The Dawn of a New Era for Supernova 1987A
Friday, February 24, 2017 - 10:31
in Astronomy & Space
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. To commemorate the 30th anniversary of SN 1987A, new images, time-lapse movies, a data-based animation, 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.