IF NOT AN ECLIPSE - PERHAPS ANOTHER SUPERNOVA?

Pictograph, trail to Peñasco Blanco,

Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.

Photo Peter Faris, May 1994.

Along the trail to Peñasco Blanco in Chaco Canyon is the panel that has long been identified as a representation of the 1054 A.D. supernova explosion that was the origin of the Crab Nebula. It is shown as a star or sun with ten prominences or coronal outbursts.

Newly discovered petroglyph,

Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. 

www.colorado.edu, Public Domain.

I recently wrote on the announced discovery of a supposed solar eclipse in Chaco Canyon giving my reasons why I disagree with the discoverers as to it representing an eclipse. Actually, I think it just as likely that this petroglyph represents another portrayal of the supernova observed in 1054 A.D. than an eclipse.

To sum up my previous arguments, the corona and prominences of a total eclipse are really only visible during totality, at which point the sun itself is a featureless dark disk (see rockartblog for August 21, 2017, Solar Eclipse - Lessons Learned and Theories Burned). I would expect that any attempt at a realistic portrayal of a total eclipse would include the ring of the edge of the sun's disk in the center. A supernovae, on the other hand, should be expected to be as bright or brighter in the center than toward the edges, thus, no ring.

What other clues might we look for? The Peñasco Blanco supernova has ten prominences/projections or flames extending outward from the body. This new petroglyph also shows prominences/projections or flames extending outward. On each side and on the lower edge are double lines curling out from the edge in opposite directions. Between those are single lines projecting out from the edge, and, at the top is a more complicated portrayal of curling projecting lines made from double lines. If we count, not the individual lines, but the number of curled projections portrayed, we also get ten (counting each double curl at the top as a single, thicker prominence). Is this significant? I really don't know, perhaps I am stretching it too far. But it might be a possibility that should be considered.

NOTE: An image in this posting was retrieved from the internet in a search for public domain photographs. If any of this image is not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the originals at the sites listed below.

                               

REFERENCE:

Faris, Peter

2017   Solar Eclipse - Lessons Learned and Theories Burned, August 21, 2017, http://rockartblog.blogspot.com/2017/09/august-21-2017-solar-eclipse-lessons.html