In 1987, a supernova suddenly appeared in the Large Magellanic Cloud and was studied by astronomers worldwide. Although the detonating star was 165,000 light-years away, this was still the closest supernova seen in centuries. Astronomers have continued to study the expanding debris cloud over the decades, and now JWST has joined the effort, revealing new features never before seen with other observatories. The central core is so dense with gas and dust that its central neutron star remnant is still hidden, even to JWST.
Most prominent in the image is the bright equatorial ring of ionized gas. This ring was ejected from the star for thousands of years before it exploded. It’s now heated by shockwaves from the supernova. The equatorial ring girdles the hourglass shape of the fainter outer rights that stem from the polar regions of the star. These structures have been observed before by telescopes such as Hubble and Spitzer. But JWST’s real power is to peer into the center of SN 1987a.
The structures seen in the new JWST image. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, M. Matsuura, R. Arendt, C. Fransson But even JWST wasn’t able to observe the ultimate jewel of the supernova, the remnant star. Supernovae not only cast off new material into interstellar space, they also trigger the collapse of the star’s core to become a neutron star or black hole. Based on the scale of SN 1987a, a neutron star should have formed in its center. However, the gas and dust of the inner keyhole region are too dense for JWST to observe it.
Tycho’s supernova was just 8,000 light-years from Earth, and Kepler’s about 20,000 light-years distant. UnlessFor more information on these results,
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