Super Nova 1987a

[Radar]

This is Super Nova 1987a. I was watching a doco on this the other night. No one knows what caused its strange shape.

Any ideas what could have caused the two thin red rings that extend out to the edges of the image? Keep in mind those rings are huge and would have to have happned many years before the actual nova.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0002/sn1987a_hst.jpg

[Draig]

Hi Ray,

here a couple of links that might provide your answers.

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/guidry/violence/sn87a-rings.html

and

http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~soper/StarDeath/sn1987a.html

both of these offer simular but different ideas as to what has caused the rings.

Cheers Colin

[Radar]

Interesting, I'm not sold though. :pipethinker:

[Rumples Riot]

The look like ejection rings to me. We are looking at that as a skewed angle though. A bit like the way the homunculus looks in ETA carina. The radiation from the blast is keeping the atoms vibrating enough to illuminate the rings.