![]() ![]() In the reality of three-dimensional space, however, they are solitary travelers separated from one another by trillions of miles. On the flat plane of the sky, the stars of Messier 45 appear to us as if they form a tight cluster. Such similarities speak to a universal human heritage and imagination.īut it’s important to remember that these interpretations are based on an illusion. ![]() Both the ancient Greeks and aboriginal Australians interpreted Messier 45 in a similar fashion - as seven sisters fleeing the unwanted advances of a pursuing man (the nearby constellation of Orion). Irrespective of time and place, humans of all cultures have found significance in the night sky, often in strikingly similar ways despite vast gulfs of time and geography. (Book cover courtesy the publisher author photo by Cynthia Ayeza)įor Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, the Boston-based, Zimbabwe-born novelist behind “ Digging Stars,” Messier 45 is a metaphor for the subjectivity of human perspective and the strange paradoxes of human culture, in which peculiar similarities and insidious differences exert an inescapable, tidal force, continually drawing us together and tearing us apart. In fact, it has many different names across cultures - the Greeks called it the Pleiades, the Japanese knew it as Subaru and to the Ndebele people of Zimbabwe, it’s known as IsiLimela, the “digging stars.” Novuyo Rosa Tshuma's new novel "Digging Stars" explores the cosmos and the power of knowledge. Its prominence in the night sky has made it the subject of numerous folk tales and myths throughout history. Messier 45 is the “official” name for a cluster of hot, blue stars whose luminosity has attracted the attention of Earthbound observers since ancient times. ![]()
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