:13:06.720 blue -white star that outshines beetle Jews in 00:13:06.720 --> 00:13:09.980 sheer luminosity, despite appearing similarly 00:13:09.980 --> 00:13:13.820 bright from Earth. Sweeping across much of the 00:13:13.820 --> 00:13:17.019 left side of the constellation is Barnard's Loop, 00:13:17.559 --> 00:13:21.740 an enormous arc of glowing gas. likely energized 00:13:21.740 --> 00:13:25.240 by ancient supernova explosions and massive stellar 00:13:25.240 --> 00:13:29.860 winds. You aren't able to see it unless you photograph 00:13:29.860 --> 00:13:33.659 this large swath of the sky. Longer exposures 00:13:33.659 --> 00:13:37.240 bring it to light. Conceptually, it's an important 00:13:37.240 --> 00:13:40.120 structure, giving us a window into a turbulent 00:13:40.120 --> 00:13:44.500 ongoing process of stellar creation and destruction. 00:13:45.640 --> 00:13:48.899 Orion is considered one of the Milky Way's great 00:13:48.899 --> 00:13:53.240 workshops, where stars are born, age, and tear 00:13:53.240 --> 00:13:57.120 their surroundings apart. Orion and its components 00:13:57.120 --> 00:14:00.740 form an active unified region known as the Orion 00:14:00.740 --> 00:14:07.840 Molecular Cloud Complex. As legendary as the 00:14:07.840 --> 00:14:12.039 hunter is, nothing lasts forever. Orion, as we 00:14:12.039 --> 00:14:15.759 know him, is living on borrowed time. The stars 00:14:15.759 --> 00:14:18.799 that define his shape are moving and over tens 00:14:18.799 --> 00:14:21.940 of thousands of years the familiar figure will 00:14:21.940 --> 00:14:25.860 stretch, skew, and dissolve. Beetlejuice will 00:14:25.860 --> 00:14:30.120 explode someday. Rigel will evolve. The belt 00:14:30.120 --> 00:14:38.779 will lose its alignment. We're going to take 00:14:38.779 --> 00:14:42.320 a quick break, but when we return more on Orion 00:14:42.320 --> 00:14:45.700 and his relationship to humanity, we're going 00:14:45.700 --> 00:14:48.460 to journey to the iconic pyramids of the Giza 00:14:48.460 --> 00:14:52.139 Plateau in Egypt, where we'll explore an intriguing 00:14:52.139 --> 00:14:55.139 concept called the Orion Correlation Theory. 00:14:55.919 --> 00:14:58.519 We'll also check out this week's sky and some 00:14:58.519 --> 00:15:14.629 recent astronomy news. Stay with us. Welcome 00:15:14.629 --> 00:15:19.649 back! In addition to stargazing, an area that 00:15:19.649 --> 00:15:23.210 I find endlessly fascinating is archaeology, 00:15:23.710 --> 00:15:27.269 more specifically Egyptology. And even though 00:15:27.269 --> 00:15:30.629 I grew up reading books like Eric von Daniken's 00:15:30.629 --> 00:15:33.470 Chariots of the Gods, I don't think Egyptians 00:15:33.470 --> 00:15:36.570 built the pyramids with the help of aliens. They 00:15:36.570 --> 00:15:39.509 were, however, tuned in to the sky, and maybe 00:15:39.509 --> 00:15:42.720 Orion had a larger impact on their culture than 00:15:42.720 --> 00:15:53.059 we think. The Orion correlation theory proposes 00:15:53.059 --> 00:15:56.460 that the three main pyramids on the Giza Plateau 00:15:56.460 --> 00:15:59.500 were intentionally arranged to mirror the three 00:15:59.500 --> 00:16:02.480 stars of Orion's belt as they appeared in the 00:16:02.480 --> 00:16:06.120 ancient sky. It's a relatively new theory dating 00:16:06.120 --> 00:16:11.440 back to just 1989. The core claims usually go 00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:14.700 something like this. The relative positions of 00:16:14.700 --> 00:16:17.639 the pyramids resemble the slight offset of the 00:16:17.639 --> 00:16:21.419 belt stars. One pyramid is not perfectly aligned 00:16:21.419 --> 00:16:25.279 with the other two, just as one belt star, Mentaka, 00:16:25.620 --> 00:16:28.519 sits slightly off the straight line formed by 00:16:28.519 --> 00:16:32.500 Al Natak and Al Neelam. Some argue that this 00:16:32.500 --> 00:16:35.600 similarity is too precise to be coincidence. 