Did Ancient Egyptian Scribes Discover Algol’s Variability 3,000 Years before European Astronomers?0

• Ancient Archeology, From Around the Web
• November 19, 2018

An ancient Egyptian Calendar of Lucky and Unlucky Days assigns luck with the period of 2.85 days. Previous astronomical, astrophysical and statistical analyses of the calendar support the idea that this was the period of the eclipsing binary star Algol approximately 3,000 years ago. However, next to nothing is known about who recorded Algol’s period into the calendar and especially how. In a paper published in the journal Open Astronomy, University of Helsinki researcher Sebastian Porceddu and colleagues argue that the ancient Egyptian scribes had the possible means and the motives for such astronomical observations.