Ancient Astronomy: Babylonians Used Surprising Math Leap to Track Jupiter

A set of ancient Babylonian tablets that describe how to track Jupiter across the sky have revealed an astronomical technique 1,500 years ahead of its time. Jupiter's erratic pace across the sky — appearing to slow down and speed up from day to day based on the combination of its orbit and Earth's — must have perplexed ancient astronomers and tested their best computational techniques. A newly discovered tablet written in Babylonia's cuneiform script discusses calculating the po