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The SN 1987A Environment

from Supernovae and Circumstellar Matter

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2010

L. Wang
Affiliation:
Beijing Astronomical Observatory, Beijing 100080, P.R. China
E. J. Wampler
Affiliation:
European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-straße 2, Garching bei München, D-85748 Germany
Richard McCray
Affiliation:
University of Colorado, Boulder
ZhenRu Wang
Affiliation:
Nanjing University, China
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Summary

The environment of the SN1987A is quite complex but also very regularly structured. Detailed analyses of direct images taken under good seeing conditions (0.3–0.8 arcsec) from the European Southern Observatory (ESO)'s New Technology Telescope (NTT) show that there are two nebular loops within the 3 arcsec environment of the SN. The inner loop is elliptical in shape. The kinematics of this loop as revealed by spectroscopic data with a spectral resolving power λ/Δλ ≈ 30000 provide further clues for the three dimensional structure of these two loops. The data show that the overall structure of the nebulosity can be understood by an hourglass-shaped shell with significant mass enhancement on its equatorial plane. A diffuse nebulosity called Napoleon's Hat is observed at a distance of about 5 arcsec to the north of the SN. It showed little size evolution since the first observation on Aug. 1989, until it disappeared on Jan, 1992. The Napoleon's Hat nebula appears to be a bow-shock coming from an interaction between the supernova progenitor's stellar wind and the interstellar medium, as the supernova progenitor moved through the interstellar medium with a velocity of around 5 km s−1. On an even larger scale, there is a huge dark bay of size around 100 arcsec in diameter, we suggested that this bay was also formed by interactions between the supernova progenitor and the interstellar medium.

Type
Chapter
Information
Supernovae and Supernova Remnants
IAU Colloquium 145
, pp. 299 - 308
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1996

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  • The SN 1987A Environment
    • By L. Wang, Beijing Astronomical Observatory, Beijing 100080, P.R. China, E. J. Wampler, European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-straße 2, Garching bei München, D-85748 Germany
  • Edited by Richard McCray, University of Colorado, Boulder, ZhenRu Wang, Nanjing University, China
  • Book: Supernovae and Supernova Remnants
  • Online publication: 04 August 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511564734.031
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  • The SN 1987A Environment
    • By L. Wang, Beijing Astronomical Observatory, Beijing 100080, P.R. China, E. J. Wampler, European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-straße 2, Garching bei München, D-85748 Germany
  • Edited by Richard McCray, University of Colorado, Boulder, ZhenRu Wang, Nanjing University, China
  • Book: Supernovae and Supernova Remnants
  • Online publication: 04 August 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511564734.031
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The SN 1987A Environment
    • By L. Wang, Beijing Astronomical Observatory, Beijing 100080, P.R. China, E. J. Wampler, European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-straße 2, Garching bei München, D-85748 Germany
  • Edited by Richard McCray, University of Colorado, Boulder, ZhenRu Wang, Nanjing University, China
  • Book: Supernovae and Supernova Remnants
  • Online publication: 04 August 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511564734.031
Available formats
×