images

The Tarantula Nebula and supernova 1987a in the LMC

by

Anglo-Australian Observatory/David Malin Images/Novapix

Reference

a-snv01-98711

Date

2006-09-17

The brightest star in this picture is the first supernova to be visible to the unaided eye for almost 400 years. It occured in a region rich in young, blue stars and it was one of these which destroyed itself. When this picture was taken, about 2 weeks after the supernova was discovered, at the end of February, 1987, the expanding shell of material had already changed from blue to orange-red as it cooled. The location of the supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) means that it can only be seen from the southern hemisphere.