John Rock carvings , or petroglyph , discover in a canon in New Mexico seem to depict a total eclipse that happened over 1,000 long time ago .
Experts from the University of Colorado , Boulder , say the ancient art , carve onto the face of a careen in Chaco Canyon by the former Pueblo multitude , may depict the total solar eclipse that go on on July 11 , 1097 CE .
They suggestthe carvings show the Sun ’s electric glow – the outermost part of the Sun ’s atmosphere that is most easily seen during a total solar occultation – as depicted by a circle with swirls descend out of it .
“ To me it bet like a rotary feature with curved tangle and structures,”saidJ McKim Malville of CU Boulder ’s astrophysical and planetary sciences department , who led the field tripper to the canyon that first come upon the petroglyph in 1992 . Hepublisheda paper on them in 2014 .
“ If one looks at a drawing by a German astronomer of the 1860 total solar occultation during high solar activity , rays and loops standardised to those depicted in the Chaco petroglyph are seeable . "
The carving , which appear on a freestanding rock screw asPiedra del Sol , also show what they think might be a coronal raft ejection , which is feasible based on data of the Sun ’s body process from that time .
To test this , Malville and his team studied tree rings that contain traces of isotope carbon-14 , which is create when cosmic rays hit Earth ’s air . The less carbon-14 they found , the more macula , which indicates increased Sun activity .
They also used historical data record by Europeans who made observation about when the northern lights were seeable , another mark of eminent solar activity . at long last , they looked at observations recorded in China that go back thousands of age on sunspots observed by the naked oculus .
All showed there was solar activity at the time the art is dated to .
The Piedra del Sol also shows what is likely a declamatory volute , meant to picture the Sun , score the 15 sunrises counting down to the summer solstice by a triangular shadow most probable from a rock that moves across the Sun . There are also markings on the rock and roll that match up with the Sun on the horizon during the December solstice .
“ I recollect it is quite possible that the Chacoan people may have congregate around Piedra del Sol at certain times of the year and were look out the sun move away from the summer solstice when the occultation occurred , ” Malville pronounce , suggesting their focus had in reality been on the solstice , not the occultation .
