Astronomy Picture of the Day
Posted By admin On February 26, 2012 @ 10:03 am In Photo Essays | Comments Disabled
What’s causing those odd rings in supernova 1987A? Twenty five years ago, in 1987, the brightest supernova in recent history was seen in the Large Magellanic Clouds. At the center of the above picture is an object central to the remains of the violentstellar 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
[1]
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble [2], NASA [3]
Explanation: What’s causing those odd rings in supernova [4] 1987A? Twenty five years ago [5], in 1987, the brightest supernova [6] in recent history was seen in the Large Magellanic Clouds [7]. At the center of the above picture [8] is an object central to the remains of the violentstellar explosion [9]. Surrounding the center are curious outer rings [10] appearing as a flattened figure 8. Although large telescopes including the Hubble Space Telescope [11] monitor the curious rings every few years, their origin remains a mystery. Pictured above [8] is a Hubble image of the SN1987A remnant taken last year. Speculation [12] into the cause of the rings includes beamed jets emanating from an otherwise hidden neutron star [13] left over from the supernova, and the interaction of the wind [14] from the progenitor star with gas released before the explosion.
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URL to article: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/2012/02/26/astronomy-picture-of-the-day-106/
URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/sn1987a_hst_970.jpg
[2] ESA/Hubble: http://www.spacetelescope.org/
[3] NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/
[4] supernova: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova
[5] Twenty five years ago: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2012/02/23/happy-25th-annniversary-supernova-1987a/
[6] supernova: http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/snr.html
[7] Large Magellanic Clouds: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060510.html
[8] above picture: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1142a/
[9] stellar explosion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTTGVzqbypI
[10] curious outer rings: http://heritage.stsci.edu/1999/04/sn1987anino.html
[11] Hubble Space Telescope: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--X9zfgZtS0
[12] Speculation: http://arxiv.org/abs/1008.3387
[13] neutron star: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110305.html
[14] wind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEBLt6Kd9EY
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