© NASA/JPL-Caltech
Since ancient times supernovae - the explosive deaths of stars - have been observed and recorded with fascination. Chinese astronomers described an event in 185 CE as resembling a large bamboo mat in the sky and noted that its five colours were “both pleasing and otherwise”. Almost a thousand years later in 1006 CE Islamic scholars witnessed a spectacle three times the apparent size and 16 times the brightness of Venus, which may also have been recorded in Native American petroglyphs.
These dense white dwarfs orbit each other every 321.5 seconds. It’s the fastest moving binary system ever found
© NASA