Evidence of the first solar storm recorded by mankind was discovered in an ancient Chinese text. The text talks about “five-color light” in the sky.
A new study of an ancient Chinese text may have revealed the first human-recorded solar storm. A 10th-century BC Chinese text describes “five-colored lights” in the northern part of the night sky, possibly suggesting the aurora. Wonderfully patterned bright lights are seen after a solar storm hits Earth. According to the text, this aurora was seen at the end of the reign of King Zhao, the fourth king of China’s Zhou dynasty. Now, some questions arise. China is not an area where people often see the Northern Lights or the Northern Lights. Furthermore, the aurora is usually not seen with five different colors, instead just a blue-green or green-orange light. So is it really an aurora? And is it really the first recorded solar storm in history? Read to find out.
The study’s author, Hisashi Hayakawa is an assistant professor at the Institute for Space-Earth Environment Research at Nagoya University, Japan. He speak Live Science that the text was discovered in the Annals of Bamboo (known as Zhushu Jìnian in Mandarin). This is a text from the fourth century BC written on bamboo slats that tells about the early history of China and its chronicles. While researchers have known about these Bamboo Chronicles for some time, references to the aurora have recently come to light.
Ancient Chinese texts mention the first recorded solar storm in history
Whether the observation mentioned in the text is a solar storm causing the aurora is a big question. And this question is valid because the aurora can only be seen at higher latitudes. But researchers believe it’s entirely possible. During the 10th century BC, the Earth’s northern magnetic pole tilted towards Eastern Europe and Central Asia. So it is possible that the ancient peoples of China, as far south as as far north as Beijing, were able to see the solar storm hitting the Earth and the colorful lights they produced.
This also explains why the first solar storm mentioned in ancient Chinese texts speaks of five-color light when the aurora borealis at mid-latitudes show more colors due to higher refraction of light. due to the denser atmosphere.
Previously, the oldest auroras were recorded by Assyrian astronomers on cuneiform tablets, from 679 BC to 655 BC, according to another study by Hayakawa in 2019. If this study is to be believed, it beats the Assyrian record by 300 years! It also highlights how the Earth’s magnetic pole causes the aurora borealis to be visible even at mid-latitudes
