1490 Ch'ing-yang event

The Ch'ing-yang event of 1490 (also Ch'ing-yang, Chi-ing-yang or Chíing-yang meteor shower) is a presumed meteor shower or air burst in Qìngyáng (Ch'ing-Yang, simplified Chinese: 庆阳; traditional Chinese: 慶陽) in March or April 1490. The area was in the district of Shaanxi (陕西, now part of Gansu 甘肃 Province). If a meteor shower did occur, it may have been the result of the disintegration of an asteroid during an atmospheric entry air burst.

A large number of deaths were recorded in historical Chinese accounts of the meteor shower, but have not been confirmed by researchers in the modern era. In the same year, Asian astronomers coincidentally discovered comet C/1490 Y1, a possible progenitor of the Quadrantid meteor showers.

At least three surviving Chinese historical records describe a shower during which "stones fell like rain", killing more than 10,000 people. At least one report of the event is found in the official History of the Ming Dynasty, and other journal records which describe the event are also generally considered reliable. But the official Ming Dynasty history omits the number of casualties, which has been frequently either doubted or discounted by present-day researchers.

Due to the paucity of detailed information and the lack of surviving meteorites or other physical evidence, researchers have also been unable to definitively state the exact nature of the dramatic event, even examining the possible occurrence of severe hail. However Kevin Yau et al. of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory did note several similarities of the Ch'ing-yang meteor fall to the Tunguska event, which would have destroyed a highly populous district.

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