More than 160,000 years ago, a white dwarf supernova happened in the nearby dwarf galaxy we call the Large Magellanic Cloud. Its light traveled through space and reached Earth about 670 years ago. This is a new prediction that astronomers are working on. By examining the debris shell of this dead star, they were able to rewind time and calculate when it might appear in the sky.
The Large Magellanic Cloud is a companion galaxy to our Milky Way. It can be seen in the Southern Hemisphere's night sky along with another dwarf galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud. Supernova SNR 0519−69.0 had been under study for a long time, and a combination of optical observations from Hubble and X-ray data from NASA's Chandra observatory has now provided a more detailed view of how quickly the shock wave from the explosion is expanding.
The fastest shocks travel at 5,820 kilometers per second. The slowest shocks average 1,670 kilometers per second. Reconstruction of the expansion of these shock waves puts the explosion about 670 years ago, plus or minus 70 years.
A very different world would have potentially seen the supernova in the sky if we took the decade of the 1350s to indicate the time of the explosion. The Hundred Years' War was in its infancy with the famous victory at the Battle of Poitiers. The Black Death was seen for the first time in Europe. In China, the Red Turban Rebellion was just beginning, which would lead to the beginning of the Ming Dynasty.
The supernova was probably visible to the naked eye because it was a Type I supernova. While still too far away to be seen in the daytime, people in the Southern Hemisphere may have suddenly spotted a bright new star in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
This star may have been seen by the people of the medieval Kingdom of Zimbabwe, which spanned over 200 years and saw elaborate stone buildings being built in South Africa. The Inca empire on the western side of South America also saw its formation and subsequent expansion during the period when the supernova took place.
It is estimated that around 1 million indigenous peoples who spoke 250 languages lived in Australia at that time, along with 600 tribes or nations. During the supernova, members of the Kilwa Sultanate may have reached Australia, as some coins from this kingdom were found in the County's Northern Territory.
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