[Tee tiong huat]

An interest understanding role of Milky Way played in Egyptian culture & religion has led University of Portsmouth Asst Professor of Astrophysics, Dr. Or Graur to uncover what he thinks may be the ancient Egyptian visual depiction of the Milky Way. Various Egyptian gods are either associated with, symbolize, or directly embody certain celestial objects. In his study, Dr. Graur reviewed 125 images of sky-goddess Nut (pronounced "Noot"), found among 555 ancient Egyptian coffins dating back nearly 5,000 years. Combining astronomy with Egyptology, analyzed whether she could be linked to Milky Way & his findings are published in Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage.

In scenes reflecting the day and night sky, Nut is shown as a naked, arched woman, sometimes covered with stars or with solar disks. Nut's arched posture is seen as evoking her identification with the sky and its protection of Earth below.
As the goddess of the sky, Nut is often depicted as a star-studded woman arched over her brother, the earth god Geb. She protects the earth from being flooded by the encroaching waters of the void and plays a key role in the solar cycle, swallowing the sun as it sets at dusk and giving birth to it once more as it rises at dawn.

https://phys.org/news/2025-04-depictions...agery.html