Zoom into Supernova 1987A

11 November, 2020 / Read time: 1 minute

Video zooming into the dusty core of Supernova 1987A, revealing a hot “blob” as seen with ALMA, which could be the location of the missing neutron star.

The red color shows dust and cold gas in the center of the supernova remnant, taken at radio wavelengths with ALMA. The green and blue hues reveal where the expanding shock wave from the exploded star is colliding with a ring of material around the supernova. The green represents the glow of visible light, captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The blue color reveals the hottest gas and is based on data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.

The ring was initially made to glow by the flash of light from the original explosion. Over subsequent years the ring material has brightened considerably as the explosion's shock wave slams into it.

Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), P. Cigan and R. Indebetouw; NRAO/AUI/NSF, B. Saxton; NASA/ESA