Monday, July 20, 2026
Science

A century-old stellar mystery may finally have an explanation

For more than a century, astronomers have puzzled over a strange discrepancy in the historical record. Theta Eridani, a modest star in the constellation Eridanus, is the third-brightest star in its constellation, with a magnitude of 2.9. But ancient astronomers described it very differently. A new s...

A century-old stellar mystery may finally have an explanation
Image: Phys.org
For more than a century, astronomers have puzzled over a strange discrepancy in the historical record. Theta Eridani, a modest star in the constellation Eridanus, is the third-brightest star in its constellation, with a magnitude of 2.9. But ancient astronomers described it very differently. A new study, posted to the arXiv preprint server on June 29, has proposed a plausible explanation for this mystery.

Originally published at Phys.org

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