The Historical Supernovae
Abstract
A survey was made of pretelescopic astronomical records from Europe, China, Korea, Japan, Babylon, and the Arab countries to search for historical evidence of supernovae. A Roman, Claudian, reported a new star in 393 AD, the same year that Chinese astronomers noted a new star, together with its location and duration. Most European records were made in monasteries after 1000 AD, and one supernova was sighted in 1006 AD. A similar sighting was made in the Arab world at the same time. A total of twenty candidate events were found in the nearly 2000 yr of Chinese records. An analysis of the recorded events characteristics indicates that in 185, 393, 1006, 1054, 1181, 1572, and 1604 AD supernovae were seen. The 1054 AD explosion was corroborated by Arab records, while all others (except for the 393 AD and 1006 AD supernovae) were confined to Oriental observations.
- Publication:
-
Supernovae: A Survey of Current Research
- Pub Date:
- November 1982
- DOI:
- Bibcode:
- 1982ASIC...90..355C
- Keywords:
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- Astronomy;
- Histories;
- Space Observations (From Earth);
- Supernovae;
- Asia;
- China;
- Europe;
- Japan;
- Visual Observation;
- Astronomy