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Credit & Copyright: David Malin,
AAT
Explanation:
Can you find supernova 1987A?
It isn't hard -- it occurred at the center of the expanding
bullseye pattern.
Although this stellar detonation was first seen in 1987, light from
SN 1987A continued to bounce off clumps of
interstellar dust
and be reflected to us even many years later.
Light
echoes recorded between 1988 and 1992 by the
Anglo Australian Telescope (AAT) in
Australia
are shown moving out from the position of the
supernova in the featured time-lapse sequence.
These images were composed by subtracting an LMC image taken before the
supernova
light arrived from later LMC images that included the supernova echo.
Other prominent
light echo
sequences include those taken by the
EROS2 and
SuperMACHO sky monitoring projects.
Studies of
expanding light echo
rings around other supernovas
have enabled more accurate determinations of the location, date, and
symmetry of these tremendous stellar explosions.
Yesterday marked the 32nd anniversary of
SN 1987A:
the last recoded supernova in or around our
Milky Way Galaxy,
and the last to be visible to the unaided eye.
Open Science:
Browse 1,800+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: light echo - SN 1987a
Publications with words: light echo - SN 1987a
See also: