Astronomers have been captivated by Supernova 1987A — the death of a supergiant star about 168,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud — since it was first spotted in the night sky in 1987.
Supernova 1987A remains the brightest supernova humans have witnessed since Kepler’s Supernova in 1604. It was also the first supernova observed since the telescope was invented. It was first seen by Ian Shelton of the University of Toronto and Oscar Duhalde, a telescope operator on February 24, 1987. About 30 years after the supernova was first spotted, Yvette Cendes, a graduate astrophysicist with the University of Toronto and the Leiden Observatory and a regular Discover writer, set out to create a time-lapse showing the aftermath of the supernova. She compiled data collected over 25 years, from 1992 to 2017.
“This is literally the best view we have of what happens in the aftermath of a ...
