A new study suggests that ancient Egyptians may have captured the Milky Way in their artwork more than 3,000 years ago, potentially offering our galaxy’s earliest-known visual representation. Astrophysicist Or Graur, an associate professor at the University of Portsmouth, identified a striking visual detail of the Milky Way while examining depictions of the sky goddess Nut. His findings, published in the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, point to a black, wavy line on Nut’s body in certain funerary artwork. Nut frequently appears in Egyptian tomb art and religious texts as a naked woman covered in stars, her arched figure...