SN 1572
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SN 1572 (''
Tycho Tycho is a masculine given name, a latinization of Greek Τύχων, from the name of Tyche ( grc-gre, Τύχη, link=no), the Greek goddess of fortune or luck. The Russian form of the name is '' Tikhon'' (Тихон). People Given name * Tych ...
's Supernova'', ''Tycho's Nova''), or B Cassiopeiae (B Cas), was a supernova of
Type Ia A Type Ia supernova (read: "type one-A") is a type of supernova that occurs in binary systems (two stars orbiting one another) in which one of the stars is a white dwarf. The other star can be anything from a giant star to an even smaller white ...
in the constellation Cassiopeia, one of eight supernovae visible to the naked eye in historical records. It appeared in early November
1572 Year 1572 ( MDLXXII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events January–June * January 16 – Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, is tried for treason, for his part ...
and was independently discovered by many individuals. Its supernova remnant has been observed optically but was first detected at radio wavelengths; it is often known as 3C 10, a radio-source designation, although increasingly as Tycho's supernova remnant.


Historic description

The appearance of the
Milky Way The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked ey ...
supernova of 1572 belongs among the most important observation events in the history of astronomy. The appearance of the "new star" helped to revise ancient models of the heavens and to speed on a revolution in astronomy that began with the realisation of the need to produce better astrometric
star catalogue A star catalogue is an astronomical catalogue that lists stars. In astronomy, many stars are referred to simply by catalogue numbers. There are a great many different star catalogues which have been produced for different purposes over the years ...
s (and thus the need for more precise astronomical observing instruments). It also challenged the Aristotelian dogma of the unchangeability of the realm of stars. The supernova of 1572 is often called "Tycho's supernova", because of
Tycho Brahe Tycho Brahe ( ; born Tyge Ottesen Brahe; generally called Tycho (14 December 154624 October 1601) was a Danish astronomer, known for his comprehensive astronomical observations, generally considered to be the most accurate of his time. He was ...
's extensive work ''De nova et nullius aevi memoria prius visa stella'' ("Concerning the Star, new and never before seen in the life or memory of anyone", published in 1573 with reprints overseen by Johannes Kepler in 1602 and 1610), a work containing both Brahe's own observations and the analysis of sightings from many other observers. Comparisons between Brahe's observations and those of Spanish scientist Jerónimo Muñoz revealed that the object was more distant than the
Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width ...
. This would lead Brahe to approach the
Great Comet of 1577 The Great Comet of 1577 (official designation: C/1577 V1) is a non-periodic comet that passed close to Earth during the year 1577 AD. Having an official designation beginning with "C" classes it as a non-periodic comet, and so it is not expected t ...
as an astronomical body as well. Other Europeans to sight the supernova included Wolfgang Schuler, Christopher Clavius, Thomas Digges,
John Dee John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, teacher, occultist, and alchemist. He was the court astronomer for, and advisor to, Elizabeth I, and spent much of his time on alchemy, divinatio ...
,
Francesco Maurolico Francesco Maurolico (Latin: ''Franciscus Maurolycus''; Italian: ''Francesco Maurolico''; gr, Φραγκίσκος Μαυρόλυκος, 16 September 1494 - 21/22 July 1575) was a mathematician and astronomer from Sicily. He made contributions t ...
,
Tadeáš Hájek Tadeáš Hájek z Hájku () (1 December 1525 in Prague – 1 September 1600 in Prague), also known as Tadeáš Hájek of Hájek, Thaddaeus Hagecius ab Hayek or Thaddeus Nemicus, was a Czech naturalist, personal physician of the Holy Roma ...
, and Bartholomäus Reisacher. In England,
Queen Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elisabeth or Elizabeth the Queen may refer to: Queens regnant * Elizabeth I (1533–1603; ), Queen of England and Ireland * Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022 ...
had the mathematician and astrologer Thomas Allen come and visit "to have his advice about the new star that appeared in the Swan or Cassiopeia ... to which he gave his judgement very learnedly", as the antiquary
John Aubrey John Aubrey (12 March 1626 – 7 June 1697) was an English antiquarian, antiquary, Natural philosophy, natural philosopher and writer. He is perhaps best known as the author of the ''Brief Lives'', his collection of short biographical pieces. ...
recorded in his memoranda a century later. In
Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
China, the star became an issue between Zhang Juzheng and the young Wanli Emperor: in accordance with the cosmological tradition, the emperor was warned to consider his misbehavior, since the new star was interpreted as an evil omen. The more reliable contemporary reports state that the new star itself burst forth soon after November 2, and by November 11 it was already brighter than Jupiter. Around November 16, 1572, it reached its peak brightness at about magnitude −4.0, with some descriptions giving it as equal to
Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...
when that planet was at its brightest. Contrarily, Brahe described the supernova as "brighter than Venus". The supernova remained visible to the naked eye into early 1574, gradually fading until it disappeared from view.


