SN 1054

SN 1054

Giant picture mosaic of the Crab Nebula, the remnants of SN 1054, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in visible light. Credit: NASA/ESA.
Event type	Supernova
Type II
Date	c. 5450 BC (discovered July 1054)
Constellation	Taurus
Right ascension	5h 34.5m
Declination	+22° 01'
Galactic coordinates	G.184.6–5.8
Distance	c. 6,500 ly
Remnant	Pulsar
Host	Milky Way
Progenitor	Crab Pulsar
Progenitor type	Neutron star
Peak apparent magnitude	−6[1]
Other designations	SN 1054, SN 1054A, CSI+21-05315, PLX 1266, CM Tau
Preceded by	SN 1006
Followed by	SN 1181
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SN 1054 was a supernova that was first observed on c. 10 July [O.S. c. 4 July] 1054, and remained visible until c. 12 April [O.S. c. 6 April] 1056.^[2]α

The event was recorded in contemporary Chinese astronomy, and references to it are also found in a later (13th-century) Japanese document, and in a document from the Islamic world. Furthermore, there are a number of proposed references from European sources recorded in the 15th century, as well as a pictograph associated with the Ancestral Puebloan culture found near the Peñasco Blanco site in New Mexico, United States. The pyramids at Cahokia in the midwestern United States may have been built in response to the supernova's appearance in the sky.^[3]

The remnant of SN 1054, which consists of debris ejected during the explosion, is known as the Crab Nebula. It is located in the sky near the star Zeta Tauri (ζ Tauri). The core of the exploding star formed a pulsar, called the Crab Pulsar (or PSR B0531+21). The nebula and the pulsar that it contains are some of the most studied astronomical objects outside the Solar System. It is one of the few Galactic supernovae where the date of the explosion is well known. The two objects are the most luminous in their respective categories. For these reasons, and because of the important role it has repeatedly played in the modern era, SN 1054 is one of the best known supernovae in the history of astronomy.

The Crab Nebula is easily observed by amateur astronomers thanks to its brightness, and was also catalogued early on by professional astronomers, long before its true nature was understood and identified. When the French astronomer Charles Messier watched for the return of Halley's Comet in 1758, he confused the nebula for the comet, as he was unaware of the former's existence. Motivated by this error, he created his catalogue of non-cometary nebulous objects, the Messier Catalogue, to avoid such mistakes in the future. The nebula is catalogued as the first Messier object, or M1.