Scientists identify neutron star born out of supernova seen in 1987

WASHINGTON — When a star up to 20 times the mass of our sun exploded in a nearby galaxy, the blast was so violent that it was visible to the naked eye from Earth's southern hemisphere for weeks in 1987.

Scientists have finally identified the progeny of that supernova— an enormously dense object called a neutron star.

Two instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) that observed the supernova at infrared wavelengths spotted telltale chemical evidence involving argon and sulfur atoms indicating that a newborn neutron star is shrouded behind the debris left over from the blast, researchers said on Thursday.

Such explosions can forge two different kinds of exotic compact objects: a black hole or a neutron star. The Webb observations solve the puzzle of which one resulted from this supernova.

"After having followed the supernova and searching for the compact object for more than three decades, it is exciting to finally find the missing evidence for the neutron star, thanks to JWST," said astrophysics professor Claes Fransson of Stockholm University in Sweden, lead author of the study published in the journal Science.

This supernova, called Supernova 1987A, occurred 160,000 light years from Earth in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy neighboring our Milky Way. A light year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km). The star, because of its large mass, had the relatively short life span of about 20 million years, much less than our sun's.