Chapter 6: Kepler’s Supernova Remnant

Four hundred years ago, the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler (best known as the discoverer of the laws of planetary motion), was startled by the sudden appearance of a "nova" of "new star" in the western sky, rivaling the brilliance of the nearby planets. Although the nova was new to the night sky, the event was actually the death of an old star, now called a supernova.