These images, taken between 1994 and 2016 by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, chronicle the brightening of a ring of gas around an exploded star. The stellar blast, called Supernova 1987A, was first spotted 30 years ago. The explosion is the nearest supernova event in more than 400 years. Hubble began watching the blast's aftermath shortly after the space telescope's launch in 1990. The growing number of bright spots on the ring was produced by a shock wave unleashed by the blast, which is slamming into the ring of gas, heating it up, and causing it to glow brighter. The ring, about one light-year across, was probably shed by the star about 20,000 years before the explosion. Astronomers detected the first bright spot in 1997, but now the whole inner ring has brightened and looks like a string of pearls. Only Hubble can see the individual knots. The bright spot that appears on the ring at lower right is actually a foreground star. Supernova 1987A is 163,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The images were taken with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, and Advanced Camera for Surveys.
Credits
Image
NASA, ESA, Robert P. Kirshner (CfA, Moore Foundation), Peter Challis (CfA)
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | SN 1987A |
| Object Description | Supernova Remnant |
| R.A. Position | 05h 35m 28.03s |
| Dec. Position | -69° 16' 11".8 |
| Constellation | Dorado |
| Distance | Approximately 163,000 light-years (50 kiloparsecs) away |
| About The Data | |
| Exposure Dates | 1994 - 2016 |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
