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Search results for ‘SN 1987A’

eso0708 — Science Release

SN1987A's Twentieth Anniversary — Looking back at 20 Years of Observations of this Supernova with ESO telescopes

24 February 2007: The unique supernova SN 1987A has been a bonanza for astrophysicists. It provided several observational 'firsts,' like the detection of neutrinos from an exploding star, the observation of the progenitor star on archival photographic plates, the signatures of a non-spherical explosion, the direct observation of the radioactive elements produced during the blast, observation of the formation of dust in the supernova, as well as the detection of circumstellar and interstellar material.

eso9920 — Organisation Release

The VLT Opening Symposium — Scientists Meet in Antofagasta to Discuss Front-Line Astrophysics

27 February 1999: To mark the beginning of the VLT era, the European Southern Observatory is organizing a VLT Opening Symposium which will take place in Antofagasta (Chile) on 1-4 March 1999, just before the start of regular observations with the ESO Very Large Telescope on 1 April, 1999. The Symposium occupies four full days and is held on the campus of the Universidad Catolica del Norte. It consists of plenary sessions on "Science in the VLT Era and Beyond" and three parallel Workshops on "Clusters of Galaxies at High Redshift" , "Star-way to the Universe" and "From Extrasolar Planets to Brown Dwarfs".

eso9914 — Science Release

The VLT Moves into the Infrared — A Selection of ISAAC Spectra

27 February 1999: Various observations were made with ISAAC at the Nasmyth focus of VLT UT1 during the recent commissioning periods for this infrared multi-mode instrument. Some of the first results from the VLT Infrared Spectrometer And Array Camera (ISAAC) were published earlier. The following photos illustrate the type of front-line work that is now possible with ISAAC. The possibility to obtain high-quality infrared spectra of even quite faint (and remote) objects is particularly interesting.

eso9401 — Science Release

Things Begin to Happen Around Supernova 1987A

27 January 1994: On 23 February 1994, it will be exactly seven years since the explosion of Supernova 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud [1] was first observed, at a distance of approx. 160,000 light-years. It was the first naked-eye supernova to be seen in almost four hundred years. Few events in modern astronomy have met with such an enthusiastic response by the scientists and this famous object has been under constant surveillance ever since. After several years of relative quiescence, things are now beginning to happen in the immediate neighbourhood of SN 1987A. Recent observations with the ESO 3.5 m New Technology Telescope (NTT) indicate that interaction between the stellar material which was ejected during the explosion and the surrounding ring-shaped nebulae has started. This signals the beginning of a more active phase during which the supernova is likely to display a number of new and interesting phenomena, never before observed.

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