Article ID: CBB884409171

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

unapi

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.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB884409171/

Similar Citations

Article Bellver, José; (2006)
Jābir b. Aflaḥ on the Four-Eclipse Method for Finding the Lunar Period in Anomaly (/isis/citation/CBB000931399/)

Article Bellver, José; (2007)
Ŷābir b Aflaḥ en torno a la inclinación de los eclipses en el horizonte (/isis/citation/CBB000850140/)

Article Bellver, José; (2011)
Jābir b. Aflaḥ on the Limits of Solar and Lunar Eclipses (/isis/citation/CBB001210339/)

Article Li, Yong; (2007)
Research on 34 Ancient Chinese Timing Records of Lunar Occultations of the Planets (/isis/citation/CBB000933492/)

Article S. Mohammad Mozaffari; (2019)
Ibn al-Fahhād and the Great Conjunction of 1166 AD (/isis/citation/CBB087485483/)

Article Giahi Yazdi, Hamid-Reza; (2009)
Al-Khāzinī's Complex Tables for Determining Lunar Crescent Visibility (/isis/citation/CBB001023952/)

Article Montelle, Clemency; (2014)
The Karanakesari Tables for Computing Eclipse Phenomena (/isis/citation/CBB001451547/)

Article Leslie V. Morrison; Catherine Y. Hohenkerk; F. Richard Stephenson; (2017)
The Almagest Greek and Roman Occultations Re-Visited (/isis/citation/CBB199268686/)

Article Guan, Yuzhen; (2015)
Eclipse Theory in the Jing chu li: Part I. the Adoption of Lunar Velocity (/isis/citation/CBB001202212/)

Article Gislén, Lars; Eade, J. C; (2001)
South East Asian Eclipse Calculations (/isis/citation/CBB000100857/)

Article Lu Dalong; (2020)
The Solar and Lunar Theories of Qizheng Tuibu (1477) (/isis/citation/CBB609802064/)

Book Brunier, Serge; Luminet, Jean-Pierre; (2000)
Glorious Eclipses: Their Past, Present and Future (/isis/citation/CBB000101825/)

Article Leslie V. Morrison; F. Richard Stephenson; Catherine Y. Hohenkerk; (2019)
On the Eclipse of Hipparchus (/isis/citation/CBB700070602/)

Article Leslie V. Morrison; F. Richard Stephenson; Catherine Y. Hohenkerk; (2020)
Fotheringham’s 1920 Accelerations of the Sun and Moon Revisited (/isis/citation/CBB080506663/)

Article Stephenson, F. Richard; Baylis, Joshua T.; (2012)
Early Chinese Observations of Occultations of Planets by the Moon (/isis/citation/CBB001250820/)

Chapter Schmidt, Eckehard; (2010)
Finsternisse über Nürnberg---1050--2050 (/isis/citation/CBB001214070/)

Book Henry Zepeda; (2018)
The First Latin Treatise on Ptolemy's Astronomy: The "Almagesti Minor" (c. 1200) (/isis/citation/CBB830237991/)

Article Mozaffari, S. Mohammad; (2013)
Wăbkanaw's Prediction and Calculations of the Annular Solar Eclipse of 30 January 1283 (/isis/citation/CBB001213647/)

Article Kochhar, Rajesh; (2010)
Rāhu and Ketu in Mythological and Astronomological Contexts (/isis/citation/CBB001024277/)

Authors & Contributors
Stephenson, F. Richard
Morrison, Leslie V.
Hohenkerk, Catherine Y.
Bellver, José
Mozaffari, S. Mohammad
Zepeda, Henry T.
Concepts
Eclipses; transits; occultations; conjunctions
Astronomy
Moon
Astronomical chronology
Arab/Islamic world, civilization and culture
Cosmology
Time Periods
Medieval
Ancient
12th century
20th century, early
Jin Dynasty (China, 265-420)
Qing dynasty (China, 1644-1912)
Places
China
India
Nuremberg (Germany)
Spain
Germany
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment