Historical Supernovae and their Remnants

This text, written by two leading experts, reviews the historical observations of supernova explosions in our Galaxy over the past two thousand years and discusses modern observations of the remnants of these explosions at radio and other wavelengths.

This book reviews both the historical observations of supernovae (SN) seen in our Galaxy over the last two millennia and recorded in East Asia (China, Japan and Korea), Europe and the Arabic dominions, together with modern observations of the remnants of these supernovae. Introductory chapters provide background information about the historical observations and our modern understanding of supernovae and novae, and of supernova remnants (SNRs) and pulsars. Subsequent chapters discuss the historical observations of the well defined historical SN and modern observations of their remnants. These chapters cover Kepler''s SN of AD1604, Tycho''s SNe of AD1572, the SN of AD1181, the SN of AD1054 which produced the well known Crab Nebula, and the especially bright SN of AD1006. One chapter discusses the young SNR Cassiopeia A, and the proposed sighting of its SN in AD1680 by Flamsteed. Earlier but less certain supernovae of the preceding millennium chronicled in China are also discussed, along with their possible remnants. Other less certain observations of historical SN, and the future potential for additional historical observations, are briefly discussed. This book also includes as an appendix an up-to-date catalogue of over two hundred known Galactic SNRs.