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Supernova of AD 1181 and its Remnant: 3C 58

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  • First Online:
Handbook of Supernovae

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Abstract

Every year astronomers see hundreds of supernova explosions in other galaxies, but in our own galaxy, the Milky Way, those have been rare events, only five over the last 1000 years. One of the more mysterious events happened back in AD 1181 and was discovered by Chinese and Japanese astronomers as a “guest star” in the constellation Cassiopeia. Today this guest star is known to us as supernova SN 1181. This historical supernova explosion most likely left behind the synchrotron nebula 3C 58 (supernova remnant G130.7+3.1), a nebula produced by the wind of a fast-spinning neutron star, the pulsar J 0205+6449. 3C 58 is very similar to the Crab Nebula in age, distance, size, and morphology, but much less luminous. Like the Crab Nebula, 3C 58 also does not show a shell-type remnant that would indicate the interaction of the supernova shock wave with the ambient medium. Here, I review what we know about SN 1181 and 3C 58 and the probable connection between them.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to express my special thanks to Dave Green for making a new finding chart for the guest star of AD 1181 for me. I also would like to express my deepest appreciation to Michael Bietenholz (radio), Rob Fesen (optical), and Pat Slane (X-ray) for providing their beautiful maps for this publication. I would also like to thank Tom Landecker for careful reading of this document. The Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory is a national facility operated by the National Research Council Canada.

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  1. Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory, National Research Council Canada, Herzberg Programs in Astronomy and Astrophysics, P.O. Box 248, V2A 6J9, Penticton, BC, Canada

    Roland Kothes

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  1. Roland Kothes
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Correspondence to Roland Kothes .

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  1. University of London Observatory, Mill Hill, United Kingdom

    Athem W. Alsabti

  2. Cambridge, United Kingdom

    Paul Murdin

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Kothes, R. (2016). Supernova of AD 1181 and its Remnant: 3C 58. In: Alsabti, A., Murdin, P. (eds) Handbook of Supernovae. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20794-0_47-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20794-0_47-1

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