The full series of Hubble images of SN 1987A. The logarithmic color scale shows the brightness relative to the brightest hot spot in the December 2009 image. The bright spot that stands out at the lower right in early images is a star unrelated to the supernova remnant. [Tegkelidis et al. 2024]
The supernova SN 1987A is the closest known supernova in more than four centuries, and its proximity has allowed researchers to study its post-explosion evolution in great detail. Recently, a team led by Christos Tegkelidis (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) presented a series of Hubble Space Telescope images of a feature in SN 1987A called the equatorial ring. The equatorial ring was revealed several months after the light from the exploding star first reached Earth. The ring is made up of dense clumps of material that were illuminated when the expanding blast wave slammed into them. The image above shows the evolution of the equatorial ring from January 2003 to July 2019, while the image to the right shows the full series of snapshots from September 1994 to September 2022. These snapshots reflect the changing brightness, velocity, and elongation of more than two dozen “hotspots” — particularly dense knots of gas embedded in a more tenuous cloud. For more information about this decades-long study of a nearby supernova remnant, be sure to check out the full research article linked below.
Citation
“Tracing the Propagation of Shocks in the Equatorial Ring of SN 1987A over Decades with the Hubble Space Telescope,” Christos Tegkelidis et al 2024 ApJ 976 164. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ad812e
