The last supernova seen in our galaxy blazed five years before Galileo turned a telescope to the sky. Kepler's star appeared in 1604, and no Milky Way supernova has been reliably seen since.
The events
- Kepler's supernova1604 · Prague. In October 1604 a supernova flared in Ophiuchus, and Johannes Kepler followed it from Prague for over a year. It remains the last supernova in our galaxy seen with the naked eye. In the same weeks, False Dmitry I crossed into Russia.
- Galileo's telescopic discoveries1610 · Venice. In The Starry Messenger, Galileo Galilei described mountains on the Moon, countless new stars and four moons of Jupiter seen through his telescope. The observations became powerful evidence for the Copernican system.
More amazing facts
- 1602 In 1602 an Italian drew a world map for the Chinese — and moved the Pacific to the middle.
- 1603 · 1629 Kabuki, where men play every role, was invented by a woman.
- 1603 · 1721 Edo, the future Tokyo, had over a million people by the 1720s, one of the largest cities in the world.
- 1605 · 1616 Cervantes and Shakespeare died in April 1616 on nearly the same calendar date — but Spain used the Gregorian calendar and England did not, so over a week really separates them.
- 1605 The Mughal emperor Jahangir hung a "chain of justice" with 60 bells outside his palace.
- 1605 · 1606 Europeans first landed in Australia after Don Quixote was published.