Guest star (astronomy)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/30/Chinese_report_of_guest_star_identified_as_the_supernova_of_1054_%28SN_1054%29_in_the_Lidai_mingchen_zouyi_%28%E5%8E%86%E4%BB%A3%E5%90%8D%E8%87%A3%E5%A5%8F%E8%AE%AE%29.jpg/220px-Chinese_report_of_guest_star_identified_as_the_supernova_of_1054_%28SN_1054%29_in_the_Lidai_mingchen_zouyi_%28%E5%8E%86%E4%BB%A3%E5%90%8D%E8%87%A3%E5%A5%8F%E8%AE%AE%29.jpg)
In Chinese astronomy, a guest star (Chinese: 客星; pinyin: kèxīng) is a star which has suddenly appeared in a place where no star had previously been observed and becomes invisible again after some time. The term is a literal translation from ancient Chinese astronomical records.
Modern astronomy recognizes that guest stars are manifestations of cataclysmic variable stars: novae and supernovae. The term "guest star" is used in the context of ancient records, since the exact classification of an astronomical event in question is based on interpretations of old records, including inference, rather than on direct observations.
In ancient Chinese astronomy, guest stars were one of the three types of highly transient objects (bright heavenly bodies). The other two were comets with tails (
See also
- Historical comet observations in China – Overview of Chinese records of comets
References
- ^ ISBN 90-5699-302-X, Chapter 6, "Guest Stars"
- .
- ^ ISBN 0-521-30038-X.