Skip to main content

James Webb telescope captures stunning view of a famous supernova remnant

One of the satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, the Large Magellanic Cloud, is famous as the host of the nearest supernova to Earth in recent history. Supernova SN 1987A occurred when a massive star ran out of fuel and collapsed at the end of its life, setting off an enormous explosion that threw out a shock wave so powerful it reshaped the dust and gas around it for millions of miles in every direction.

That supernova left behind a remnant, a ring-shaped structure created as the shock wave traveled outward over time. This glowing ring has been frequently observed since the supernova was first seen in 1987. Now, the James Webb Space Telescope has provided one of the most detailed views yet of this stunning structure that was created from a destructive explosion.

Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) captured this detailed image of SN 1987A (Supernova 1987A). At the center, material ejected from the supernova forms a keyhole shape. Just to its left and right are faint crescents newly discovered by Webb. Beyond them an equatorial ring, formed from material ejected tens of thousands of years before the supernova explosion, contains bright hot spots. Exterior to that is diffuse emission and two faint outer rings. In this image blue represents light at 1.5 microns (F150W), cyan 1.64 and 2.0 microns (F164N, F200W), yellow 3.23 microns (F323N), orange 4.05 microns (F405N), and red 4.44 microns (F444W).
Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) captured this detailed image of SN 1987A (Supernova 1987A). At the center, material ejected from the supernova forms a keyhole shape. Just to its left and right are faint crescents newly discovered by Webb. Beyond them an equatorial ring, formed from material ejected tens of thousands of years before the supernova explosion, contains bright hot spots. Science: NASA, ESA, CSA, Mikako Matsuura (Cardiff University), Richard Arendt (NASA-GSFC, UMBC), Claes Fransson (Stockholm University), Josefin Larsson (KTH); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

This image of SN 1987A was taken using Webb’s NIRCam instrument, and it shows a central keyhole-shaped structure full of dust and gas that was thrown off by the dying star as it came to the end of its life. While Webb’s infrared instruments are useful for looking through dust to reveal structures beneath, in the very center of the remnantm the dust is so dense that even infrared light cannot penetrate it, hence the dark clump in the very center.

Recommended Videos

The rings of material around the center are seen in more detail too, like the bright dots, which are hotspots created by the shock wave from the supernova hitting previously cast-off rings of material.

Astronomers combined observations from three different observatories (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, red; Hubble, green; Chandra X-ray Observatory, blue) to produce this colorful, multiwavelength image of the intricate remains of Supernova 1987A.
Astronomers combined observations from three different observatories to produce this colorful, multiwavelength image of the intricate remains of Supernova 1987A. NASA, ESA, A. Angelich (NRAO, AUI, NSF); Hubble image: NASA, ESA, and R. Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation) Chandra image: NASA/CXC/Penn State/K. Frank et al. ALMA image: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) and R. Indebetouw (NRAO/AUI/NSF)

As a famous supernova, SN 1987A has been previously observed many times before, including by space-based tools like the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, as well as ground-based tools like the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

The image above shows a combination of data from these three observatories, which operate in the optical, X-ray, and radio wavelengths respectively. These observations show the same structures as the Webb image, but in less crisp detail — demonstrating how useful Webb’s instruments are for getting a fresh look at well-known objects.

Georgina Torbet
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
Webb and Hubble snap the same object for two views of one galaxy
Featured in this NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month is the spiral galaxy NGC 2090, located in the constellation Columba. This combination of data from Webb’s MIRI and NIRCam instruments shows the galaxy’s two winding spiral arms and the swirling gas and dust of its disc in magnificent and unique detail.

With all the excitement over the last few years for the shiny and new James Webb Space Telescope, it's easy to forget about the grand old master of the space telescopes, Hubble. But although Webb is a successor to Hubble in some ways, with newer technology and the ability to see the universe in even greater detail, it isn't a replacement. A pair of new images shows why: with the same galaxy captured by both Webb and Hubble, you can see the different details picked out by each telescope and why having both of them together is such a great boon for scientists.

The galaxy NGC 2090 was imaged by Webb, shown above, using its MIRI and NIRCam instruments. These instruments operate in the mid-infrared and near-infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum respectively, which is why the arms of this galaxy appear to be glowing red. These arms are made of swirling gas and dust, and within them are compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that glow brightly in the infrared. The blue color in the center of the galaxy shows a region of young stars burning hot and bright.

Read more
Stunning view of the Sombrero Galaxy captured by James Webb
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged the Sombrero galaxy with its MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), resolving the clumpy nature of the dust along the galaxy’s outer ring. The mid-infrared light highlights the gas and dust that are part of star formation taking place among the Sombrero galaxy’s outer disk. The rings of the Sombrero galaxy produce less than one solar mass of stars per year, in comparison to the Milky Way’s roughly two solar masses a year. It’s not a particular hotbed of star formation. The Sombrero galaxy is around 30 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo.

A new image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows a stunning and fashionable sight: the Sombrero Galaxy, named for its resemblance to the traditional Mexican hat. With its wide, flat shape reminiscent of the hat's wide brim, the galaxy, also known as Messier 104, has outer rings that are clearly visible for the first time.

The Sombrero Galaxy is located 30 million light-years away, in the constellation of Virgo, and it has been previously imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. But while in the Hubble image, the galaxy appears as an opaque, pale disk, in the new Webb image you can see an outer blue disk, with a small bright core right at the center.

Read more
Stunning images of nearby galaxies from the VLT Survey Telescope
Image of the irregular dwarf galaxy Sextans A, located at a distance of about 4 million light years from us, towards the edge of the Local Group, captured by the VST (VLT Survey Telescope), an Italian telescope managed by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory, Chile.

A gorgeous new set of images shows the striking sight of nearby galaxies, captured by a telescope called the VLT Survey Telescope (VST), located at the European Southern Observatory (ESO)'s Paranal Observatory in Chile. Some of these galaxies are well-known, like the famous Sextans A, which is a small dwarf galaxy with an unusual square shape that is located just 4 million light years away.

Sextans A, shown above, is just a fraction of the size of our Milky Way galaxy at only 5,000 light years across and has been shaped by epic supernova events as stars come to the end of their lives and explode, pushing the material of the galaxy into its odd configuration.

Read more