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Crab Nebula1054 And You Are There It was just another day in the year 1054. People walking around the marketplace, discussing the current gossip about the latest advance of the barbarian hordes to the north. In places, it was raining, perhaps, but SOMEWHERE it was probably clear... Within one minute, a dazzling light ten billion times more energetic than that of the Sun burst into the daytime heavens. Although so far away that it seemed a mere pinpoint, Chinese astronomers reported that the new heavenly jewel outshone all the stars visible in the sky. Its intense glow ruled the sky for months. You could READ by its fiery light. The scholars of the day called them "guest stars", and probably calmed many a fearful citizen when they informed them that one had appeared in 1006, a mere 48 years ago, and that all who witnessed the event survived. For several hundred days, the star was visible during the day, slowly, slowly fading toward the obscurity from which it emerged. The Crab Nebula had just been created. |
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Revised: August 29, 2006
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