Eight of Space

Credit: The Hub­ble Her­itage Team (AURA/STScI/NASA)

In 1987, astronomers wit­nessed a bril­liant explo­sion. A mas­sive star exploded, shin­ing with more light than an entire galaxy. In a span of months it was gone. With the help of NASA’s Hub­ble Space Tele­scope, astronomers “re-found” SN 1987A hid­den in a back­drop of glit­ter­ing stars and shim­mer­ing wisps of gas.

What sci­en­tists observed was the self-destruction of a mas­sive star, many times heav­ier than our Sun. Super­nova is the final stage in the life of a super-massive star. These stars burn through their hydro­gen fuel reserves so quickly that they live only a few mil­lion years. When the fuel reserves run out, the star col­lapses on itself. The force of grav­ity pulls the outer lay­ers toward the cen­ter of the star but then rebounds in a colos­sal explo­sion. Heav­ier atoms, such as oxy­gen, sil­i­con, gold, and ura­nium are cre­ated in the super-hot explosion.

Explore the image of SN 1987A. The neb­ula shaped like the num­ber 8 is all that remains of the star. Twin rings of mate­r­ial are mov­ing through the neb­ula. The fast-moving mate­r­ial slams into the calm sur­round­ing neb­ula, heat­ing the gas and dust and caus­ing it to glow. Many bright blue near the super­nova are mas­sive stars them­selves. In the com­ing years, astronomers will be watch­ing the rings of mate­r­ial sweep through the neb­ula, cre­at­ing new pat­terns and shapes. What do you see in this shim­mer­ing cloud sur­round­ing a super­nova? Share your com­ments below.

SN 1987A is a super­nova rem­nant about 168,000 light-years away in the Large Mag­el­lanic Cloud toward the south­ern con­stel­la­tion Dorado, the Dol­phin.