Colliding Stars Explain Enigmatic Seventeenth Century Explosion

By European Southern Observatory on Mar 24, 2015   Science/Education  

Some of seventeenth century’s greatest astronomers, including Hevelius — the father of lunar cartography — and Cassini, carefully documented the appearance of a new star in the skies in 1670. Hevelius described it as nova sub capite Cygni — a new star below the head of the Swan — but astronomers now know it by […]