John Bevis in the context of English (people)


John Bevis in the context of English (people)

⭐ Core Definition: John Bevis

John Bevis (10 November 1695 – 6 November 1771) FRS was an English medical doctor, electrical researcher and astronomer. He is best known for discovering the Crab Nebula in 1731. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, being awarded his B.A. in 1715 and his M.A. in 1718.

In 1757 Bevis published in London a volume on The History and Philosophy of Earthquakes in which he collected accounts of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake from diverse authentic sources. His survey, the first of its kind, was subsequently used by John Michell (1761).

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John Bevis in the context of Crab Nebula

The Crab Nebula (catalogue designations M1, NGC 1952, Taurus A) is a supernova remnant and pulsar wind nebula in the constellation of Taurus. The common name comes from a drawing that somewhat resembled a crab with arms produced by William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, in 1842 or 1843 using a 36-inch (91 cm) telescope. The nebula was discovered by English astronomer John Bevis in 1731. It corresponds with a bright supernova observed in 1054 C.E. by Mayan, Japanese, and Arab stargazers; this supernova was also recorded by Chinese astronomers as a guest star. The nebula was the first astronomical object identified that corresponds with a historically-observed supernova explosion.

At an apparent magnitude of 8.4, comparable to that of Saturn's moon Titan, it is not visible to the naked eye but can be made out using binoculars under favourable conditions. The nebula lies in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way galaxy, at a distance of about 2.0 kiloparsecs (6,500 ly) from Earth. It has a diameter of 3.4 parsecs (11 ly), corresponding to an apparent diameter of some 7 arcminutes, and is expanding at a rate of about 1,500 kilometres per second (930 mi/s), or 0.5% of the speed of light.

View the full Wikipedia page for Crab Nebula
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