Saturday, July 4, 2009

4th of July Fireworks in 1054 A.D.

Some people are going to experience some big Independence Day fireworks shows tonight.

None of them will rival the one that the Chinese saw on July 4, 1054 A.D. They witnessed
the explosive (supernova) death of a massive star. The "guest star" that they saw was so
bright that it became visible in the daytime for 23 days and at night it cast shadows!

The remnant of this colossal event is now known as the Crab Nebula(also called as M1 and
NGC 1952).

Hundreds of years after the event was seen observations by Mt. Wilson/Palomar
astronomer Walter Baade helped to tie the nebula to the eyewitness reports from the
Chinese astronomers.

In honor of the 955th anniversary of the supernova being seen on Earth I give you 2
photos of the Crab Nebula.

Full article and an image of the Crab Nebula taken by the 200-inch Hale Telescope on
Mount Palomar circa 1959:

http://palomarskies.blogspot.com/2009/07/4th-of-july-fireworks-in-1054-ad.html