Astronomers solve 900-year-old cosmic mystery surrounding Chinese supernova of 1181AD:
A 900-year-old cosmic mystery surrounding the origins of a famous supernova first spotted over China in 1181 AD has finally been solved, according to an international team of astronomers.
New research published today (September 15, 2021) says that a faint, fast expanding cloud (or nebula), called Pa30, surrounding one of the hottest stars in the Milky Way, known as Parker's Star, fits the profile, location and age of the historic supernova.
There have only been five bright supernovae in the Milky Way in the last millennium (starting in 1006). Of these, the Chinese supernova, which is also known as the "Chinese Guest Star" of 1181 AD has remained a mystery. It was originally seen and documented by Chinese and Japanese astronomers in the 12th century who said it was as bright as the planet Saturn and remained visible for six months. They also recorded an approximate location in the sky of the sighting, but no confirmed remnant of the explosion has even been identified by modern astronomers. The other four supernovae are all now well known to modern day science and include the famous Crab nebula.
The source of this 12th century explosion remained a mystery until this latest discovery made by a team of international astronomers from Hong Kong, the UK, Spain, Hungary and France, including Professor Albert Zijlstra from The University of Manchester. In the new paper, the astronomers found that the Pa 30 nebula is expanding at an extreme velocity of more than 1,100 km per second (at this speed, traveling from the Earth to the moon would take only five minutes). They use this velocity to derive an age at around 1,000 years, which would coincide with the events of 1181 AD.
Journal Reference:
Andreas Ritter, Quentin A. Parker, Foteini Lykou, et al. The Remnant and Origin of the Historical Supernova 1181 AD - IOPscience, The Astrophysical Journal Letters (DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ac2253)
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @08:44PM (18 children)
> There have only been five bright supernovae in the Milky Way in the last millennium (starting in 1006).
The last millennium started in 1021 not 1006.
> They use this velocity to derive an age at around 1,000 years, which would coincide with the events of 1181 AD.
1000 years ago coincides with 1021 not 1181.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @09:00PM (1 child)
They have pills for autism now.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @09:24PM
I would have thought the astrologers would care a little bit about accuracy. Hell, if you can be wrong by 100 years then who needs relativity. Newton is close enough if you just want ballpark.
(Score: 4, Touché) by dwilson on Thursday September 16 2021, @09:30PM (15 children)
And if you make the usual assumption that a millennium is an interval of one thousand years with the dividers at 0, 1000, 2000, and so on, then the last millennium was between 1000 and 2000 (give or take a year), and the current millennium consists of 2000+, and is not yet finished.
That being the case, the statement then parses as the first of five recorded supernovae between 1000 and 2000 was in 1006. Have we recorded any supernova sightings post-2000? If so, by deduction they aren't among the five mentioned in the summery.
Maybe so, but 'around 1000 years ago' could quite reasonably be parsed as '1000 years ago, give or take a few hundred', in which case again, the statement is entirely accurate. Assuming you don't fail at math and agree with me that 1181 is within a few hundred of 1000, of course.
Math fails, not so much. Reading comprehension fails, perhaps. Nitpicking over pointless shit on the internet? Priceless.
- D
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday September 16 2021, @09:54PM (6 children)
Except that nitpickers consider 2000 to be the last year of the prior millennium rather than the first year of the current one.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17 2021, @12:06AM (5 children)
Real programmers start counting at zero.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17 2021, @02:07AM (4 children)
Julius Caesar wasn't a programmer. Neither was Gregory XIII. There was no year '0'.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday September 17 2021, @08:31AM (3 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2, Disagree) by maxwell demon on Friday September 17 2021, @06:38PM (2 children)
No, there wasn't. When the current year numbering was introduced, the number zero was not yet known in Europe. Therefore the year 1 BC was followed by the year 1 AD. And since then, the year numbering has never again been changed.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday September 17 2021, @10:41PM
False, there was. Unless you think plurals stop in the single digits.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday September 17 2021, @10:44PM
Ah, I replied too early, on your first error.
If you believe the above, no wonder you made the mistake that you did.
Shake some of the cruft out of your brain, and make room for some facts:
"Astronomical year numbering is based on AD/CE year numbering, but follows normal decimal integer numbering more strictly. Thus, it has a year 0;"
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_year_numbering
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @10:05PM (1 child)
The biggest math fail is the equivalence of 840 years to 900 years. That's not even close enough to round!
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @10:09PM
It is in Base 300.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17 2021, @04:05AM
All this bullshit. Just put the right fucking numbers in the first place, or we can allow everyone some safe-space around their science and nothing's ever incorrect and the Chinese confirm the results (what a surprize) and Kim Jong Un hit another hole in 1 hooray back to sleep everybody. WAKE UP SHEEPLE@@@@@@@@
(Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Friday September 17 2021, @04:48AM
Fortunately, it is still summery. In a few days, it will be autumny.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday September 17 2021, @08:34AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday September 17 2021, @08:50AM (2 children)
Not just "could reasonably be", but "absolutely definitely is". From TFP:
"""
Assuming that the angular radius of the shell is 100"±10" and taking the latest Gaia distance of 2.30±0.14 kpc (Bailer-Jones et al. 2021), the highest-velocity shell extends to a total diameter of 2.2±0.4 pc. If we further assume that the 1100 km/s gas is expanding at a constant velocity, and that the uncertainty on the expansion velocity is 10%, the highest-velocity shell has a kinematic age of 990[+280/-220] yr.
"""
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17 2021, @12:11PM (1 child)
So while there is same likelihood it was in 751 as 1251, there is 0.7ish likelihood it was before 1141.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday September 17 2021, @10:54PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves