High Middle Ages · East Asia · Science

1054

Crab Nebula supernova

July 4, 1054

A new star blazed in Taurus bright enough to see in daylight for weeks, recorded by Song, Japanese, and Arab astronomers. European chroniclers were curiously silent. Modern radio telescopes still study the expanding wreckage as the Crab Nebula, with a pulsar at its heart spinning thirty times a second. Anasazi rock art in Chaco Canyon may also depict the event, a crescent moon beside a bright star.