Astrophysics (Index)About

guest star

(translation of ancient Chinese term for a visible transient)

The term guest star is the English translation of an ancient Chinese term for a star that appears in the sky and later disappears. Chinese histories and chronicles have interpretable references to astronomy going back 2000 years, which have been useful in learning about transients from the time (such as visible supernovae) and relating them to current observation, e.g., the presumed supernova remnants.


(astronomy,transients,supernovae)
Further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guest_star_(astronomy)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_1181
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2021ApJ...918L..33R/abstract

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