One of the earliest recorded presumed meteor air bursts, causing reported mass casualties in Ming dynasty China and linked to comet C/1490 Y1.
Key Facts
- Date
- March or April 1490
- Location at time
- Qingyang, Shaanxi (now Gansu province)
- Event type
- Presumed meteor shower or air burst
- Study published
- 1994, journal Meteoritics
- Related comet
- C/1490 Y1, possible Quadrantid progenitor
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
A celestial object, possibly linked to comet C/1490 Y1 discovered the same year, approached Earth in early 1490. A 1994 study in Meteoritics tentatively identified the cause as a meteor air burst — an atmospheric explosion of a fragmenting meteoroid — over the Qingyang region of what was then Shaanxi province in Ming dynasty China.
In March or April 1490, a presumed meteor shower or air burst occurred near Qingyang. Historical Chinese accounts recorded numerous deaths among the population below. The official Ming dynasty history documented the event but did not specify the number of victims, leaving the true death toll uncertain.
The Qingyang event became one of the earliest recorded instances of a presumed meteor air burst causing mass casualties. It was noted in Ming dynasty records and later attracted modern scientific analysis. The coincidental discovery of comet C/1490 Y1 in the same year raised the possibility of a connection to the Quadrantid meteor shower's origin.