羽蛇神金字塔上空的银河

2019 June 17

羽蛇神金字塔上空的银河
影像来源与版权: Robert Fedez

说明：想要看到羽蛇神降临在玛雅金字塔上，需要精确的时间。你必须在春分前后造访位于墨西哥尤卡坦半岛的羽蛇神金字塔。此外，在下午晚些时候，如果天空是晴朗的，金字塔自身的阴影会形成三角形，让人联想到滑行毒蛇的著名幻象。这座令人印象深刻的阶梯金字塔也被称为库库尔坎神庙，其高度为30米，底部宽为55米。该建筑是由9世纪到12世纪前哥伦布文明建造的一系列方形平台构成，可作为日历使用，以天文学上的排列而闻名。然而，想要看到我们银河系的中央带降临到玛雅金字塔的正上方，并不需要那么精确的时间。尽管如此，即使是古代玛雅人也可能对这幅特征影像产生印象的深刻，知道其中银河系、土星（左侧）和木星（右侧）的确切位置给出一个比春分更具体的时间戳-事实上这是2019年4月7日凌晨5点。

Milky Way over Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent
Image Credit & Copyright: Robert Fedez

Explanation: To see the feathered serpent descend the Mayan pyramid requires exquisite timing. You must visit El Castillo — in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula — near an equinox. Then, during the late afternoon if the sky is clear, the pyramid’s own shadows create triangles that merge into the famous illusion of the slithering viper. Also known as the Temple of Kukulkan, the impressive step-pyramid stands 30 meters tall and 55 meters wide at the base. Built up as a series of square terraces by the pre-Columbian civilization between the 9th and 12th century, the structure can be used as a calendar and is noted for astronomical alignments. To see the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy descend overhead the Mayan pyramid, however, requires less exquisite timing. Even the ancient Mayans might have been impressed, though, to know that the exact positions of the Milky Way, Saturn (left) and Jupiter (right) in the featured image give it a time stamp more specific than equinox — in fact 2019 April 7 at 5 am.