![]() ![]() Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 55 (325): 169. The idea there existed four royal stars of Persia was analysed in a 1945 article in Popular Astronomy, where the idea was criticized as largely a relatively modern invention, and/or a misunderstanding of the original source texts. Because Regulus was the most influential of the royal stars, events that took place while Regulus was in dominance were amplified and grave, foreshadowing destruction, depending on what planet or planets might be in conjunction with the star. When the stars were aligned accordingly, favourable conditions followed, and when they were negatively aligned, disaster was predicted. Major disasters, breakthroughs, and historical phenomenons were seen as caused by the stars and their alignment in the sky during the time in which the event occurred. They were also believed to govern events in the world. The royal stars were used primarily for navigation. From this observation individuals began to denote them the royal stars. The sun was then surrounded by four bright stars at the beginning of every season. ![]() The constellations of the royal stars were said to be fixed because their positions were close to the four fixed points of the sun's path. Regulus was seen as the main star because it was in the constellation of Leo, giving it the power of the lion, signifying the strength of kings with large implications. While watching the sky, the dominant star would appear in its season, each having a time of the year when most noticeable. In Persiaīy the time of the Persian Empire (550 BC–330 BC), Aldebaran watched the Eastern sky and was the dominant star in the Taurus constellation, Regulus watched the North and was the dominant star in the Leo constellation, Antares watched the West and was the alpha star in Scorpio, and Fomalhaut watched the Southern sky and was the brightest star in Piscis Austrinus (sharing the same longitude with the star Sadalmelik which is the predominant star in Aquarius).Īldebaran marked the vernal equinox and Antares marked the autumnal equinox, while Regulus marked the Summer Solstice and Fomalhaut the Winter Solstice. īy 700 BCE the Assyrians had essentially mapped the ecliptic cycle because of the four stars and were in result able to map the constellations, distinguishing them from the planets and the fixed stars. In 747 BCE the Babylonian King Nabu-nasir adopted a calendar derived from the motions of the four stars, one following an eight-year cycle and one a nineteen-year cycle (later adopting the nineteen-year calendar as standard). ![]() and are the brightest stars in their constellations and among the 25–brightest stars in the night sky. The four dominant stars have an apparent magnitude–1.5 or brighter. Fomalhaut (Haftorang/Hastorang) – winter solstice (Watcher of the South).Antares (Satevis) – autumnal equinox (Watcher of the West).Regulus (Venant) – summer solstice (Watcher of the North).Aldebaran (Tascheter) – vernal equinox (Watcher of the East).Selected external recognition (since appointment at UCL):Ģ021: Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, U.K.2021: Max Born Medal and Prize, German Physical Society and Institute of Physics, U.K.Ģ020: Göran Gustafsson Prize in Physics, Gustafsson Foundation / Royal Swedish Academy of SciencesĢ018: Fred Hoyle Medal and Prize, Institute of Physics, U.K.Ģ018: Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (awarded to the WMAP Science Team), U.S.A.Ģ016: Elected Fellow of the American Physical SocietyĢ012: Gruber Cosmology Prize (awarded to the WMAP Science Team), Gruber Foundation, U.S.A.Ģ012: Fowler Prize, Royal Astronomical Society, U.K.Ģ009: Philip Leverhulme Prize, The Leverhulme Trust, U.K.The four stars with their modern names, and their ancient Persian names (in brackets) were: I was born in Sri Lanka, a beautiful island in the Indian Ocean. I was an undergraduate at the University of Cambridge, where I was a member of New Hall. I did my postgraduate research at the Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University. Previously, I was a Hubble Fellow in the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago. ![]() Prior to beginning a faculty position at UCL in 2009, I was an STFC Advanced Fellow at the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge and a Junior Research Fellow at King's College Cambridge. I am currently spending half my time away from UCL as Director of the Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmoparticle Physics in Stockholm. of Physics and Astronomy at UCL and the Director of the UCL Cosmoparticle Initiative which brings together researchers in the Astrophysics and High Energy Physics Groups with space scientists from the Mullard Space Science Laboratory. I am a Professor of Astrophysics in the Astrophysics Group in the Dept. ![]()
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