The Supernova Remnant of More than 4100 Years Ago Was Discovered—Emperor Yao’s Jingxing (PKS 1209-52)

Abstract

According to Bamboo Annals, “The year Emperor Yao ascended the throne was the year of Bingzi” and “In the forty-second year of his reign, Jing star appeared on the Yi xiu (constellation)”. LunHeng says that “during the era of emperor Yao, Jing star was seen in the Zhen xiu (constellation)”. This star may be a supernova between Yi xiu and Zhen xiu. Calculated by already known years that was designated by Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, the 42nd year of Emperor Yao’s reign was B.C.2164. If we take a wide range (${180}^{\circ }\pm {23}^{\circ }$) as the transition area between ‘Yi’ and ‘Zhen’, we can find 20 supernovae in the Green Supernova Remnant Table. Among them, only the high silver latitude remnant PKS 1209-52 (G296.5+10.0) conforms to brightness and age limitations of Emperor Yao’s Jing star that appeared “like a half moon”. It is the only candidate of Emperor Yao’s Jing star (SN-B.C.2164). According to the relationship between the surface brightness of supernovae and the line diameter that SNR $\Sigma \propto D^{-\beta }$, as well as the adiabatic expansion theory, the adiabatic phase age ($t=4165$ yr) is calculated to be consistent with the era of Emperor Yao. In addition, according to the limitation that the Jing stars are as bright as “half moon”, the distance $d=$ 1–1.2 kpc can be figured out. Then according to the Sedov relation $D=0.94t^{2/5}$, the age of Emperor Yao’s Jing star was (4450 $\pm$ 900) years ago. It is also in accordance with the times of Emperor Yao. This is one of the earliest recorded supernovae in the history of astronomy, which advances the history recorded in Chinese literature and confirmed by science to more than 4100 years ago.