The supernova

The supernova was classified as type I on the basis of its historical
light curve In astronomy, a light curve is a graph of light intensity of a celestial object or region as a function of time, typically with the magnitude of light received on the y axis and with time on the x axis. The light is usually in a particular frequ ...
soon after type I and type II supernovae were first defined on the basis of their spectra. The
X-ray X-rays (or rarely, ''X-radiation'') are a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. In many languages, it is referred to as Röntgen radiation, after the German scientist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, who discovered it in 1895 and named it ' ...
spectrum of the remnant showed that it was almost certainly of
type Ia A Type Ia supernova (read: "type one-A") is a type of supernova that occurs in binary systems (two stars orbiting one another) in which one of the stars is a white dwarf. The other star can be anything from a giant star to an even smaller white ...
, but its detailed classification within the type Ia class continued to be debated until the spectrum of its light at peak luminosity was measured in a light echo in 2008. This gave final confirmation that it was a normal type Ia. The classification as a type Ia supernova of normal luminosity allows an accurate measure of the distance to SN 1572. The peak
absolute magnitude Absolute magnitude () is a measure of the luminosity of a celestial object on an inverse logarithmic astronomical magnitude scale. An object's absolute magnitude is defined to be equal to the apparent magnitude that the object would have if it we ...
can be calculated from the B-band decline rate to be . Given estimates of the peak
apparent magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star or other astronomical object observed from Earth. An object's apparent magnitude depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance from Earth, and any extinction of the object's li ...
and the known extinction of magnitudes, the distance is kpc.


Supernova remnant

The distance to the supernova remnant has been estimated to between 2 and 5 kpc (approx. 6,500 and 16,300
light-years A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46  trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 101 ...
), with recent studies suggesting a narrower range of 2.5 and 3 kpc (approx. 8,000 and 9,800 light-years).


Initial radio detection

The search for a supernova remnant was negative until 1952, when
Robert Hanbury Brown Robert Hanbury Brown, AC FRS (31 August 1916 – 16 January 2002) was a British astronomer and physicist born in Aruvankadu, India. He made notable contributions to the development of radar and later conducted pioneering work in the field of ...
and Cyril Hazard reported a radio detection at 158.5 MHz, obtained at the Jodrell Bank Observatory. This was confirmed, and its position more accurately measured in 1957 by Baldwin and Edge using the Cambridge Radio Telescope working at a wavelength of . The remnant was also identified tentatively in the second Cambridge Catalogue of Radio Sources as object "2C 34", and more firmly as "3C 10" in the third Cambridge list (Edge et al. 1959). There is no dispute that 3C 10 is the remnant of the supernova observed in 1572–1573. Following a 1964 review article by Minkowski, the designation 3C 10 appears to be that most commonly used in the literature when referring to the radio remnant of B Cas, although some authors use the tabulated Galactic designation G120.7+2.1 and many authors commonly refer to it as ''Tycho's supernova remnant''. Because the radio remnant was reported before the optical supernova-remnant wisps were discovered, the designation 3C 10 is used by some to signify the remnant at all wavelengths.


The X-ray observation

An X-ray source designated Cepheus X-1 (or Cep X-1) was detected by the
Uhuru Uhuru (a Swahili word meaning ''freedom'') may refer to: People * Uhuru Hamiter (born 1973), American football player * Uhuru Kenyatta (born 1961), President of Kenya since 2013 Places *Uhuru (Tanzanian ward), an administrative ward in the Dodoma ...
X-ray observatory at 4U 0022+63. Earlier catalog designations are X120+2 and XRS 00224+638. Cepheus X-1 is actually in the constellation Cassiopeia, and it is SN 1572, the Tycho SNR.


