A major study in Astronomy & Astrophysics has utilized computational retro-modeling of the solar system to validate celestial observations recorded in the Atharvaveda. The researchers identified specific poetic metaphors describing a 'small dark orb' passing across the sun, which perfectly correlate with the trajectory and timing of a Transit of Mercury that occurred in 2800 BCE.
The research, conducted by the Center for Ancient Astronomy, demonstrates that the authors of the Vedic corpus possessed advanced instruments or observational techniques capable of detecting small planetary transits. This finding places ancient Indian observational astronomy at a level of technical sophistication previously attributed only to much later civilizations.