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SN 1987A was a type II supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. It occurred approximately 51.4 kiloparsecs (168,000 light-years) from Earth and was the closest observed supernova since Kepler's Supernova in 1604. Light and neutrinos from the explosion reached Earth on February 23, 1987 and was designated "SN 1987A" as the first supernova discovered that year. Its brightness peaked in May of that year, with an apparent magnitude of about 3.
It was the first supernova that modern astronomers were able to study in great detail, and its observations have provided much insight into core-collapse supernovae. SN 1987A provided the first opportunity to confirm by direct observation the radioactive source of the energy for visible light emissions, by detecting predicted gamma-ray line radiation from two of its abundant radioactive nuclei. This proved the radioactive nature of the long-duration post-explosion glow of supernovae.
In 2019, indirect evidence for the presence of a collapsed neutron star within the remnants of SN 1987A was discovered using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array telescope. Further evidence was subsequently uncovered in 2021 through observations conducted by the Chandra and NuSTAR X-ray telescopes. In 2024, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope provided groundbreaking observations[4] that further illuminated the enigmatic processes at play within SN 1987A's remnants.
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Lyman, J. D.; Bersier, D.; James, P. A. (2013). "Bolometric corrections for optical light curves of core-collapse supernovae". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 437 (4): 3848. arXiv:1311.1946. Bibcode:2014MNRAS.437.3848L. doi:10.1093/mnras/stt2187. S2CID 56226661.
^Cite error: The named reference iauc was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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"SN1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud". Hubble Heritage Project. Archived from the original on July 14, 2009. Retrieved July 25, 2006.
^"James Webb Telescope Detects Neutron Star in Supernova Remnant SN 1987A". www.jameswebbdiscovery.com. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
SN1987A was a type II supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. It occurred approximately 51.4 kiloparsecs (168...
neutrinos from the SN1987A supernova in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud. These efforts marked the beginning of neutrino astronomy. SN1987A represents the...
modern astronomical telescopes. The most recent naked-eye supernova was SN1987A, which was the explosion of a blue supergiant star in the Large Magellanic...
Keith Shelton (born 30 March 1957) is a Canadian astronomer who discovered SN1987A, the first modern supernova close and bright enough to be visible to the...
way interstellar dust absorbs light, and measurements of the supernova SN1987A which showed that it defied stellar evolution theories as they then stood...
its peak the SN 2006gy supernova was intrinsically 400 times as luminous as SN1987A, which was bright enough to be seen by the naked eye, SN 2006gy was...
speed. One of the best observed young supernova remnants was formed by SN1987A, a supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud that was observed in February...
neutrino-neutrino interactions. The only supernova neutrino event detected so far is SN1987A. Nevertheless, with current detector sensitivities, it is expected that...
for Observations of Nucleosynthetic Gamma-Ray Lines and Continuum from SN1987A", N. Gehrels, C.J. MacCallum and M. Leventhal, ApJ, 320, L19. 1986, "Confidence...
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it was believed that only red supergiants could explode as supernovae. SN1987A, however, forced astronomers to re-examine this theory, as its progenitor...
hypothesis by observing SN 1987a with the naked eye. The Kamiokande experiment, in Japan, independently observed neutrinos from SN1987a at the same time. Judson...
astronomy at the University of Virginia in 1995 with a thesis on supernova SN1987A, which he studied with the Supernova Intensive Study (SINS). During the...
second-brightest type II supernova observed in the twentieth century behind SN1987A, peaking at a visible apparent magnitude of 10.7 on March 30, with a second...
79 PSR B1620−26 b 3C 58 Cas X-1 GW170817 Cygnus loop Spaghetti Nebula SN1987A Jellyfish nebula Stellar designations and names Heger, A.; Fryer, C. L...
Neutrinos generated by a supernova were observed in the case of Supernova 1987A, leading astrophysicists to conclude that the core collapse picture is basically...
spectra and emission half life). A classic example is that of supernova SN1987A, which emits an "afterglow" of gamma-ray photons from the decay of newly...
explosion would not occur at the LBV stage. Prompted by the progenitor of SN1987A being a blue supergiant, and most likely an LBV, several subsequent supernovae...
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was in 1936, but it was not studied in detail. An example is supernova SN1987A, the closest supernova in modern times. Its light echoes have aided in...
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