https://science.nasa.gov/missions/chandra/the-dawn-of-a-new-era-for-supernova-1987a/ Skip to main content * Missions + Search All NASA Missions + A to Z List of Missions + Upcoming Launches and Landings + Spaceships and Rockets + Communicating with Missions + Artemis + James Webb Space Telescope + Hubble Space Telescope + International Space Station + OSIRIS-REx * Humans in Space + Why Go to Space + Astronauts + Commercial Space + Destinations + Spaceships and Rockets + Living in Space * Earth & Climate + Explore Earth Science + Climate Change + Earth, Our Planet + Earth Science in Action + Earth Multimedia + Earth Data + Earth Science Researchers * About NASA + NASA's Impacts + Centers and Facilities + Directorates + Organizations + People of NASA + Careers + Internships + Our History + Doing Business with NASA + Get Involved + Contact * Learning Resources + For Kids and Students + For Educators + For Colleges and Universities + For Professionals + Science for Everyone + Request an Exhibit or Speaker + STEM Engagement at NASA * Aeronautics + Science in the Air + NASA Aircraft + Flight Innovation + Supersonic Flight + Air Traffic Solutions + Green Aviation Tech + Drones & You * Technology + Technology Transfer & Spinoffs + Space Travel Technology + Technology Living in Space + Manufacturing and Materials + Robotics + Science Instruments + Computing * The Universe + Exoplanets + The Search for Life in the Universe + Stars + Galaxies + Black Holes + The Big Bang + Dark Matter & Dark Energy * The Solar System + The Sun + Mercury + Venus + Earth + The Moon + Mars + Jupiter + Saturn + Uranus + Neptune + Pluto & Dwarf Planets + Asteroids, Comets & Meteors + The Kuiper Belt + The Oort Cloud + Skywatching * Espanol + Ciencia + Aeronautica + Ciencias Terrestres + Sistema Solar + Universo * Science + All NASA Science + Earth Science + Planetary Science + Astrophysics & Space Science + The Sun & Heliophysics + Biological & Physical Sciences + Lunar Science + Citizen Science + Astromaterials + Aeronautics Research + Human Space Travel Research NASA Logo * Explore Search[ ]Submit NASA Logo * News & Events * Multimedia * NASA+ 7 min read The Dawn of a New Era for Supernova 1987a The headshot image of NASA Hubble Mission Team NASA Hubble Mission Team Goddard Space Flight Center Feb 24, 2017 Article * * * * Three decades ago, astronomers spotted one of the brightest exploding stars in more than 400 years. The titanic supernova, called Supernova 1987A (SN 1987A), blazed with the power of 100 million suns for several months following its discovery on Feb. 23, 1987. Since that first sighting, SN 1987A has continued to fascinate astronomers with its spectacular light show. Located in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud, it is the nearest supernova explosion observed in hundreds of years and the best opportunity yet for astronomers to study the phases before, during, and after the death of a star. The video begins with a nighttime view of the Small and Large Magellanic clouds, satellite galaxies of our Milky Way. It then zooms into a rich star-birth region in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Nestled between mountains of red-colored gas is the odd-looking structure of Supernova 1987A, the remnant of an exploded star that was first observed in February 1987. The site of the supernova is surrounded by a ring of material that is illuminated by a wave of energy from the outburst. Two faint outer rings are also visible. All three rings existed before the explosion as fossil relics of the doomed star's activity in its final days. NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI) To commemorate the 30th anniversary of SN 1987A, new images, time-lapse movies, a data-based animation based on work led by Salvatore Orlando at INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, Italy, and a three-dimensional model are being released. By combining data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory, as well as the international Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers -- and the public -- can explore SN 1987A like never before. red nebula and stars This Hubble Space Telescope image shows Supernova 1987A within the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighboring galaxy to our Milky Way. NASA, ESA, R. Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation), and M. Mutchler and R. Avila (STScI) This time-lapse video sequence of Hubble Space Telescope images reveals dramatic changes in a ring of material around the exploded star Supernova 1987A. The images, taken from 1994 to 2016, show the effects of a shock wave from the supernova blast smashing into the ring. The ring begins to brighten as the shock wave hits it. The ring is about one light-year across. NASA, ESA, and R. Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation), and P. Challis (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) Hubble has repeatedly observed SN 1987A since 1990, accumulating hundreds of images, and Chandra began observing SN 1987A shortly after its deployment in 1999. ALMA, a powerful array of 66 antennas, has been gathering high-resolution millimeter and submillimeter data on SN 1987A since its inception. "The 30 years' worth of observations of SN 1987A are important because they provide insight into the last stages of stellar evolution," said Robert Kirshner of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation in Palo Alto, California. The latest data from these powerful telescopes indicate that SN 1987A has passed an important threshold. The supernova shock wave is moving beyond the dense ring of gas produced late in the life of the pre-supernova star when a fast outflow or wind from the star collided with a slower wind generated in an earlier red giant phase of the star's evolution. What lies beyond the ring is poorly known at present, and depends on the details of the evolution of the star when it was a red giant. computer model of SN1987A This scientific visualization, using data from a computer simulation, shows Supernova 1987A, as the luminous ring of material we see today. NASA, ESA, and F. Summers and G. Bacon (STScI); Simulation S. Orlando (INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo) "The details of this transition will give astronomers a better understanding of the life of the doomed star, and how it ended," said Kari Frank of Penn State University who led the latest Chandra study of SN 1987A. Supernovas such as SN 1987A can stir up the surrounding gas and trigger the formation of new stars and planets. The gas from which these stars and planets form will be enriched with elements such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and iron, which are the basic components of all known life. These elements are forged inside the pre-supernova star and during the supernova explosion itself, and then dispersed into their host galaxy by expanding supernova remnants. Continued studies of SN 1987A should give unique insight into the early stages of this dispersal. Some highlights from studies involving these telescopes include: Hubble studies have revealed that the dense ring of gas around the supernova is glowing in optical light, and has a diameter of about a light-year. The ring was there at least 20,000 years before the star exploded. A flash of ultraviolet light from the explosion energized the gas in the ring, making it glow for decades. 6 images of glowing rings 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. NASA, ESA, and R. Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation), and P. Challis (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) The central structure visible inside the ring in the Hubble image has now grown to roughly half a light-year across. Most noticeable are two blobs of debris in the center of the supernova remnant racing away from each other at roughly 20 million miles an hour. From 1999 until 2013, Chandra data showed an expanding ring of X-ray emission that had been steadily getting brighter. The blast wave from the original explosion has been bursting through and heating the ring of gas surrounding the supernova, producing X-ray emission. In the past few years, the ring has stopped getting brighter in X-rays. From about February 2013 until the last Chandra observation analyzed in September 2015 the total amount of low-energy X-rays has remained constant. Also, the bottom left part of the ring has started to fade. These changes provide evidence that the explosion's blast wave has moved beyond the ring into a region with less dense gas. This represents the end of an era for SN 1987A. Beginning in 2012, astronomers used ALMA to observe the glowing remains of the supernova, studying how the remnant is actually forging vast amounts of new dust from the new elements created in the progenitor star. A portion of this dust will make its way into interstellar space and may become the building blocks of future stars and planets in another system. These observations also suggest that dust in the early universe likely formed from similar supernova explosions. Astronomers also are still looking for evidence of a black hole or a neutron star left behind by the blast. They observed a flash of neutrinos from the star just as it erupted. This detection makes astronomers quite certain a compact object formed as the center of the star collapsed -- either a neutron star or a black hole -- but no telescope has uncovered any evidence for one yet. four images of a bright ring Astronomers combined observations from three different observatories to produce this colorful, multiwavelength image of the intricate remains of Supernova 1987A. NASA, ESA, and A. Angelich (NRAO/AUI/NSF); Hubble NASA, ESA, and R. Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation) Chandra NASA/CXC/Penn State/K. Frank et al.; ALMA ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) and R. Indebetouw (NRAO/AUI/NSF) These latest visuals were made possible by combining several sources of information including simulations by Salvatore Orlando and collaborators that appear in this paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/ 1508.02275. The Chandra study by Frank et al. can be found online at http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/1608.02160. Recent ALMA results on SN 87A are available at https://arxiv.org/abs/1312.4086. The Chandra program is managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, controls Chandra's science and flight operations. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington. ALMA is a partnership of ESO (representing its member states), NSF (USA) and NINS (Japan), together with NRC (Canada), NSC and ASIAA (Taiwan), and KASI (Republic of South Korea), in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. The Joint ALMA Observatory is operated by ESO, AUI /NRAO and NAOJ. For visuals and more information about SN 1987A, visit: http://hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2017-08 http://www.nasa.gov/hubble http://www.nasa.gov/chandra Contacts: Donna Weaver / Ray Villard Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md. dweaver@stsci.edu / villard@stsci.edu 410-338-4493 / 410-338-4514 Megan Watzke Chandra X-ray Center, Cambridge, Mass. mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu 617-496-7998 Molly Porter NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center 256.544.2771 Rob Gutro NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. robert.j.gutro@nasa.gov 301-286-4044 Share * * * * Details Last Updated Mar 05, 2024 Editor NASA Hubble Mission Team Contact NASA Hubble Mission Team Related Terms * Astrophysics * Chandra X-Ray Observatory * Goddard Space Flight Center * Hubble Space Telescope Explore More [3-2] 7 min read Meloe Kacenelenbogen Eyes the Future of Air Quality, Climate Research A mentor of research scientist Meloe Kacenelenbogen once shared a sentiment from French author Andre Gide: "You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore." Kacenelenbogen pushes beyond her comfort zone to explore the unknown. Name: Meloe S. KacenelenbogenFormal Job Classification: Research scientistOrganization: Climate and Radiation Laboratory, Science [...] Article1 day ago A technician inspects a prototype LISA telescope. 2 min read NASA Reveals Prototype Telescope for Gravitational Wave Observatory Article1 day ago A spiral galaxy. It has a bright core with light spilling out. Its disk holds thick clumps of dark reddish dust, which swirls around the galaxy following its rotation. Brighter and hotter stars, shown in blue, speckle parts of the disk. A halo of faint gas wraps around the galaxy, extending beyond the edges of the image. 2 min read Hubble Captures a New View of Galaxy M90 Article5 days ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA James Webb Space Telescope The image is divided horizontally by an undulating line between a cloudscape forming a nebula along the bottom portion and a comparatively clear upper portion. Speckled across both portions is a starfield, showing innumerable stars of many sizes. The smallest of these are small, distant, and faint points of light. The largest of these appear larger, closer, brighter, and more fully resolved with 8-point diffraction spikes. The upper portion of the image is blueish, and has wispy translucent cloud-like streaks rising from the nebula below. The orangish cloudy formation in the bottom half varies in density and ranges from translucent to opaque. The stars vary in color, the majority of which have a blue or orange hue. The cloud-like structure of the nebula contains ridges, peaks, and valleys - an appearance very similar to a mountain range. Three long diffraction spikes from the top right edge of the image suggest the presence of a large star just out of view. Perseverance Rover [jpegpia24836] Parker Solar Probe [observingsunposter-jpg] Juno [jpegpia21771] Return to top NASA Logo National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA explores the unknown in air and space, innovates for the benefit of humanity, and inspires the world through discovery. * About NASA's Mission Join Us * Home * News & Events * Multimedia * NASA+ * Missions * Humans in Space * Earth & Climate * The Solar System * The Universe * Science * Aeronautics * Technology * Learning Resources * About NASA * NASA en Espanol Follow NASA * * * * * More NASA Social Accounts * NASA Newsletters * Sitemap * For Media * Privacy Policy * FOIA * No FEAR Act * Office of the IG * Budget & Annual Reports * Agency Financial Reports * Contact NASA * Accessibility * Page Last Updated: 8 months ago * Page Editor: SMD Content Editors * Responsible NASA Official for Science: Dana Bolles