Prepare For A Long "I Don't Know"

Prepare For A Long "I Don't Know"
astronomy-memes, astronomers-memes, history-memes, julian-day-memes, ancient-history-memes | ScienceHumor.io

You know those social taboos about asking women their age and men their salary? Well, astronomers just raised the stakes. Ask them about a random date nearly 7,000 years ago and watch them spiral into an existential crisis about incomplete historical records, the limitations of astronomical observations before telescopes existed, and the fact that nobody was exactly keeping detailed sky journals in 4713 BC.

Fun fact: January 1, 4713 BC is actually the start of the Julian Day system, a continuous count of days used by astronomers. But asking what specifically happened in the sky on that exact day? That's like asking a historian what someone ate for breakfast on a Tuesday in ancient Mesopotamia. The records just don't exist, my friend. Cue the awkward silence and a dissertation-length explanation about why we can't possibly know.

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