Teaching tools > Science content reading > Overview: Supernova 1987A history > Tales of: History of Supernova 1987A

Tales of ... Key events in the history of Supernova 1987A See image below

February 23, 1987: Canadian astronomer Ian Shelton at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile takes a telescopic photo of a small galaxy over 163,000 light-years from Earth called the Large Magellanic Cloud. For Shelton, it is just routine work — until he develops the photographic plate. On that plate, he notices an extremely bright star, an intruder that he had not seen in previous observations of the same area. He races outside and looks up at the sky. There it is: a star of about the fifth magnitude, glowing in the sky. He realizes that this "new star" is actually an aging massive star that has blown itself apart in a supernova explosion. (The star actually blew up about 161,000 BC, but its light arrived here in 1987.) (Continued >>)

A gaseous ring structure surrounds Supernova 1987A

Teaching tools > Science content reading > Overview: Supernova 1987A history > Tales of: History of Supernova 1987A