Article
ID: CBB884409171

‘The Moon Quivered Like a Snake’: A Medieval Chronicler, Lunar Explosions, and a Puzzle for Modern Interpretation (2020)

unapi
Eclipses; transits; occultations; conjunctions Astronomy Meteorite craters Moon 12th century Medieval Gervase of Canterbury

Despite some scepticism, the suggestion by Hartung in 1976 that the report in the chronicle of Gervase of Canterbury corresponded to a meteorite impact with the moon in 1178, creating the Giordano Bruno crater, retains considerable support, particularly in popular scientific writing. Nevertheless, a series of studies of images of the crater from orbiting satellites, although confirming its young geological age, have indicated that it was not created within recorded human history. In this paper, we examine astronomical entries in Gervase’s chronicle relating to eclipses and conclude that, despite there being descriptions of miracles elsewhere in the manuscript, he himself was a reliable reporter of astronomical events. On this basis an alternative suggestion can be put forward for the splitting of the horns and writhing of the body of the new moon, reported to Gervase: atmospheric turbulence. Although general atmospheric turbulence has been previously dismissed as too small an effect, it is possible to show that the description is consistent with viewing the new moon through a column of hot air from a fire, at a moderate distance and out of the line of sight of the observers. This interpretation of the medieval evidence as credible but unrelated to a lunar event is consistent with twenty-first century lunar studies.

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Authors & Contributors
Stephenson, F. Richard
Bellver, José
Morrison, Leslie V.
Hohenkerk, Catherine Y.
Mozaffari, S. Mohammad
Yazdi, Hamid-Reza Giahi
Journals
Journal for the History of Astronomy
Suhayl: Journal for the History of the Exact and Natural Sciences in Islamic Civilisation
Archive for History of Exact Sciences
Almagest
Ziran Kexueshi Yanjiu (Studies in the History of Natural Sciences)
Science in Context
Publishers
Cambridge University Press
Concepts
Eclipses; transits; occultations; conjunctions
Astronomy
Moon
Arab/Islamic world, civilization and culture
Astronomical chronology
Cosmology
People
Ptolemy
Aflah, Yabir ibn al
Gregoras, Nicephorus
Barlaam Calabro
al-Fahhād, Farīd al-Dīn Abu al-Ḥasan ‘Alī b.
Hipparchus
Time Periods
Medieval
Ancient
12th century
20th century, early
Jin Dynasty (China, 265-420)
Qing dynasty (China, 1644-1912)
Places
China
Byzantium
Spain
Greece
India
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