In 1572, a “new star” appeared in the sky which stunned astronomers and exploded ancient theories of the universe.
Now the supernova recorded by Tycho Brahe has been glimpsed again, by Max Planck Institute scientists.
They used telescopes in Hawaii and Spain to capture faint light echoes of the original explosion, reflected by interstellar dust.
The study will help solve a 400-year-old mystery over the nature of the celestial event which captivated observers across the globe.
Among those who marvelled was the great Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, who recorded its precise position in his book, “Stella Nova”.
His measurements revealed the “new star” was located far beyond the Moon – contradicting the Aristotelian tradition that such stars were unchangeable – which had dominated western thinking for nearly 2000 years.
This set the stage for the work of Kepler, Galileo, Newton and others.
via BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Ancient supernova mystery solved
Posted by ephrem mesfin on December 5, 2008 at 12:57 pm
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Posted by Easy Nash on December 5, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Brilliant record of a supernova explosion from around 400 years ago. Here is a supernova remnant from an explosion that occured in 1006CE, when Shia Ismaili Muslim cosmologist-philosopher-poet Nasir Khusraw was 2 years old!
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080704.html