Supernova 1987A Imaged in Unprecedented Detail: Exploding Star Reveals its Secrets

It turns out that astronomers are learning a little bit more about exploding stars. The researchers have recently witnessed one of the brightest supernovas in unprecedented detail.

In February of 1987, astronomers peered into space with a telescope as they observed the Large Magellanic Cloud. As they examined the nearby dwarf galaxy, though, the sudden appearance of a new star caught their attention. Yet this new star wasn't new at all. Instead, the astronomers were viewing the death throes of an old one. It turned out that they were witnessing the brightest supernova seen from Earth in the four centuries since the telescope was invented.

Since then, the remnant, named Supernova 1987A, has continued to be a focus for researchers around the world. Most recently, a team of astronomers has used the Australia Telescope Compact Array (CSIRO) radio telescope in order to make the highest resolution radio images to date of the expanding supernova.

"Supernova remnants are like natural particle accelerators. The radio emission we observe comes from electrons spiraling along the magnetic field lines and emitting photons every time they turn," said Lister Staveley-Smith, Deputy Director of ICRAR and CAASTRO, in a press release. "The higher the resolution of the images, the more we can learn about the structure of the object."

The radio telescope itself can operate in the daytime and peer through the thick clouds of gas and dust. This allowed the researchers to see the inner workings of the supernova remnant and examine how it's currently evolving. They were able to gain insight into the dynamics of this massive explosion and the interaction of the blast wave with the surrounding medium.

"Not only have we been able to analyze the morphology of Supernova 1987A through our high resolution imaging, we have compared it to X-ray and optical data in order to model its likely history," said Bryan Gaensler, Director of CAASTRO at the University of Sydney, in a press release.

With these new images in particular, the researchers found that a compact source of pulsar wind nebula probably sits in the center of the radio emission. This implies that the supernova explosion did not make the star collapse into a black hole.

Currently, the researchers are attempting to observe further into the core of the supernova so that they can examine what's there.

The current findings are published in the Astrophysical Journal.