00:16:36.399 --> 00:16:39.019 The theory goes further, suggesting that the 00:16:39.019 --> 00:16:42.340 ancient Egyptians intentionally encoded a sky 00:16:42.340 --> 00:16:45.279 -earth correspondence, reflecting the heavens 00:16:45.279 --> 00:16:49.320 on the landscape. In this view, the Nile becomes 00:16:49.320 --> 00:16:52.700 a terrestrial analogue of the Milky Way, and 00:16:52.700 --> 00:16:57.179 Giza becomes celestial geometry. Also, the Sphinx 00:16:57.179 --> 00:17:00.080 monument reportedly represents the constellation 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:04.680 Leo, the lion. Some have theorized the layout 00:17:04.680 --> 00:17:08.500 of elements inside the pyramids, which were tombs, 00:17:08.900 --> 00:17:11.960 point directly to specific portions of the sky, 00:17:12.700 --> 00:17:15.460 kind of like the markers at Stonehenge line up 00:17:15.460 --> 00:17:19.099 with the solstices. The most well -known example 00:17:19.099 --> 00:17:22.779 is in the Great Pyramid, whose south -axis shaft 00:17:22.779 --> 00:17:27.089 allegedly points to Orion's belt. After more 00:17:27.089 --> 00:17:31.069 than 4 ,000 years, Earth's shifting axial precession 00:17:31.069 --> 00:17:33.869 has knocked off the alignment, if there ever 00:17:33.869 --> 00:17:38.849 really was one. At its most ambitious, this theory 00:17:38.849 --> 00:17:41.970 claims these alignments reflect Orion's position 00:17:41.970 --> 00:17:47.289 around 10 ,000 BCE, implying either extraordinary 00:17:47.289 --> 00:17:50.789 astronomical foresight or the inheritance of 00:17:50.789 --> 00:17:54.690 knowledge from a far earlier civilization. And 00:17:54.690 --> 00:17:57.470 here's where the theory gains much of its traction. 00:17:58.390 --> 00:18:02.049 In ancient Egyptian cosmology, Orion was associated 00:18:02.049 --> 00:18:05.829 with Osiris, the god of death, rebirth, and the 00:18:05.829 --> 00:18:09.690 afterlife. Orion wasn't just another constellation, 00:18:09.890 --> 00:18:13.930 he was a symbol of cosmic order and eternal return. 00:18:15.009 --> 00:18:17.650 Pharaohs were believed to ascend to the stars 00:18:17.650 --> 00:18:20.789 after death, joining the gods among the fixed 00:18:20.789 --> 00:18:25.240 lights of the sky. So the argument goes, if you 00:18:25.240 --> 00:18:28.299 were going to encode immortality, cosmic order, 00:18:28.700 --> 00:18:31.980 and divine kingship into stone, why wouldn't 00:18:31.980 --> 00:18:37.299 you choose Orion? And yet, the theory has problems. 00:18:37.660 --> 00:18:40.380 First, the apparent alignment depends heavily 00:18:40.380 --> 00:18:43.680 on selective framing. Rotate the star pattern 00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:47.119 slightly, adjust scale or choose which points 00:18:47.119 --> 00:18:50.240 to emphasize, and the match does look compelling. 00:18:50.660 --> 00:18:53.519 But when measured rigorously, The positional 00:18:53.519 --> 00:18:57.180 correspondence is approximate, not exact. But 00:18:57.180 --> 00:19:00.940 the real kicker is this, there is no direct archaeological 00:19:00.940 --> 00:19:04.119 evidence that the pyramid builders even intended 00:19:04.119 --> 00:19:07.900 such a correlation. No inscriptions, no diagrams, 00:19:08.220 --> 00:19:12.180 no textual references. The Egyptians left us 00:19:12.180 --> 00:19:15.019 an extraordinary written record, and nowhere 00:19:15.019 --> 00:19:18.160 do they say, we built this to mirror Orion's 00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:22.230 belt. One of the more poetic extensions of the 00:19:22.230 --> 00:19:24.990 theory is the idea that the Nile represents the 00:19:24.990 --> 00:19:28.369 Milky Way, placing Giza as a kind of terrestrial 00:19:28.369 --> 00:19:32.190 cosmos. This notion feels mythically correct, 00:19:32.250 --> 00:19:35.150 but here again the evidence is circumstantial, 00:19:35.450 --> 00:19:37.869 although seeing the Milky Way as a river of light 00:19:37.869 --> 00:19:41.740 is a common occurrence in other cultures. Humans 00:19:41.740 --> 00:19:45.039 are extraordinary pattern recognition machines. 