Supernova Spews Its Guts Across Space

The newly refurbished Hubble Space Telescope has taken a new look at Supernova 1987A and its famous "String of Pearls," a glowing ring 6 trillion miles in diameter encircling the supernova remnant. The sharper and clearer image is allowing astronomers to see the “innards” of the star being ejected into space following the explosion, and comparing it with images taken in 2004 provides a unique glimpse of a young supernova remnant as it evolves through time. They found significant brightening of the object over time, and also evident is how the shock wave from the star’s explosion has expanded and rebounded. (...)Read the rest of Supernova Spews Its Guts Across Space (605 words)© nancy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | No comment |
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