Hubble Captures Wide View of Supernova 1987A
About This Image
Release Date
February 24, 2017 10:00AM (EST)Read the Release
2017-08Permissions
Content Use Policy
Caption
This Hubble Space Telescope image shows Supernova 1987A within the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighboring galaxy to our Milky Way.
Distant stars serve as a backdrop for Supernova 1987A, located in the center of the image. The bright ring around the central region of the exploded star is composed of material ejected by the star about 20,000 years before its demise. Gaseous clouds surround the supernova. The clouds' red color represents the glow of hydrogen gas, which is fueling a firestorm of star birth.
Supernova 1987A was discovered in 1987, and Hubble began observing the exploded star in the early 1990s. This latest view was taken by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 in January 2017. The colors of the foreground and background stars were added from observations taken by Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2.
Supernova 1987A resides 163,000 light-years away.
Credits
NASA, ESA, R. Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation), and M. Mutchler and R. Avila (STScI)Keywords
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | SN 1987A |
| Object Description | Supernova Remnant |
| R.A. Position | 05h 35m 28.03s |
| Dec. Position | -69° 16' 11".8 |
| Constellation | Dorado |
| Distance | Approximately 163,000 light-years (50 kiloparsecs) away |
| Dimensions | The image is about 120 light-years (36.8 parsecs) wide. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | Datasets used for these results are from the HST proposals 5753, 6020, 6437, 7434, 8243, 8648, 9114, 10867, 11973, R. Kirshner (Harvard Univ) and 14913, M. Mutchler (STScI) |
| Instrument | HST>WFC3/UVIS and HST>WFPC2 |
| Exposure Dates | 1995-2009 (WFPC2), and January 17, 2017 (WFC3); Total exposure time: 22,680s (6h 18m) |
| Filters | WFC3/UVIS: F657N (Hα) WFPC2: F439W (B), F555W (V), and F814W (I) |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | Blue: F439W (B) Green: F555W (V) Red: F814W (I) + F657N (Hα) |
| Compass Image |  |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |