# @europeanspaceagency on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/C-dHcvGNb8T
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/35585062-europeanspaceagency-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/c59b415e58.jpg
- **Posted:** 2024-08-09T15:54:58.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** J.L.Lopez (@xandler80) — https://gondola.cc/xandler80

## Caption

Have you heard about cultural astronomy? ✨

On 9 August we honour @UnitedNations International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples by delving into the field of cultural astronomy. Let’s explore celestial stories from diverse indigenous cultures:

1. Venus, or Guovso naste, holds special significance for the Sámi people of Lapland. Seen as the shaman star, it guided the shaman Noaiden and was believed to bring rain, good health, and fertility.

2. The Cree people of Canada tell of a time when there was only the Sun, tended by an old caretaker and his children. After his death, the siblings quarreled over the duty of keeping the fire. Wesakechak, the sacred lawgiver, intervened, making the brother Pisim (the Sun) and the sister Tipiskawipisim (the Moon), destined to see each other only once a year across the sky.

3. Matariki, known as the Pleiades, represents the eyes of Tāwhirimātea, the god of the wind, for the Maori people of New Zealand. In his anger over the separation of his parents by his siblings, Tāwhirimātea tore out his eyes and cast them into the heavens, creating this cluster.

4. The Arimi people of Tanzania see the Small Magellanic Cloud as female and the Large Magellanic Cloud as male. These clouds, appearing beside the Pleiades, are thought to bring the heaviest rains during the rainy season.

5. Sikuliarsiujuittuq (Procyon in Canis Minor), means ‘the one who never goes onto the newly formed sea-ice’ for the Inuit people of Greenland. Is tied to a story of a man whose weight kept him off the ice. To survive, he stole from other hunters but was murdered. When it rises in winter, its red twinkle symbolizes his blood.

6. The Milky Way is known as Xibalbá be, or the road to the underworld, by the K’iche’ people of Guatemala.

7. For the Ainu people of Hokkaido, the solar goddess Tokapcup-kamuy illuminates the human world, assisted by her Moon god husband, Kunnecup-kamuy.

📸 @europeaspaceagency - C. Carreau
📸 ESA/@nasa - @astro_alex_esa 
📸 NASA, ESA and AURA/@caltechedu 
📸 ESA/Gaia/DPAC
📸 ESA/XMM-Newton
📸 ESA/Gaia/DPAC; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. Acknowledgement: A. Moitinho.
📸 Solar Orbiter/EUI Team/ESA & NASA

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- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 31,573
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- **Comments:** 70

## Credits

These are the roles credited on Gondola. Credits may be incomplete.
A brand, account owner, or featured person is not necessarily the creator.

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ESA - European Space Agency | @europeanspaceagency | https://gondola.cc/europeanspaceagency | Government Organization |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Producer |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Editor |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Social Media Manager |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Publisher |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Copywriter |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Community Manager |

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