 SN 1987A was caused by the explosion of Sanduleak -69 202. | |
| Observation data Epoch J2000 Equinox J2000 | |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Dorado |
| Right ascension | 05 35 27.92 |
| Declination | −69° 16′ 11.1″ |
| Characteristics | |
| Spectral type | B3 Ia |
| Astrometry | |
| Distance | 168,000 ly (51,400 pc) |
| Details | |
| Mass | ~20 M☉ |
| Radius | 41.15 R☉ |
| Luminosity | ~100,000 L☉ |
| Temperature | 16,000 K |
| Other designations | |
| Sk -69 202, GSC 09162-00821 | |
| Database references | |
| SIMBAD | data |
.jpg)
Sanduleak -69 202 (Sk -69 202, also known as GSC 09162-00821) was a magnitude 12 blue supergiant star, located on the outskirts of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It was the progenitor of supernova 1987A.
The star was originally charted by the Romanian-American astronomer Nicholas Sanduleak in 1970, but was not well studied until identified as the star that exploded in the first naked eye supernova since the invention of the telescope, when its maximum reached visual magnitude +2.8.
The discovery that a blue supergiant was a supernova progenitor contradicted the prevailing theories of stellar evolution and produced a flurry of new ideas about how such a thing might happen, but it is now accepted that blue supergiants are a normal progenitor for some supernovae.
The candidate luminous blue variable HD 168625 possesses a bipolar nebula that is a close twin of that around Sk -69 202. It is speculated that Sk -69 202 may have been a luminous blue variable in the recent past, although it was apparently a normal luminous supergiant at the time it exploded.
See also
References
- ^ Sanduleak, N. (1970). "A deep objective-prism survey for Large Magellanic Cloud members". Contribution. 89. Bibcode:1970CoTol..89.....S.
- ^ Smith, N. (2007). "Discovery of a Nearby Twin of SN 1987A's Nebula around the Luminous Blue Variable HD 168625: Was Sk -69 202 an LBV?". The Astronomical Journal. 133 (3): 1034–1538. arXiv:astro-ph/0611544. Bibcode:2007AJ....133.1034S. doi:10.1086/510838. S2CID 17598600.
- "SN 1987A". The International Variable Star Index. AAVSO – American Association of Variable Star Observers. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
- Podsiadlowski, P. (1992). "The progenitor of SN 1987 A". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 104: 717. Bibcode:1992PASP..104..717P. doi:10.1086/133043.
- Georgy, C.; Meynet, G.; Walder, R.; Folini, D.; Maeder, A. (2009). "The different progenitors of type Ib, Ic SNe, and of GRB". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 502 (2): 611. arXiv:0906.2284. Bibcode:2009A&A...502..611G. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/200811339. S2CID 1660838.
