A String of 'Cosmic Pearls' Surrounds an Exploding Star

Esahubble_heic0704a_1024

esahubble_heic0704a February 22nd, 2007

Credit: NASA, ESA, and R. Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

Two decades ago, astronomers spotted one of the brightest exploding stars in more than 400 years. Since that first sighting, the doomed star, called Supernova 1987A, has continued to fascinate astronomers with its spectacular light show. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is one of many observatories that has been monitoring the blast's aftermath. This image shows the entire region around the supernova. The most prominent feature in the image is a ring with dozens of bright spots. A shock wave of material unleashed by the stellar blast is slamming into regions along the ring's inner regions, heating them up, and causing them to glow. The ring, about a light-year across, was probably shed by the star about 20,000 years before it exploded. Astronomers detected the first bright spot in 1997, but now they see dozens of spots around the ring. Only Hubble can see the individual bright spots. In the next few years, the entire ring will be ablaze as it absorbs the full force of the crash. The glowing ring is expected to become bright enough to illuminate the star's surroundings, providing astronomers with new information on how the star expelled material before the explosion. The pink object in the centre of the ring is debris from the supernova blast. The glowing debris is being heated by radioactive elements, principally titanium 44, created in the explosion. The debris will continue to glow for many decades. The origin of a pair of faint outer red rings, located above and below the doomed star, is a mystery. The two bright objects that look like car headlights are a pair of stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The supernova is located 163,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The image was taken in December 2006 with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0704a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
SN 1987A
Subject - Local Universe
Star > Evolutionary Stage > Supernova
Esahubble_heic0704a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 5h 35m 28.0s
DEC = -69° 16’ 11.2”
Orientation
North is 6.0° CCW
Field of View
0.1 x 0.1 arcminutes
Constellation
Dorado

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red Hubble (ACS) Optical (R) 625.0 nm
Green Hubble (ACS) Optical (V) 555.0 nm
Blue Hubble (ACS) Optical (B) 435.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Green
Blue
Esahubble_heic0704a_1280
×
ID
heic0704a
Subject Category
C.3.1.8  
Subject Name
SN 1987A
Credits
NASA, ESA, and R. Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
Release Date
2007-02-22T16:55:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0704a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
ACS, ACS, ACS
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Blue
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
R, V, B
Central Wavelength
625, 555, 435
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
83.8666150435, -69.2697771249
Reference Dimension
655.0, 512.0
Reference Pixel
327.5, 256.0
Scale
-3.45237783878e-06, 3.45237783878e-06
Rotation
6.0399999999999974
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
heic0704a
Metadata Date
2007-02-20T10:36:04-05:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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