Supernova 1987A is the remnant of an exploded star located in the Large Magellanic Cloud (pictured), a dwarf galaxy some 49 kiloparsecs from Earth. New observations from the Herschel Space Observatory indicate that the explosion probably generated a mass of dust equivalent to 0.4–0.7 times the mass of the Sun.
Mikako Matsuura at University College London and her colleagues say that the vast amount of dust produced by 1987A lends support to the theory that supernovae generated much of the dust seen in distant galaxies.
Credit: EUROPEAN SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Galactic dust from exploding stars. Nature 475, 142 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/475142a
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/475142a
