SN 1054 (
Crab Supernova) was a
supernova that was widely seen on
Earth in the year
1054. It was recorded by
Chinese,
Japanese, and
Persian/Arab astronomers as being bright enough to see in daylight for 23 days and was visible in the night sky for 653 days.
The progenitor star was located in the
Milky Way galaxy at a distance of 6,300 light years and exploded as a core-collapse supernova.
There is also evidence the
Mimbres and
Anasazi Native Americans saw and recorded SN 1054; an Anasazi cliff painting near the great house of
Penasco Blanco may portray it.
It has also been claimed that an obscure entry in a number of Irish monastic annals originally referred to SN 1054 but was subsequently corrupted, becoming in the process an allegorical fantasy based on the legend of the
Antichrist.
The cloudy remnants of SN 1054 are now known as the
Crab Nebula.
The nebula is also referred to as Messier 1 or M1; being the first
Messier Object cataloged in 1758.
X-rays from this object were detected in April 1963 with a high-altitude rocket of type
Aerobee with an X-ray detector developed at the
Naval Research Laboratory; the X-ray source was named
Taurus X-1, and the energy emitted in X-rays by the Crab nebula is about 100 times more than that emitted in the visual light.
A pulsating radio source, now known as the
Crab Pulsar, lies in the heart of the nebula.
See also
