Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

marketrent OP t1_j2hrmyg wrote

Jennifer Ouellette, 1 January 2023, Ars Technica (Condé Nast)

Excerpt:

>The Bamboo Annals is a chronicle of ancient China, written on bamboo strips, that begins with the age of the Yellow Emperor and runs through the so-called Warring States period (5th century–221 BCE), when rival states were engaged in intense competition. It ended when the state of Qin unified the states.

>The original text of the Bamboo Annals was buried with King Xiang of Wei, who died in 296 BCE, and wasn't discovered until 281 CE, thus surviving Emperor Qin Shi Huang's burning of the books in 212 BCE (not to mention burying hundreds of Confucian scholars alive).

>Independent researcher Marinus Anthony van der Sluijs and Hisashi Hayakawa of Nagoya University relied on the ancient text [version] for their new analysis.

>This text describes the appearance of a "five-colored light" visible in the northern part of the night sky towards the end of the reign of King Zhao of the Zhou dynasty.

>While this is technically an unconfirmed candidate aurora, "The explicit mention of nighttime observation rules out daytime manifestations of atmospheric optics, which sometimes mimic candidate events," the authors wrote.

>Furthermore, "The occurrence of a multicolored phenomenon in the northern sky during the nighttime is consistent with visual auroral displays in mid-latitude regions."

> 

>The authors peg the likely date of the event to either 977 or 957 BCE. The next earliest description of a candidate aurora is found on Assyrian cuneiform tablets dated between 679-655 BCE, three centuries later.

>There are two versions of the Bamboo Annals still in existence. One is known as the "current text," consisting of two scrolls printed in the late 16th century. Many scholars believe this text is a forgery, given the many discrepancies between its text and portions of the original quoted in older books, although some scholars have argued that some parts might be faithful to the original text.

>The other version is known as the "ancient text," and was pieced together by studying the aforementioned quoted portions found in older books, especially two dating back to the early 8th century CE.

Advances in Space Research, 2022. DOI: 10.1016/j.asr.2022.01.010

34

marketrent OP t1_j2i1ajo wrote

Replying to BuffaloOk7264 (#1,258,134)

>BuffaloOk7264

>Where in China and what time of year?

In my excerpt comment:

>Advances in Space Research, 2022. DOI: 10.1016/j.asr.2022.01.010

In the abstract:

>We have located the observational site around Hàojīng (N34°14′, E108°46′) and dated the event to 977 ± 1 or 957 ± 1 BCE. On this basis, we have computed the equatorward extension of the auroral visibility as ≤39.0° in magnetic latitude and reconstructed the equatorward boundary of the auroral oval as ≤45.5° in invariant latitude.

196

Smooth_Detective t1_j2ie0b2 wrote

Aurorae as far south as China. I wish I could see one for myself.

116

Kla2552 t1_j2igzvd wrote

i thought human eyes don’t see the colour

−15

its8up t1_j2ij4m9 wrote

Replying to Smooth_Detective (#1,258,507)

The best most of us can aspire to see in our locales is the areola borialis. I've seen their stunning beauty many times, although they do tend to be the most enjoyable during the non moody season.

23

HiiohoiHalojata t1_j2jnpa1 wrote

Replying to RegentYeti (#1,259,509)

Aurora ovals are centered around geomagnetic poles and not geographic poles. The northern one is tilted heavily towards North America so the chance to see auroras at 53° N China is the same as in Indianapolis (39.7° N)

69

Subterrainio t1_j2jrl0p wrote

Before common era huh? And what defined the beginning of the common era?

−14

HiiohoiHalojata t1_j2ju2wb wrote

Replying to gob0 (#1,259,792)

That's a great point. Although the north magnetic pole has wandered quite a lot during the past 100 years, the geomagnetic pole has stayed relatively still. However, 3000 years is still a long time so it's definitely possible it was way closer to the geographic poles.

I didn't find any information about its location before 1900. The magnetic pole (not geomagnetic pole) was actually even more tilted towards North America at around 1600 than now

55

General_Ad7381 t1_j2jyw7d wrote

That's so cool, I didn't know it could have been spotted there! Thank you for sharing!

7

Pix3lle t1_j2k3nbz wrote

I'm curious as to how they got the name. I frequently watch the Aurora Australis and you can't really see the colour (maybe a faint green glow) the other colours like pink and purple are only visible through a camera.

12

Pix3lle t1_j2k445b wrote

Replying to Kla2552 (#1,258,590)

I've seen a green tinge amongst the white (but we can't see it as well as people near the north or south poles). Even with photography though I haven't seen 5 colours so I'm quite curious as to how strong it was!

2

nyapa t1_j2k71j9 wrote

Is there any record of what explanation they had for this phenomenon?

6

Yahallo139 t1_j2k9jff wrote

Damn i recently was wondering about what people of the older times thought of northern lights

3

MeatballDom t1_j2kc8uc wrote

Replying to Subterrainio (#1,259,806)

The common era is the dating system we use now, we're in the year 2023 of the Common Era (CE). Before the year 1 CE there was the year 1 BCE (Before Common Era), and we count backwards from there.

It's the exact same system used with BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini). It's the year AD 2023, and the year 2023 CE.

Julius Caesar died in 44 BCE, and 44 BC.

Make sense now?

10

Shyssiryxius t1_j2kcdnz wrote

I imagine the person finding this ancient journal note being like damn this handwriting sucks, is that a 5 or a 7?!?

3

ThatGIRLkimT t1_j2kvmyj wrote

I am interested in Chinese text, this a good post.

3

FestiveMelon135 t1_j2kw3te wrote

How is this able to happen in china? I live in northern sweden and rarely see it?

1

dratsum t1_j2lechc wrote

They texted.. in ancient China?? Holy Erich von Däniken!

−2

TheGrandMaestro t1_j2lepja wrote

北極光？ 每年的這個時候，一天中的這個時候，在這個國家的這個地區，完全局限在你的廚房裡？

4

the_storm_rider t1_j2ly91e wrote

They must have thought the gods are having a party to celebrate a promotion or something.

1

RoutaOps t1_j2m3phb wrote

Cro-Magnon cave paintings are believed to be the first known display of auroras and are about 30,000 years old.

also:

>The oldest known auroral citing was written in 2600 B.C. in China: >"Fu-Pao, the mother of the Yellow Empire Shuan-Yuan, saw strong >lightning moving around the star Su, which belongs to the >constellation of Bei-Dou, and the light illuminated the whole area." >Thousands of years later, in 1570 A.D., a drawing of the aurora >depicted candles burning above the clouds.

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/themis/auroras/aurora_history.html

2

marketrent OP t1_j2m6byf wrote

Replying to RoutaOps (#1,262,379)

>https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/themis/auroras/aurora_history.html

Is there a peer-reviewed paper documenting the quote by Fu Pao? The THEMIS webpage was last updated in 2006, and I couldn’t find a primary source that the unnamed author may have cited.

3

zootayman t1_j30nw11 wrote

if you are far enough north they are hard to miss

you would think that there will be found even earlier recordings about them

1