A New Era for Exploding Star Supernova 1987A in Dorado | Hubble/ALMA/Chandra

A New Era for Exploding Star Supernova 1987A in Dorado | Hubble/ALMA/Chandra

The composite image presented here combines observations made with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) [radio], the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope [visible light/near-infrared] and NASA’s Chandra X-Ray observatory.

This artist's illustration of Supernova 1987A is based on real data and reveals the cold, inner regions of the exploded star's remnants (in red) where tremendous amounts of dust were detected and imaged by ALMA. This inner region is contrasted with the outer ring (lacy white and blue circles), where the blast wave from the supernova is colliding with the envelope of gas ejected from the star prior to its powerful detonation. This ring was initially lit up by the ultraviolet flash from the original explosion, but over the past few years the ring material has brightened considerably as it collides with the expanding shockwave.

Almost four decades ago, astronomers spotted one of the brightest supernovae in more than 400 years. The stellar explosion, SN 1987A, blazed with the power of 100 million suns for several months after its discovery on February 23, 1987. Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxies, SN 1987A was the nearest supernova explosion observed in centuries and it quickly became the best studied supernova of all time. Over the last thirty-nine years, detailed follow-up observations with telescopes in space and on the ground have allowed astronomers to study the death throes of a massive star in unprecedented detail, from star to supernova to supernova remnant, changing our understanding of these explosive events.

With its superb sensitivity at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has been exploring previously unstudied aspects of SN 1987A since 2013. Astronomers are using ALMA to observe the glowing remains of the supernova in high resolution, studying how the remnant is making vast amounts of dust from the new elements created in the progenitor star. A portion of this dust will make its way into interstellar space and may one day become the material for producing planets around other stars. These observations suggest that dust in the early Universe was created by similar supernova explosions.

Credit: ALMA: ESO/NAOJ/NRAO/A. Angelich
Hubble: NASA, ESA, R. Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation) and P. Challis (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
Chandra: NASA/CXC/Penn State/K. Frank et al.//Alexandra Angelich (NRAO/AUI/NSF)
Release Date: Feb. 27, 2017

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