Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Discovery.

Time flies when you're learning super cool stuff. I'm Nate.

And I'm Callie. If you're dropping in for the first time,

welcome to curiosity where we aim to blow your mind by helping you to grow your mind.

If you're a loyal listener, welcome back. Today you'll learn about how cultures across the world

often make constellations from the same groups of stars due to the nature of vision and perception.

What to do when an animal tries to steal your food during a picnic on the beach, and drones smaller than a red blood cell that can be controlled using only the power of light. the Yeah, just checking out the stars. I love finding all of my favorite constellations.

There's the big dipper, the belt of Orion. That one looks kind of like my Aunt Sheila.

Uh, I don't think I see that one. But that brings up a good point.

Did you know that the

constellations we see are actually based on our vision systems?

What do you mean? Like the way human vision works determines how we group stars

into constellations? Is that why so many cultures across the world

share similar shapes and patterns?

Precisely. For a long time scientists thought this was based mostly on

almost random groupings of stars, with many cultures identifying them as different

and specific to their own traditions. For instance, many of the large shapes in

European astronomy aren't identified across the world. To Europeans, the shapes

were just important objects and characters from their religions, mythologies, and even calendars.

What about the ones across cultures that aren't as specific?

Of course, there's some very obvious bold patterns that nearly everyone sees.

Like you said, the Big Dipper, the belt of Orion,

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