This image shows the destructive results of a powerful supernova explosion in X-ray light captured by NASA's Chandra and ESA's XMM-Newton. Known as Puppis A, this supernova remnant is located about 7,000 light-years from Earth and it's roughly 140 light-years across. pic.twitter.com/4hmZ4smUwG
— Chandra Observatory (@chandraxray) November 17, 2023
Puppis A, in the constellation of Taurus, is about 7,000 ly away from Earth and has a "diameter" of about 140 ly. It's interesting to compare it to the Crab Nebula, aka M1 (Messier 1), which is about 6,500 ly away in the Constellation of Taurus and is around 11 ly across, so roughly 13 times smaller than Puppis A. Of Puppis A, it has been calculated that the supernova explosion which caused it occurred about 3,700 years ago - or rather, the light of it reached Earth 3,700 years ago. The supernova explosion that gave birth to the Crab Nebula was recorded by Chinese and Japanese astronomers in 1054, a well established fact. So one can say that some 2,700 years separate the light of the exploding Crab Nebula and of Puppis A reaching our planet - although of course, the actual explosions took place 3,700 years plus 7,000 years equals 10,700 years ago for the latter and 1,000 years plus 6,500 years equals 7,500 years for the former.
Given that the accounts of the Chinese and Japanese astronomers meticulously record the event and describe its brightness as being comparable to a full Moon, it must have been quite a sight. And the question is, would there somewhere exist as yet untranslated records of the sightings of the supernova explosion that yielded Puppis A? 3,700 years ago would place it in the dying days of Sumer, or Egypt's Middle Kingdom at its zenith. Given that Puppis A is thirteen times bigger than the Crab Nebula, and assuming that it can't have expanded in size from a comparable diameter to what it is now, its explosion must have dwarfed the explosion witnessed in 1054. In all likelihood its light must have been many times brighter than that of a full Moon. It is therefore curious that so far and to the best of my knowledge, no ancient Sumerian or Egyptian texts have been discovered detailing the event.
MFBB.
