The Guest Star of 1054
Chinese astronomers recorded a 'guest star' bright enough to see in daylight for three weeks. Its wreckage still glows.
What was reported
On 4 July 1054, astronomers at the Song dynasty court recorded a 'guest star' near what we call the constellation Taurus. It was visible in daylight for 23 days and in the night sky for nearly two years before it faded.
Japanese records also describe it, and a rock painting by the Ancestral Puebloans at Chaco Canyon, in New Mexico, may show it too. Strangely, almost no European record of it survives.
Explanations offered
It was a supernova, the explosion of a massive star about 6,500 light years away. Its remains are the Crab Nebula, an expanding cloud of gas with a pulsar, a spinning neutron star, at its centre, flashing about 30 times a second. Why European chroniclers seem to have missed it is still debated.
- When
- 4 July 1054
- Where
- Kaifeng, Henan, China
- Witnesses
- Astronomers at the Song dynasty court
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.