Researchers claim to have unearthed the earliest known drawing of
sunspots - made almost 500 years before the invention of the telescope.
The drawing, in The Chronicle of John of Worcester, depicts two sunspots
seen on the face of the sun on December 8, 1128, plus a description of
the phenomenon in Latin.
Scientists from the University of Warwick and the University of Durham
are linking it to a sighting of the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights
seen five days later in Korea.
A red light above the night sky in Songdo - the modern city of Kaesong -
was recorded in the Koryo-sa, the official Korean chronicle of the time.
Dr David M Willis, of the Space and Astrophysics Group at the University
of Warwick, said the discovery would help scientists understand solar
activity through history.
He said: "From a cultural point of view, we know this is the first ever
drawing of sunspots. It appears solar activity was high at the end of
the second and third decades of the 12th century.
"What we plan to do is to get some fragmentary information on how solar
activity has appeared in the past. It's not comparable with modern
observations in the sense of satellites because people recorded what
could be seen with the unaided eye.
"The sun emits gas all the time. When solar activity is high, the gases
travel towards to Earth and interact with the Earth's magnetic field to
produce magnetic storms, power cuts and so on."
Sighting of sunspots - dark patches on the surface of the sun thought to
be caused by strong electro-magnetic fields - were recorded in China
more than 1,000 years before John of Worcester.
But no Chinese drawing appears of them until about AD 1400 and other
illustrations were not made until after the invention of the telescope
in the early 17th century.
Story filed: 16:17 Monday 16th July 2001