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.
The astronomers knew that Sirius B must be made of a super dense matter, but the specifics were beyond their comprehension until quantum physics helped explain it in 1926. In 1894, irregularities in the movement of Sirius B led astronomers to consider that a third star, Sirius C, may exist and exert an influence on Sirius B’s orbit. It is still a matter of debate whether Sirius C exists or not.
