It was a summer month, the year was July 04,1054. One Chinese astronomer during the mid evening he was doing his astronomical works. As the weather was hot and sweaty he decided to sit in his garden and do the rest astronomical works while getting cold breeze.
While doing his astronomical works, he suddenly noticed a bright flash light appeared and brighten the sky. It was as bright as a full moon. He immediately noted the star demise in his script that new "guest star" appeared in the sky above the southern horn of the constellation Taurus. He described as eight times brighter than Venus and about as brilliant as the full Moon.
Actually he saw the violent death of a massive star that may have been 20 times more massive than our Sun. The explosion was so violent that it was visible during the day time for about a month. After that it started to fade away very slowly. For the 1st six month it was still bright enough but not as bright as the 1st one month. Within the next six month (i.e. full one year of supernova) it faded a lot and appearing just like Venus. Within the next five years of supernova it was appearing like smoky fuzzy object and by ten years it fully disappeared. Only good un-aided eye can see a small fuzzy dot that's it.
*During the 1st six month Chinese astronomers described that the star as having pointed rays in all four directions and a reddish-white color.*
According to history, this supernova was also recorded by India and Japan as well as Arab worlds. During those days ancient astronomers due to lack of precise instruments was unable to study futher about this supernova. As we all know during those years science was not matured perfectly.
This supernova was forgotten for more than 700 years until the invention of the first telescopes, which revealed a bit fainter details which un-aided human eye cannot see.
In 1731, English physicist and amateur astronomer John Bevis observed the strings of gas and dust that form the nebula.
While hunting for comets in 1758, Charles Messier independently re-discovered this nebula and noted it. The nebula became the first entry in his famous "Catalogue of Nebulae and Star Clusters," first published in 1774.
Lord Rosse observed the nebula using his 36-inch (0.9 m) telescope and named the object as the "Crab Nebula" because a drawing he made of it looked like a "Crab". He observed it again later, in 1848, using a 72-inch (1.8 m) telescope and could not confirm resemblance which he did on past observation, but the name "Crab Nebula" got popular.
In 1913, when Vesto Slipher did his spectroscopy study of the sky, the "Crab Nebula" was again one of the first objects to be studied.
The analysis of early photographs of this nebula taken several years apart revealed that this nebula was expanding. Tracing the expansion revealed that the nebula must have become visible on Earth about 900 years ago. Historical records revealed that a new star bright enough to be seen in the daytime had been recorded in the same part of the sky by Chinese astronomers in 1054.
This is the detailed story of "Crab Nebula" which we now see in the night sky. It's also called as M1 or Messier 1.
I hope you like this article about the story of "Crab Nebula". If you have something to share or you have opinion do leave your comment below.
Actually he saw the violent death of a massive star that may have been 20 times more massive than our Sun. The explosion was so violent that it was visible during the day time for about a month. After that it started to fade away very slowly. For the 1st six month it was still bright enough but not as bright as the 1st one month. Within the next six month (i.e. full one year of supernova) it faded a lot and appearing just like Venus. Within the next five years of supernova it was appearing like smoky fuzzy object and by ten years it fully disappeared. Only good un-aided eye can see a small fuzzy dot that's it.
*During the 1st six month Chinese astronomers described that the star as having pointed rays in all four directions and a reddish-white color.*
According to history, this supernova was also recorded by India and Japan as well as Arab worlds. During those days ancient astronomers due to lack of precise instruments was unable to study futher about this supernova. As we all know during those years science was not matured perfectly.
This supernova was forgotten for more than 700 years until the invention of the first telescopes, which revealed a bit fainter details which un-aided human eye cannot see.
In 1731, English physicist and amateur astronomer John Bevis observed the strings of gas and dust that form the nebula.
While hunting for comets in 1758, Charles Messier independently re-discovered this nebula and noted it. The nebula became the first entry in his famous "Catalogue of Nebulae and Star Clusters," first published in 1774.
Lord Rosse observed the nebula using his 36-inch (0.9 m) telescope and named the object as the "Crab Nebula" because a drawing he made of it looked like a "Crab". He observed it again later, in 1848, using a 72-inch (1.8 m) telescope and could not confirm resemblance which he did on past observation, but the name "Crab Nebula" got popular.
In 1913, when Vesto Slipher did his spectroscopy study of the sky, the "Crab Nebula" was again one of the first objects to be studied.
The analysis of early photographs of this nebula taken several years apart revealed that this nebula was expanding. Tracing the expansion revealed that the nebula must have become visible on Earth about 900 years ago. Historical records revealed that a new star bright enough to be seen in the daytime had been recorded in the same part of the sky by Chinese astronomers in 1054.
This is the detailed story of "Crab Nebula" which we now see in the night sky. It's also called as M1 or Messier 1.
I hope you like this article about the story of "Crab Nebula". If you have something to share or you have opinion do leave your comment below.
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