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Onnthis date in 1178, goes the report, five monks from Canterbury werensitting around outside just after sunset, when suddenly they saw thenupper horn of the moon “split into two.” They saw “a flamingntorch” spring up from the middle of the split–”spewing out, overna considerable distance, fire, hot coals, and sparks.” They saynthat the moon looked normal again for a second, and then the wholenthing happened again, and again, twelve times in all—or maybe more!
Onnthis date in 1178, goes the report, five monks from Canterbury werensitting around outside just after sunset, when suddenly they saw thenupper horn of the moon “split into two.” They saw “a flamingntorch” spring up from the middle of the split–”spewing out, overna considerable distance, fire, hot coals, and sparks.” They saynthat the moon looked normal again for a second, and then the wholenthing happened again, and again, twelve times in all—or maybe more!n
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nOkay,nthis happened more than 800 years ago, and we only know about it fromnone guy’s written description—and we also know that eyewitnessesnaren’t very good at reporting what they saw even if it happened eightnminutes ago instead of eight centuries ago!
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Still,nit has been suggested that the five Canterbury monks were watchingnthe moon being hit by a meteor shower, and the relatively new craternGiordano Bruno being created. n
Still,nit has been suggested that the five Canterbury monks were watchingnthe moon being hit by a meteor shower, and the relatively new craternGiordano Bruno being created. nn
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nThenmonk’s observation occurred during the Beta Taurid meteor shower, sonthe moon being hit by meteors just then is likely.
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nHowever,nsome scientists point out that the impact that created then22-kilometer-wide crater would have kicked up a lot of debris, so thenBeta Taurids would’ve been joined by a week’s worth of blizzard-likenmeteors here on Earth—the kind of intense rockfall that has nevernbeen recorded anywhere, anytime, in all of human history. If thesenscientists are correct, then the Canterbury monks saw something veryndifferent than the creation of the Giordano Bruno crater, after all.
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nItncould have been, instead, that the monks saw some meteors explodingnin the air—and that those exploding meteors just happened to benlined up with the Moon when viewed from the monks’ small corner ofnBritain. That would certainly explain why no other skywatchersnrecorded the same spectacular event!
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nAlsonon this date:
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nBeatle Paul McCartney’s birthday
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nAnniversary of the discovery of the “missing” neutrinos
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