Explanation:
What's causing those odd rings in
supernova 1987A?
In 1987, the brightest supernova
in recent history occurred in the
Large Magellanic Clouds.
At the center of the picture is an object central to the remains of the violent
stellar explosion. When the
Hubble Space Telescope was pointed at the
supernova remnant
in 1994, however, the existence of
curious
rings was
confirmed.
The origins of these rings still remains a mystery.
Speculation into the cause of the rings includes beamed
jets emanating from a dense star left over from the supernova, and a
superposition of two stellar winds ionized by the
supernova explosion.