Optical detection

The supernova remnant of B Cas was discovered in the 1960s by scientists with a Palomar Mountain telescope as a very faint
nebula A nebula ('cloud' or 'fog' in Latin; pl. nebulae, nebulæ or nebulas) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming regio ...
. It was later photographed by a telescope on the international ROSAT spacecraft. The supernova has been confirmed as
Type Ia A Type Ia supernova (read: "type one-A") is a type of supernova that occurs in binary systems (two stars orbiting one another) in which one of the stars is a white dwarf. The other star can be anything from a giant star to an even smaller white ...
, in which a
white dwarf A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes ...
star has accreted matter from a companion until it approaches the
Chandrasekhar limit The Chandrasekhar limit () is the maximum mass of a stable white dwarf star. The currently accepted value of the Chandrasekhar limit is about (). White dwarfs resist gravitational collapse primarily through electron degeneracy pressure, compar ...
and explodes. This type of supernova does not typically create the spectacular
nebula A nebula ('cloud' or 'fog' in Latin; pl. nebulae, nebulæ or nebulas) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming regio ...
more typical of Type II supernovas, such as SN 1054 which created the
Crab Nebula The Crab Nebula (catalogue designations Messier object, M1, New General Catalogue, NGC 1952, Taurus (constellation), Taurus A) is a supernova remnant and pulsar wind nebula in the constellation of Taurus (constellation), Taurus. The common name ...
. A shell of gas is still expanding from its center at about 9,000 km/s. A recent study indicates a rate of expansion below 5,000 km/s.


The companion star

In October 2004, a letter in ''
Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans ar ...
'' reported the discovery of a G2 star, similar in type to our own Sun and named
Tycho G Tycho G has been proposed as the surviving binary companion star of the SN 1572 supernova event. The star is located about light-years away in the constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group ...
. It is thought to be the companion star that contributed mass to the
white dwarf A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes ...
that ultimately resulted in the supernova. A subsequent study, published in March 2005, revealed further details about this star: Tycho G was probably a main-sequence star or subgiant before the explosion, but some of its mass was stripped away and its outer layers were shock-heated by the supernova. Tycho G's current velocity is perhaps the strongest evidence that it was the companion star to the white dwarf, as it is traveling at a rate of 136 km/s, which is more than four times faster than the mean velocity of other stars in its stellar neighbourhood. This find has been challenged in recent years. The star is relatively far away from the center and does not show rotation which might be expected of a companion star. In Gaia DR2, the star was calculated to be light-years away, on the lower end of SN 1572's possible range of distances, which in turn lowered the calculated velocity from 136 km/s to only 56 km/s.


In literature

In the ninth episode of
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the Modernism, modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important ...
's '' Ulysses'', Stephen Dedalus associates the appearance of the supernova with the youthful
William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
, and in the November 1998 issue of '' Sky & Telescope'', three researchers from Southwest Texas State University, Don Olson and Russell Doescher of the Physics Department and Marilynn Olson of the English Department, argued that this supernova is described in Shakespeare's ''
Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depi ...
'', specifically by Bernardo in Act I, Scene i. The supernova inspired the poem " Al Aaraaf" by
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...
. The protagonist in
Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science-fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A Spac ...
's 1955 short story " The Star" casually mentions the supernova. It is a major element in
Frederik Pohl Frederik George Pohl Jr. (; November 26, 1919 – September 2, 2013) was an American science-fiction writer, editor, and fan, with a career spanning nearly 75 years—from his first published work, the 1937 poem "Elegy to a Dead Satellite ...
's spoof science article, " The Martian Star-Gazers", first published in ''Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine'' in 1962.


See also

* List of supernova remnants


References


External links


Light curve and spectrum of Tycho's Supernova
*



* ttp://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/01/01/important.days/index.html cnn.com: Important days in history of universe {{Portal bar, Astronomy, Stars, Spaceflight, Outer space, Solar System Historical supernovae Supernova remnants 1572 1572 in science Tycho Brahe Cassiopeia (constellation) Articles containing video clips 15721104 Cassiopeiae, B
0092 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Arabic digit In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...
Durchmusterung objects