{"id":521704,"date":"2026-07-02T13:33:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T13:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/521704\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T13:33:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T13:33:23","slug":"ancient-texts-described-a-strange-object-in-the-sky-astronomers-have-just-worked-out-what-it-was-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/521704\/","title":{"rendered":"Ancient texts described a strange object in the sky. Astronomers have just worked out what it was"},"content":{"rendered":"

For astronomers, it’s a source of quite some frustration that the last time we observed a supernova<\/a> in our own Milky Way Galaxy \u2013 way back in 1604 \u2013 no one had a telescope to point at it.<\/p>\n

Often, we have to result to observing and studying the remnants of previous supernovae \u2013\u00a0known as supernova remnants \u2013\u00a0and these at least do tell us how these stellar explosions influenced their surroundings.<\/p>\n

\"CelestialCredit: Edward Tuckwell \/ Folio<\/p>\n

However, observations of supernova remnants are more useful, the more we know about the actual supernova explosions themselves.<\/p>\n

We do, thankfully have a few contemporary observations from Europe. For example, epler<\/a> spotted that 1604 event.<\/p>\n

But mostly we rely on Japanese and Chinese records.<\/p>\n

\"JohannesJohannes Kepler. Photo by Dito\/Ullstein Bild via Getty Images
\nAncient text and the eternal poetry of the skies<\/p>\n

I’ve been reading one scientific paper that makes a good case for ancient Arabic observations of two historical supernovae.<\/p>\n

There’s a bright event in 1006 that is reported to have been widely seen. There’s also a less well-known one in 1181 or 1182 \u2013 which may have been hiding in plain sight.<\/p>\n

Incredibly, the observations of that particular event are contained in a poem that the authors of the study \u2013 Arabists and an astronomer working in collaboration \u2013 reckon they can reliably date for the first time.<\/p>\n

Historic Japanese and Chinese records suggest a northern supernova around 1181 and, for some time, astronomers believed they could pinpoint which exact pulsar<\/a> it had produced.<\/p>\n

However, this candidate remnant is now believed to be too old.<\/p>\n

Instead, another star has been connected with the suprnova \u2013 an otherwise obscure star known as IRAS 00500+6713.<\/p>\n

This star has a nebula \u2013 a cosmic cloud of gas and dust \u2013 surrounding it that seems about a millennium old.<\/p>\n

But whether this system could have survived a supernova is uncertain.<\/p>\n

\"Artist'sArtist’s impression of a rapidly-rotation neutron star, known as a pulsar. Credit: dani3315\/iStock\/Getty Images
\nHidden in flattery<\/p>\n

Enter Ibn San\u0101’ al-Mulk, sitting in 12th-century Cairo writing a poem to praise the great leader Saladin.<\/p>\n

The poem, preserved in collections all over the world, mentions a new \u2018najm\u2019, or star \u2013 a term the authors point out would have included a supernova.<\/p>\n

Crucially, this new star, which in the poem appears to reflect Saladin\u2019s greatness, lies in or near the constellation of al-Kaff al-Khab\u012bb, or the Dyed Hand \u2013 an asterism made up of the five bright stars we call Cassiopeia<\/a>, which matches the supernova\u2019s northern location.<\/p>\n

So there\u2019s a new star. But we need to know when the poem was written.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe distinctive \u2018W\u2019 shape of Cassiopeia. Credit: Michael Breite\/Stefan Heutz\/Wolfgang Ries\/ccdguide.com<\/p>\n

The authors note this is a praise poem, written to impress a powerful protector.<\/p>\n

But there is praise not only for Saladin but for his brother, which only makes sense if both were in the same place to hear it: and they were both in Egypt in 1181\/1182.<\/p>\n

In addition, the poem praises Saladin for defending Mecca, a feat the authors match with a Crusader attack in December 1181.<\/p>\n

The poem, then, must have been written between December 1181 and May 1182, when Saladin left Egypt.<\/p>\n

If the new star \u2013 which we\u2019re told is bright \u2013 is indeed our supernova, this gives us a pretty exact age.<\/p>\n

\"Artist'sArtist’s impression of a supernova. Credit: Mehau\/SPL\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

That\u2019s very useful science, derived from a historical analysis of a poem that was designed to flatter and charm. But there\u2019s one more lesson to take from this story.<\/p>\n

If the research authors are correct, and Ibn San\u0101\u2019 al-Mulk is using a recent supernova to praise his patrons, then knowledge of this bright new star must have been commonplace, at least among the court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As well as scientific information, the poem gives us a glimpse of a society where a nearby supernova was big enough news to reach even the great and the good.<\/p>\n

Whenever the next supernova is spotted, let\u2019s hope we\u2019re as lucky.<\/p>\n

Chris Lintott was reading New Arabic Records from Cairo on Supernovae 1181 and 1006 by J G Fischer, H Halm et al. Read it online at: arxiv.org\/abs\/2509.04127<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For astronomers, it’s a source of quite some frustration that the last time we observed a supernova in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145],"class_list":["post-521704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}