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The Dawn of a New Era for Supernova 1987a


Waspie_Dwarf

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The Dawn of a New Era for Supernova 1987a

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Three decades ago, astronomers spotted one of the brightest exploding stars in more than 400 years. The titanic supernova, called Supernova 1987A (SN 1987A), blazed with the power of 100 million suns for several months following its discovery on Feb. 23, 1987.

Since that first sighting, SN 1987A has continued to fascinate astronomers with its spectacular light show. Located in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud, it is the nearest supernova explosion observed in hundreds of years and the best opportunity yet for astronomers to study the phases before, during, and after the death of a star.

arrow3.gif  Read More: NASA

 

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I naked eye observed SN1987A from about 2km south of the Tropic of Capricorn on 1987, it looked like an ordinary bright star.    

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1 hour ago, Codenwarra said:

I naked eye observed SN1987A from about 2km south of the Tropic of Capricorn on 1987, it looked like an ordinary bright star.    

That's cool. I naked eyed it as well in central south island of NZ.  If I remember right it was first discovered by an astronomer in NZ.

I saw it the night after it was announced and from here it looked more like a bright fuzzy smear of a star gradually dimming out with the passing years.

 

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22 minutes ago, taniwha said:

 If I remember right it was first discovered by an astronomer in NZ.

Sort of.

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SN 1987A was discovered by Ian Shelton and Oscar Duhalde at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile on February 24, 1987, and within the same 24 hours independently by Albert Jones in New Zealand.

Source: Wikipedia

So a New Zealander is jointly credited with the discovery, but he wasn't actually the first to discover it.

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