00:19:45.539 --> 00:19:48.480 We evolved to find structure and chaos because 00:19:48.480 --> 00:19:52.599 doing so kept us alive. That instinct doesn't 00:19:52.599 --> 00:19:56.259 turn off when we look up, it intensifies. In 00:19:56.259 --> 00:20:00.259 Orion, ancient people saw continuity, return, 00:20:00.640 --> 00:20:04.529 and order in a dangerous world. When modern people 00:20:04.529 --> 00:20:07.250 see Orion mirrored in the pyramids, they feel 00:20:07.250 --> 00:20:10.470 a thrill that says this mattered then and maybe 00:20:10.470 --> 00:20:14.049 it still does now. That emotional response is 00:20:14.049 --> 00:20:17.349 real, even if the alignment wasn't intentional. 00:20:18.670 --> 00:20:21.250 Orion keeps appearing in theories like this because 00:20:21.250 --> 00:20:24.569 he's visually unavoidable. He's bright, he's 00:20:24.569 --> 00:20:27.910 geometric, he feels designed. That makes him 00:20:27.910 --> 00:20:32.150 a magnet for myth, speculation, and cosmic storytelling. 00:20:32.430 --> 00:20:36.769 now just as much as thousands of years ago. In 00:20:36.769 --> 00:20:40.250 that sense, the Orion -Giza correlation is now 00:20:40.250 --> 00:20:43.829 another fascinating element of Orion's mythology, 00:20:44.369 --> 00:20:47.210 even if it isn't part of Egyptian engineering. 00:20:55.740 --> 00:20:58.720 Let's move on from the mysteries of ancient Egypt 00:20:58.720 --> 00:21:02.180 and into the certainty of this week's night sky. 00:21:03.180 --> 00:21:05.799 The moon is in a waning crescent phase through 00:21:05.799 --> 00:21:09.720 this period. By week's end it's a very slim sliver, 00:21:09.799 --> 00:21:13.680 only about 1 -2 % illuminated, making it easy 00:21:13.680 --> 00:21:16.319 to observe without washing out fainter stars 00:21:16.319 --> 00:21:19.900 and deep sky targets. The new moon will occur 00:21:19.900 --> 00:21:23.059 on the 18th, yielding the darkest skies of the 00:21:23.059 --> 00:21:26.549 month. The two naked -eye planets dominating 00:21:26.549 --> 00:21:30.849 the sky right now are Jupiter and Saturn. Jupiter 00:21:30.849 --> 00:21:33.930 is still the standout. It reached opposition 00:21:33.930 --> 00:21:36.490 last week, meaning Earth is directly between 00:21:36.490 --> 00:21:40.170 it and the Sun. It rises at sunset and stays 00:21:40.170 --> 00:21:43.369 visible all night long, shining exceptionally 00:21:43.369 --> 00:21:47.430 bright in the constellation Gemini. Saturn is 00:21:47.430 --> 00:21:50.730 also visible low in the early evening sky in 00:21:50.730 --> 00:21:54.279 Pisces. It's dimmer than Jupiter but still noticeable 00:21:54.279 --> 00:21:56.640 with the naked eye, especially earlier in the 00:21:56.640 --> 00:21:59.200 night before it dips toward the western horizon. 