TYCHO'S SUPERNOVA

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A Stellar Echo

In 1572, an eight-year-old William Shakespeare likely witnessed Tycho's Supernova blazing in the night sky. Decades later, this celestial disturbance may have inspired the portents described in Hamlet.

When yond same star that's westward from the pole
Had made his course t' illume that part of heaven
Where now it burns...

-- William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, Scene i