NATS 1745 Study Guide - Final Guide: Crab Pulsar, Crab Nebula, Dresden Codex
23 Jul 2014
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Document Summary
Why were they more interested in comets and supernovae than in the planets: for the ancient chinese, the sky was the mirror of the earth. By keeping a close eye on the heavens, the emperor could check what was happening in china. Astrology was the whole reason for watching the sky. They believed that the sky was intimately related to events on earth. The ancient chinese believed that when they saw chaos in sky, chaos was going to happen on earth -> specifically government. o: the planets, they understood that planets are normal. They have predictable order/ cycle whereas comets and supernovae don"t. How do we know that the crab pulsar is just over 950 years old: the crab nebula is the debris from a supernova that the chinese saw explode in. At the heat of the twisted remains of the old supernova lies a rapidly spinning relic of the explosion, the crab pulsar.
