A Reappraisal of Some Proposed Historical Supernovae

As discussed below (Section 4.1), the evidence that Flamsteed observed a Galactic supernova in a.d. 1680 is far from convincing.

Stephenson F. R. Green D. A. , Historical supernovae and their remnants (Oxford, 2002).

The new stars seen in a.d. 185, 386 and 393 all appeared in low galactic latitude. However, the position of the star of a.d. 369 is so vaguely described that its galactic latitude is unknown. See Stephenson Green , op. cit. (ref. 2).

Green D. A. , “Galactic supernova remnants: An updated catalogue and some statistics”, Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of India , xxxii (2004), 335–70.

See, for example, Yoke Peng Ho , “Ancient and medieval observations of comets and novae in Chinese sources”, Vistas in astronomy , v (1962), 127–225; Yoke Peng Ho Tian-Se Ang , “Chinese astronomical records on comets and ‘guest stars’”, Oriens extremus , xvii (1970), 63–97.

Green , op. cit. (ref. 4).

Stephenson F. R. Yau K. K. C. , “Far Eastern observations of Halley's Comet — 240 b.c. to a.d. 1368”, Journal of the British Interplanetary Society , xxxviii (1985), 195–216.

Ashworth W. B. Jr , “A probable Flamsteed observation of the Cassiopeia A supernova”, Journal for the history of astronomy , xi (1980), 1–9.

Thorstensen J. R. Fesen R. A. van den Bergh S. , “The expansion center and dynamical age of the Galactic supernova remnant Cassiopeia A”, The astronomical journal , cxxii (2001), 297–307. The probable date of outburst deduced by Thorstensen is tantalisingly close to the date of Flamsteed's observations.

See Broughton R. P. , “Flamsteed's 3 Cas = AR Cas + SAO 35386”, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada , lxxiii (1979), 381–3; Kamper K. W. , “Are there historical records of the Cas A supernova?”, The observatory , c (1980), 3–4. For a detailed recent discussion, see Stephenson Green , op. cit. (ref. 2), chap. 4.

Stephenson Green , op. cit. (ref. 2), chap. 4.

Reynoso E. M. Goss W. M. , “Very Large Array observations of 6 centimeter H₂CO in the direction of Cassiopeia A”, The astrophysical journal , dlxxv (2002), 871–85, who estimated an optical absorption of 8 magnitudes towards Cas A.

Zhenru Wang , “A historical hypernova and the youngest pulsar”, in New century of X-ray astronomy , ed. by Inoue H. Kunieda H. (San Francisco, 2001), 284–5.

The other two enclosures were Ziwei (in the north circumpolar region) and Taiwei (mainly in Leo and Virgo).

Qibin Li , “Cygnus X-1: The remnant of the historical supernova of 1408”, Chinese astronomy , iii (1979), 315–17.

See also Zhenru Wang , “Historical supernovae and supernova remnants”, in Supernovae and supernova remnants , ed. by McCray R. Zhenru Wang (Cambridge, 1996), 323–31; Qibin Li , “Chinese astronomy in the 15th century”, Astronomy in the time of King Sejong , ed. by Kyung Sim Changbom Park (Daejeon, 2001), 24–31.

Stephenson F. R. Yau K. K. C. , “The new star of a.d. 1408: A spurious supernova?”, Quarterly journal of the Royal Astronomical Society , xxvii (1986), 559–68.

McBeath A. , an avid meteor observer, informs us that over the years he has witnessed several bright meteors that showed no lateral motion.

Imaeda K. Kiang T. , “The Japanese record of the guest-star of 1408”, Journal for the history of astronomy , xi (1980), 77–80; which is almost identical to Kiang T. Imaeda K. , “A possible identification of Cygnus X-1 with a guest star of 1408”, Irish astronomical journal , xiv (1980), 138–41.

Zhenru Wang Zhiyuan Li Yi Zhao , “Is SGR 1900+14 associated with the 4 B.C.E. ‘Po Star’?”, The astrophysical journal , dlxix (2002), L43–L45.

The five phases (‘elements’) of Chinese philosophy were: Metal, wood, water, earth, fire.

Shitong Yi , Quantian Xingtu: 2000.0 (All-sky star atlas for epoch 2000.0) (Beijing, 1984).

Dong Zuobin (= Tung Tso-pin), Yinlipu (Sichuan, 1945).

Xi Zezong (= Hsi Tse-tsung), “A new catalog of ancient nova”, Smithsonian contributions to astrophysics , ii (1955), 109–30.

Needham J. , Science and civilisation in China , iii (Cambridge, 1959), 424.

Zhenru Wang , “Two gamma-ray sources and ancient guest stars”, Science , ccxxxv (1987), 1485–6; J. J. Xu, Z. R. Wang (= Wang Zhenru) and Q. Y. Qu, “2CG 353+16 and the fourteenth century B.C. supernova”, Astronomy & astrophysics , cclvi (1992), 483–6; Ru Zhen Wang Ikuko Asaoka Satio Hayakawa Katsuji Koyama , “Hard X-rays from the supernova remnant IC 443”, Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan , xliv (1992), 303–8; Börner G. Qibin Li Aschenbach B. , “Some possible identifications of ROSAT sources with historical SN events”, in Mining the sky , ed. by Banday A. J. Zaroubi S. Bartelmann M. (Heidelberg, 2001), 649–55.

Zhentao Xu Pankenier D. W. Yaotiao Jiang , East Asian archaeoastronomy (Amsterdam, 2000), chap. 2.

Needham , op. cit. (ref. 25).

Wang , op. cit. (ref. 26, 1987), and Börner op. cit. (ref. 26).

Wang , op. cit. (ref. 26, 1987).

Börner , op. cit. (ref. 26).

Xu , op. cit. (ref. 27).

The Xu Zizhi Tongjian Changbian (Long draft of the continuation of the comprehensive mirror for aid in government) is a detailed chronicle covering the period from a.d. 960 to 1126.

Wang , op. cit. (ref. 26, 1987).

The identification of the radio source 3C386 as a supernovae remnant, possibly associated with the supposed supernova of a.d. 1230, was first made by Yu. Pskovskii, “A reclassification of Galactic supernovae, with tentative identifications of the 1928 and 902 outbursts”, Soviet astronomy , vii (1964), 501–4. This possible identification was discussed further by Yu. Pskovskii, “The radio source 3C 386: A supernova remnant?”, Soviet astronomy , ix (1965), 526–7, and by MacKay C. D. “3C386: Radio galaxy or supernova remnant?”, Astrophysical letters , v (1970), 173–6. Subsequent observations, however, show that 3C386 is in fact a radio galaxy; see, for example, Becker R. H. Kundu M. R. , “3.7 and 11.1 centimeter observations of the radio galaxy 3C 386”, The astrophysical journal , ccvii (1976), 29–35 (although these authors give the date of the supposed supernova as a.d. 1231). (For further discussion of the supposed SN of a.d. 902 discussed by Pskovskii, op. cit. (ref. 35), see Stephenson F. R. , “Historical searches for supernovae”, in Origin of cosmic rays , ed. by Osborne J. L. Wolfendale A. W. (Dordrecht, 1975), 399–424).

Yoke Peng Ho , op. cit. (ref. 5).

Wang , op. cit. (ref. 26, 1992).