The abbreviated version of the story of the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden is as follows:
Legend has it that the weaving maiden, the granddaughter of the ancient Heavenly Emperor, was good at weaving and wove colorful haze for the sky every day. Hating this boring life, she secretly descended to the mortal world and privately married the Cowherd from the west of the river, leading a life of male cultivation and female weaving. This incident angered the Heavenly Emperor, who caught the Weaving Maiden back to the Heavenly Palace and ordered them to be separated, allowing them to meet only once a year on the Magpie Bridge on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. Their steadfast love touched the magpies, and countless magpies flew in and built a magpie bridge across the heavenly river with their bodies, so that the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden could meet each other on the heavenly river.
Nineteen Ancient Poems: "A long way to the Altair star, a bright river maiden. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this, but I'm sure I'm going to be able to do it, and I'm going to be able to do it. I'm not sure I'll be able to make it through the day, but I'm sure I'll be able to make it through the day. The river is clear and shallow, how far away is it? The river is clear and shallow, how far apart are they?" The "Cowherd and Weaving Maiden" originated from people's worship of natural celestial phenomena, and later developed into the Tanabata Festival. During the festival, ancient women would make a wish to the stars Vega and Altair in the sky, hoping that they would have a wise mind, dexterous hands and a good marriage.
Scientific Explanation of Altair and Vega
Myths are myths after all, and it is impossible for Altair and Vega to meet in one night. Both Altair and Vega are stars that are very far away from us, and they are both more massive than the sun simply because they are so far away. In astronomy, the distance between stars is mostly measured in "light years". A light year is the distance traveled by sunlight, which travels 300,000 kilometers per second, in one year. Altair is 16 light-years away, and Vega is 27 light-years away, so they look like tiny points of light.
The distance between Altair and Vega is also very long, 16.4 light-years, about the same as the distance between Altair and the Earth, and even if Altair could run 100 kilometers a day as fast as he can, it would take 4.3 billion years to meet Vega. Even if we change to 11 kilometers per second spacecraft, it will take 450,000 years to fly to the side of the Weaving Maiden. Not to mention the overnight meeting, even if you make a phone call, it will take 16.4 years to reach each other.