The mysterious cosmic event around 775 AD left scientists puzzled. Miyake, who reported her team’s discovery to the journal Nature, said “With our present knowledge, we cannot specify the cause of this event. However, we can say that an extremely energetic event occurred around our space environment”.
Jonathon Allen at the University of California searched and found the eighth-century entries in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. Documented historical text reported: “In the year 774 AD, appeared in the heavens a red crucifix, after sunset;the Mercians and the men of Kent fought at Otford;and wonderful serpents were seen in the land of the South-Saxons.”The journal Nature, reported astronomers are not ruling out a supernova, an exploding star. The color of the so-called crucifix might indicate that the source was behind a dust cloud dense enough to scatter all but a small amount of red light. However, a nearby supernova explosion, appears to be ruled out. A massive supernova, for example, should have been bright enough to produce a ‘new’star visible even in the daytime, as was the case for two known supernovas in 1006, and 1054 that caused the Crab Nebula. One possibility is that the source erupted in southern skies, and it was not observed;however, its remnant would have been detected by now.
Now German researchers have proposed that two black holes collapsed, merged and released an intense amount of gamma rays for a short period of time. “The proposed collision of the 8th century could take place at a distance of 3,000 light years from us. If the gamma ray burst had been much closer to the Earth it would have caused significant harm to the biosphere.” explained Ralph Neuhaeuser of the University of Jena, Germany. (To be continued)