A mysterious explosion seen by astronomers in the 17th century wasn't a nova but a far more rare and violent type of stellar collision.

According to the European Southern Observatory (ESO), APEX and other telescopes observed the remnants of the 1670 stellar collision was seen easily with the naked eye during its first eruption/ But now, it had to be analyzed with powerful sub-millimeter telescopes to discover the true source of these unusual explosions.

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Johannes Hevelius, who discovered seven still-recognized constellations and has been dubbed the father of lunar topography, was among the astronomers that documented the appearance of a new star in the skies in 1670. Originally described by Hevelius as nova sub capite Cygni (a new star below the head of the swan), it is now known as Nova Vulpeculae 1670.

"For many years this object was thought to be a nova, but the more it was studied the less it looked like an ordinary nova -- or indeed any other kind of exploding star," said study lead author Tomasz Kaminski, now with ESO, of Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) at the time of discovery.

At first, Nova Vul 1670 was easily visible and its brightness varied over the following two years. Despite documentation, early astronomers did not have the equipment needed to unravel the mystery of the nova's performance.

Astronomers came to realize that most novae could be explained by the explosive behavior of close binary stars during the 1900s, but the model still didn't seem to apply to Nova Vul 1670, so it remained a mystery. It wasn't until the 1980s that astronomers first realized that Nova Vul 1670 did not disappear completely, but that a faint nebula remained around its location.

Kamiński and his colleagues investigated that area using the APEX telescope, the Submillimeter Array (SMA), and the Effelsberg radio telescope. They found a cool gas that had an unusual chemical composition surrounding the remnant. They were able to compile a detailed account of the region's makeup.

The new study was published in the journal Nature.

TagsAstronomers Explain the Enigmatic 17th Century Stellar Explosion, 17th Century Explosion, stellar collision, Nova Vul 1670, Supernova, Nova, space exploration