ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Scientists at the Rochester Institute of Technology have helped rediscover what they believe to be the earliest known star map.

RIT says more than 2,100 years ago Greek astronomer Hipparchus attempted to outline stars in their exact locations. But eventually, his original writing faded away and the parchment was reused.

RIT professor Roger Easton and a group of students were asked to image an ancient Greek palimpsest, the Codex Climaci Rescriptus, in 2016, at the Museum of the Bible in Oklahoma City. The university says while processing the images, they revealed detailed drawings.

“That was a total surprise to me,” RIT professor Roger Easton said in a statement. “That was the first example of a graphic that we’d seen in this book, and that got the scholars I was working with excited, too.”

RIT says the images were pieced together to reconstruct Hipparchus’ Star Catalogue.

“It’s incredible what you can do with this technology, and it’s relatively straightforward and simple,” Easton said. “We want people to easily collect data and use it themselves.”

More information can be found on the Journal for the History of Astronomy’s website.