00:21:59.980 --> 00:22:03.380 Other naked eye planets, Venus, Mars, and Mercury, 00:22:03.500 --> 00:22:06.039 are effectively out of view during this period 00:22:06.039 --> 00:22:08.980 because they're near solar conjunction and lost 00:22:08.980 --> 00:22:11.680 in the sun's glare, so they don't appear in the 00:22:11.680 --> 00:22:15.500 evening or pre -dawn sky. The beehive cluster, 00:22:15.819 --> 00:22:19.160 Messier 44, becomes increasingly well -placed 00:22:19.160 --> 00:22:22.400 later in the month after sunset. Since the moon 00:22:22.400 --> 00:22:25.440 is thin and dim this week, it's a good time to 00:22:25.440 --> 00:22:28.380 appreciate rich star fields and open clusters, 00:22:28.839 --> 00:22:32.079 like the double cluster in Perseus or the Pleiades 00:22:32.079 --> 00:22:41.160 later in the evening. Before we go, I wanted 00:22:41.160 --> 00:22:43.839 to mention a cool bit of space news that made 00:22:43.839 --> 00:22:47.299 the rounds a few days ago. Scientists using the 00:22:47.299 --> 00:22:49.980 Hubble Space Telescope have announced the discovery 00:22:49.980 --> 00:22:53.200 of a curious new kind of object that's being 00:22:53.200 --> 00:22:57.079 called Cloud 9. Not because it's happy, but because 00:22:57.079 --> 00:23:01.420 it's unusual. This object, located about 14 to 00:23:01.420 --> 00:23:04.500 16 million light years from Earth near the spiral 00:23:04.500 --> 00:23:09.119 galaxy Messier 94, appears to be a cloud of gas 00:23:09.119 --> 00:23:13.079 dominated by dark matter, but containing no stars 00:23:13.079 --> 00:23:16.500 at all. Researchers are referring to it as a 00:23:16.500 --> 00:23:20.240 failed galaxy. Under most circumstances, when 00:23:20.240 --> 00:23:22.700 enough gas and dark matter collect together, 00:23:22.900 --> 00:23:26.140 gravity pulls the gas inward until it cools and 00:23:26.140 --> 00:23:30.819 forms stars. But Cloud 9 lacks any detectable 00:23:30.819 --> 00:23:34.900 stars. Even deep observations with Hubble's powerful 00:23:34.900 --> 00:23:38.380 imaging fail to reveal a stellar population within 00:23:38.380 --> 00:23:41.829 the cloud's bounds. ruling out even faint low 00:23:41.829 --> 00:23:46.049 -mass stars to very stringent limits. Instead, 00:23:46.150 --> 00:23:49.130 it's rich in neutral hydrogen gas and appears 00:23:49.130 --> 00:23:52.450 to sit in a massive halo of dark matter, something 00:23:52.450 --> 00:23:55.349 on the order of billions of times the mass of 00:23:55.349 --> 00:23:59.390 the Sun. Astronomers think cloud 9 may represent 00:23:59.390 --> 00:24:03.529 a long predicted but so far unseen class of objects 00:24:03.529 --> 00:24:09.289 known as Reionization Limited HI Clouds, or relics. 00:24:09.579 --> 00:24:13.779 In cosmological theory, many dark matter halos 00:24:13.779 --> 00:24:16.619 should exist that never managed to form stars, 00:24:17.240 --> 00:24:19.240 either because they were too small or because 00:24:19.240 --> 00:24:21.900 the conditions in the early universe prevented 00:24:21.900 --> 00:24:26.460 collapse and star formation. Cloud 9 may be the 00:24:26.460 --> 00:24:30.180 first clear observation of such an object, a 00:24:30.180 --> 00:24:32.920 relic of the early universe that never lit up 00:24:32.920 --> 00:24:36.220 with stars. The discovery is exciting because 00:24:36.220 --> 00:24:39.420 it gives astronomers a rare new window into how 00:24:39.420 --> 00:24:43.319 galaxies begin and how some never do. And it 00:24:43.319 --> 00:24:45.940 may help scientists better understand the role 00:24:45.940 --> 00:24:54.519 of dark matter in shaping the cosmos. That's 00:24:54.519 --> 00:24:56.779 going to do it for this week. If you found this 00:24:56.779 --> 00:24:59.240 episode interesting, please share it with a friend 00:24:59.240 --> 00:25:02.019 who might enjoy it. The easiest way to do that 00:25:02.019 --> 00:25:05.339 is by sending folks to our website, StarTrails 00:25:05.339 --> 00:25:09.200 .Show. And if you want to support the show, use 00:25:09.200 --> 00:25:12.200 the link on the site to buy me a coffee. It really 00:25:12.200 --> 00:25:15.859 helps. Be sure to follow Star Trails on Blue 00:25:15.859 --> 00:25:18.859 Sky and YouTube. Links are in the show notes. 00:25:19.480 --> 00:25:22.299 Until we meet again beneath the stars, clear 00:25:22.299 --> 00:25:23.099 skies everyone.