One of my favorite sentences from that series at The Old Site: "Stars, like people, behave the way they do because of internal struggles": !!!
You mentioned a star superimposed on the lower left outer ring, which was (at least at the time of writing) being called "Plait's star." That star, you said, turned out not to be part of the 1987A event at all -- just coincidentally overlapped that bit of it. I see there are also two other very bright stars -- one close to (but not on) the lower RIGHT outer ring, and one apparently on the UPPER right outer ring. Are those also coincidental alignments?
The best teachers know when to say “I don’t know...” and are confident enough to do so. Thanks for sharing what you know and don’t about this complex object. I’ll be looking forward to your commentary on a good paper on 1987A when it comes out!
Some astronomers have seen similar formations around other stars & they hastily jump to the conclusion that they're part of a very EXTREMELY large structure ( ringworld, Alderson disc ) around such a star.
What would prompt it to explode so much in that "hourglass" figure, as opposed to a more spherical ball of ejecta? This puppy is by far not the only one with that kind of structure. Would that be related to the star's spin (and therefore the magnetic fields generated)? Picturing again (mostly incorrecly) the "right-hand rule" of my physics classes. From Hubble AND the Space Telescope, it's seasy to see that there is one hell of a lot of *something* going on there. And i sincerely hope that guys like you can decipher it in the days to come. I foresee many advanced degrees coming fror those analyses!
You mentioned in one of your replies (to John Simpson, I believe) about the "apparent lack of a neutron star". Any real ideas why it may be "missing"? I do see in the Space Telescope image that there is a largish kind of blank area in the center of the goldfish, where one would expect to see something. Obscuring gas/dust (would have to be pretty darn cold to show up as a blank spot)?
I just added this addendum/correction to the article:
"Mea culpa: I originally wrote that this was the closest supernova in 400 years, but I forgot about G1.9+0.3! It exploded on the other side of our Milky Way, and its light reach us a little over a century ago, but was obscured by so much dust that it wasn’t discovered until recently. No one on Earth saw it at the time because it was far too faint. Thanks to BANner Scott Harrington for reminding me of this!"
Truly weird JWST images of a truly weird object: Supernova 1987A
WE'RE BEING WATCHED. Woooooooo ! Then the aliens saw how bats--t insane we can be.
Seriously, beautiful images.
One of my favorite sentences from that series at The Old Site: "Stars, like people, behave the way they do because of internal struggles": !!!
You mentioned a star superimposed on the lower left outer ring, which was (at least at the time of writing) being called "Plait's star." That star, you said, turned out not to be part of the 1987A event at all -- just coincidentally overlapped that bit of it. I see there are also two other very bright stars -- one close to (but not on) the lower RIGHT outer ring, and one apparently on the UPPER right outer ring. Are those also coincidental alignments?
The best teachers know when to say “I don’t know...” and are confident enough to do so. Thanks for sharing what you know and don’t about this complex object. I’ll be looking forward to your commentary on a good paper on 1987A when it comes out!
Some astronomers have seen similar formations around other stars & they hastily jump to the conclusion that they're part of a very EXTREMELY large structure ( ringworld, Alderson disc ) around such a star.
What would prompt it to explode so much in that "hourglass" figure, as opposed to a more spherical ball of ejecta? This puppy is by far not the only one with that kind of structure. Would that be related to the star's spin (and therefore the magnetic fields generated)? Picturing again (mostly incorrecly) the "right-hand rule" of my physics classes. From Hubble AND the Space Telescope, it's seasy to see that there is one hell of a lot of *something* going on there. And i sincerely hope that guys like you can decipher it in the days to come. I foresee many advanced degrees coming fror those analyses!
You mentioned in one of your replies (to John Simpson, I believe) about the "apparent lack of a neutron star". Any real ideas why it may be "missing"? I do see in the Space Telescope image that there is a largish kind of blank area in the center of the goldfish, where one would expect to see something. Obscuring gas/dust (would have to be pretty darn cold to show up as a blank spot)?
ARG!
I just added this addendum/correction to the article:
"Mea culpa: I originally wrote that this was the closest supernova in 400 years, but I forgot about G1.9+0.3! It exploded on the other side of our Milky Way, and its light reach us a little over a century ago, but was obscured by so much dust that it wasn’t discovered until recently. No one on Earth saw it at the time because it was far too faint. Thanks to BANner Scott Harrington for reminding me of this!"
The link is at https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/g1903-the-last-galactic-supernova