Once upon a time, everyone believed that the distant heavens were perfect and unchanging

NVDL: Then one day, 400 years ago, a huge star exploded, in what is known as a supernova. But a man looking in the sky simply noticed a bright light in the sky that had never been there before.

This light was also visible in the day, over a two week period...

Methinks this might make an awesome children's story/animated feature....

clipped from news.yahoo.com The story of what's commonly called Tycho's supernova began on Nov. 11, 1572, when Brahe was astonished to see what he thought was a brilliant new star in the constellation Cassiopeia. The light eventually became as bright as Venus and could be seen for two weeks in broad daylight. After 16 months, it disappeared. Working before telescopes were invented, Brahe documented with precision that unlike the moon and the planets, the light's position didn't move in relation to the stars. That meant it lay far beyond the moon. That was a shock to the contemporary view that the distant heavens were perfect and unchanging.