SN 1987A

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SN 1987A

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SN 1987A within the Large Magellanic Cloud

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The remnant of SN 1987A

SN 1987A was a supernova in a small galaxy that is orbiting our Milky Way galaxy. The supernova was 168,000 light years away, and so happened 168,000 years ago. But it was 1987 when it was first seen. It was close enough that scientists found neutrinos before the light got to Earth.

SN 1987A is the only supernova that has been that close in modern times, It was the brightest object seen from Earth in over 400 years. There have been many others that were closer but they were before scientists had the tools to help them understand what was happening.

"Scientists believe they've finally tracked down the dead remnant from Supernova 1987A – one of their favourite star explosions. Astronomers knew the object must exist but had always struggled to identify its location because of a shroud of obscuring dust".

SN 1987A Media

• Argon emission in SN1987A (weic2404a).jpg

  James Webb Space Telescope of the supernova remnants, revealing emitted argon.

• SN1987ALightCurve.png

  A visual band light curve for SN 1987A. The inset plot shows the time around peak brightness. Plotted from data published by several sources.

• SN1987a debris evolution animation time scaled.gif

  Sequence of HST images from 1994 to 2009, showing the collision of the expanding remnant with a ring of material ejected by the progenitor 20,000 years before the supernova

• Composite image of Supernova 1987A.jpg

  Composite of ALMA, Hubble and Chandra data, showing newly formed dust in the center of the remnant and the expanding shock wave.

• SN 1987A (NIRCam image) (SN1987a-1).jpg

  NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope image of the supernova remnant

• Light echo from Supernova 1987A (eso8802a).jpg

  The light echo of Supernova 1987A