“What makes this record special isn’t just its age, but also a later addendum in the ‘Hanshu’ (Book of Han) based on a quote written seven centuries after the eclipse. It describes the eclipsed sun as ‘completely yellow above and below,” lead author Hisashi Hayakawa, a researcher from Nagoya University in central Japan, said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n According to Hawakawa, this description has been historically associated with a solar corona \u2014 the outermost layer of the sun, which peaks out around the edges of the moon as the moon passes between the Earth and sun during an eclipse. “If this is truly the case, it represents one of the earliest surviving written descriptions of the solar corona,” he said.<\/p>\n The team tried verifying the record of the eclipse by modeling the Earth’s rotation speed during this time. But they figured out that the eclipse wouldn’t be visible from Qufu, the capital city of Lu Duchy, where the chronicle was compiled.<\/p>\n \n A photograph of the text in question. (Image credit: Image courtesy of the National Archives of Japan)<\/p>\n So, they looked at historical geography and archaeological excavation reports. They found out that previous studies used coordinates that were about 4.79 miles (8 kilometers) away from the ancient capital.<\/p>\n “This correction allowed us to accurately measure the Earth’s rotation during the total eclipse, calculate the orientation of the Sun’s rotation axis, and simulate the corona’s appearance,” Hayakawa said.<\/p>\n This newly improved dataset, the researchers say, fixes errors in previous studies that looked at the Earth’s rotation. “Additionally, it improves the accuracy of dating and reconstructing historical astronomical events,” coauthor Mitsuru S\u00f4ma, a researcher from Japan’s National Astronomical Observatory, said in a statement.<\/p>\n The one reason why this centuries-old record of an eclipse exists is due to an ancient belief that celestial events carry omens that were related to events of the time. “They believed strange sky phenomena indicated political wrongdoing by emperors, which motivated careful tracking of eclipses, auroras, and other astronomical events,” the release states.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/rX2ggGWTudLbR76Qt5Vc8J.jpg\")
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