APOD: The Mysterious Rings of Supernova 1987A (2017 Mar 05)

[APOD Robot]

The Mysterious Rings of Supernova 1987A

Explanation: What's causing those odd rings in supernova 1987A? Thirty years ago, in 1987, the brightest supernova in recent history was seen in the Large Magellanic Cloud. At the center of the featured picture is an object central to the remains of the violent stellar explosion. Surrounding the center are curious outer rings appearing as a flattened figure 8. Although large telescopes including the Hubble Space Telescope monitor the curious rings every few years, their origin remains a mystery. Pictured here is a Hubble image of the SN1987A remnant taken in 2011. Speculation into the cause of the rings includes beamed jets emanating from an otherwise hidden neutron star left over from the supernova, and the interaction of the wind from the progenitor star with gas released before the explosion.

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[bystander]

For recent news on SN 1987A, http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=36889

[Boomer12k]

My guess is Gas before the explosion, it looks like it would have been far away from the actual blast... personally... there are some other examples like the Cat Eye Nebula, that has a huge outer area... that casts out like a net.... a Halo...

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/319544536031343313/

Though the Cat's Eye is a Planetary Nebula and not a Supernova....
:---[===] *

[Coil_Smoke]

Most likely hour glass shaped like many planetary nebula. That central ring of??? Stars? Proto-Planets? ...What is that? A future solar system? The two bright stars, with the major diffraction spikes, appear to be associated with, possibly forming, the red rings. Is this true or do they just appear to be in those locations?

[ta152h0]

This could be the first target of the upcoming Webb Telescope

[Ann]

Most likely hour glass shaped like many planetary nebula. That central ring of??? Stars? Proto-Planets? ...What is that? A future solar system? The two bright stars, with the major diffraction spikes, appear to be associated with, possibly forming, the red rings. Is this true or do they just appear to be in those locations?

I found a really good picture illustrating the geometry of SN 1987A, but it is a 900 KB picture, so I can't post it as a picture - but please, look at it here anyway!

By the way, the two blue stars have nothing to do with the rings of SN 1987A. The progenitor star of SN 1987A was located in a sparse cluster of hot bright stars, and the two blue stars that seem to adorn the rings of SN 1987 A are members of the same cluster. They are just onlookers watching the supernova spectacle, or they are innocent bystanders, if you will!

To me, a truly fascinating aspect of SN 1987A is its avian nature! Haven't you spotted the bird in the center of the supernova remnant? I searched for a nice picture to show you, and found a brilliant illustration that is way too large. The picture is 1.5 MB. Well, I'll post it as a link anyway, so here it is. Isn't it lovely?

Click to view full size image

Inner debris of SN 1987A.
Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/a ... rs/page/6/

And at left is a picture that I can show you, because it's not so terribly big. The bird, as you can see, is actually the inner debris of SN 1987A.

I found a 1.3 MB picture showing the evolution of the inner bird of SN 1987A. Do look at it!

Click to view full size image

Widefield image of SN 1987A. Credit: NASA, ESA, R. Kirshner
(Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Gordon and Betty Moore
Foundation) and P. Challis (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Finally, I can't resist showing this beautiful widefield portrait of SN 1987A, which really puts the supernova remnant in perspective!

Ann

[Coil_Smoke]

Ann, That is a wonderful post about this wonderful spectacle in the heavens. Got to admit I have A 'thing' for planetary nebula. Images of this phenomenon are one of the greatest achievements of our time!

[sillyworm]

If the end result was a Black Hole..in this situation..it wouldn't have much to feed on? What future situations could a lone small Black Hole find itself in?

[Chris Peterson]

If the end result was a Black Hole..in this situation..it wouldn't have much to feed on? What future situations could a lone small Black Hole find itself in?

The vast majority of stellar mass black holes in the Universe have nothing to feed on. It's likely to just be there, like the parent star was before it. If the system was binary, the other component and the black hole are probably in orbit about each other. Eventually, they could collide, but it might take trillions of years.

[DavidLeodis]

Aww for those poor ducklings in the "wind" link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEBLt6Kd9EY. Thankfully they did though seem to be OK .

[neufer]

[url=https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/archive/category/stars/page/6/][size=175]Inner debris of SN 1987A.[/size][/url]

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To me, a truly fascinating aspect of SN 1987A is its avian nature! Haven't you spotted the bird in the center of the supernova remnant? I searched for a nice picture to show you, and found a brilliant illustration that is way too large. The picture is 1.5 MB. Well, I'll post it as a link anyway, so here it is. Isn't it lovely?

And at left is a picture that I can show you, because it's not so terribly big. The bird, as you can see, is actually the inner debris of SN 1987A.

I found a 1.3 MB picture showing the evolution of the inner bird of SN 1987A. Do look at it!

---

[hank1469Bonnell]

about the inner ring looks the remains of the ringworld sun, with the breaks due to the blockage of the night/day gap ring. well its a nice thought.