In astronomy, however, it was not known till the middle of the nineteenth century that Sirius was a binary star system having a companion, Sirius B. The existence of the companion was postulated for the first time in 1844 by Konigsberg astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel. It was first seen through the telescope in 1862 by the American optician Alvan Clarke.

Modern-day astronomy tells us that Sirius B is a white dwarf. White dwarfs are stars of very great density but low luminosity. That is why it is not visible to the naked eye in the brightness of its big brother. It influences the orbit of the bright Sirius A in cycles of 50.04+0.09 years.

The similarity in the information regarding Sirius B available to Dogon through their myths and folklores and that available to modern-day astronomers is, to say the least, striking.

Dogon also believe that Po i.e. Digitaria or Sirius B, revolves round itself in less than a year, that in the star system of Sirius, there is another companion Emme Ya, bigger than Digitaria but four times lighter in weight, having a larger orbit in the same direction as Sirius B. They further tell us that Emme Ya is accompanied by a satellite, that there is a third companion to Sirius further away from all other planets, which revolves in the opposite direction.

The tools of the modern-day astronomy are yet inadequate to test the truths of the Dogon beliefs mentioned above but what has already been verified about the Sirius B gives rise to the hope that these might as well be true. Whether these come out to be true or not, it is even otherwise amazing to note that a primitive African tribe should know of a heavenly body’s own rotation on its axis as they do when they tell of Po’s revolution round itself in less than a year, or of orbits in one direction and opposite, and of satellites (of Emme Ya).

In 1931, the French anthropologist Dr Marcel Griaule visited the Dogon people from whom he learnt of the myths rich with the knowledge of the Sirius star system. He again visited them in 1946 accompanied by the ethnologist Dr Germaine Dieterlen. Their research work of four years was published in 1951 as a book under the title A Sudanese Sirius System. Later, Robert K.G. Temple, an American linguist, made a study of the subject and published The Sirius Mystery (1976).

The mystery behind the uncanny knowledge of the Dogon tribe with regard to Sirius and its companion star has been tried to be explained away by various postulates, including that the latter-day knowledge gained through astronomy has been planted in the myths and folklores by interested groups. However, such theories can hardly explain the rich traditions of the Dogon tribe handed down from generation to generation for thousands of years.

Can it be then true that Dogon were imparted the knowledge of the Sirius star system thousands of years back by extra-terrestrials who had landed on that part of the world in space-ships, having come from their home on a satellite or a planet in the binary star system of Sirius? Who knows?