An artist’s impression of a pulsar wind nebula at the heart of the SN 1987A supernova remnant. Image: Chandra (X-ray): NASA/CXC/Univ. di Palermo/E. Greco; Illustration: INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo/Salvatore Orlando
On 24 February 1987, a star exploded in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the first supernova visible to the unaided eye in nearly 400 years. Known as SN 1987A, the spectacular blast generated world-wide interest as astronomers scrambled to study the aftermath of the explosion some 170,000 light years from Earth.
Now, more than three decades after the fact, astronomers may have finally found signs of the collapsed remnant of the doomed star in multiple observations suggesting the presence of a “pulsar wind nebula” made up of charged particles and magnetic fields generated by a spinning neutron star.