James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) New Images of Exploding Stars era of the Reagan administration. His NIRCam (near-infrared camera) on the space telescope helped capture the world-famous image of the supernova. Supernova 1987A (SN 1987A) September 2022. A stunning new image of him was officially released on August 31st.
[Related: An amateur astronomer spotted a new supernova remarkably close to Earth.]
Supernova 1987A is About 168,000 light years away from Earth It is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite dwarf galaxy of the Milky Way. A supernova is the remnant of a blue supergiant called a . Sandurique – 69 202. Its mass was thought to be about 20 times that of the Sun until an explosion was detected in February 1987. It is also the closest observed supernova since 1604, when a Kepler supernova lit up the Milky Way galaxy. Supernova 1987A has been the target of observations at wavelengths ranging from gamma rays to radio waves for nearly 40 years.
Latest image The figure shows the central structure of the inner eruption resembling a keyhole. The core ejected by a supernova explosion is filled with clumps of gas and dust. According to NASAthe dust is so dense that even the near-infrared rays that Webb can detect cannot penetrate, forming a dark “hole” in the keyhole.
Around the inner keyhole, bright equatorial ring It forms a band around the supernova’s “waist” and connects the two faint arms of the hourglass-shaped outer ring. Equatorial rings are formed from material expelled tens of thousands of years ago by supernova explosions. When the supernova shock hit the ring, a bright hotspot within the ring appeared and now resides outside the ring, with diffuse radiation around it. These are where the supernova impact hits more cladding.
The Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes and the Chandra X-ray Observatory also observed supernova 1987A, but JWST’s sensitivity and spatial resolution revealed new features to this supernova remnant – a small crescent-like structure. The crescent moon is thought to be part of the outer layer of gas ejected by a supernova explosion. They are so bright that they may indicate an optical phenomenon called . extremity whitening. This is due to the ability to observe an expanding substance in three dimensions. “Depending on the viewing angle, these two crescents appear to have more material than they actually do.” NASA wrote in a press release.
JWST was preceded by the now-retired Spitzer telescope observing the supernova in the infrared over its entire 16-year lifetime, providing important data on how the emission of supernova 1987A evolved over time. provided to the person.But Spitzer couldn’t do that observe a supernova It has the same level of clarity and detail as JWST.
[Related: JWST captures an unprecedented ‘prequel’ to a galaxy.]
There are still some mysteries about this supernova, which are open questions about the neutron star that must have formed in the aftermath of the supernova explosion. There is some indirect evidence for neutron stars in the form of X-ray emissions detected by NASA. Chandra NuSTAR X-ray observatory. moreover, Part of the observation results obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Wave Array It indicates that the neutron star may be hidden in one of the clumps of dust at the core of the remnant.
Using the instruments NIRSpec (Near Infrared Spectrometer) and MIRI (Mid Infrared Instrument), JWST will enable astronomers to acquire new high-fidelity infrared data over time to observe supernovae over a long period of time. continue.
