Astronomers find 'missing' neutron star after 32 years (earthsky.org)

Posted by Andy Briggs in Space | December 23, 2019

A team of astronomers at the University of Cardiff, Wales, believe they have discovered the “missing” neutron star at the center of Supernova 1987A (SN1987A), whose detonation was first seen in earthly skies in February 1987. The explosion occurred in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a companion dwarf galaxy to our home galaxy, the Milky Way. The astronomers said they found this supernova’s neutron star using the ALMA telescope in Chile.

The neutron star finally seems to be emerging from a thick cloud of dust which has completely obscured it for the last 32 years.

The discovery was reported in the Astrophysical Journal on November 19. The team – led by astronomer Phil Cigan of Cardiff University – found a particularly bright patch of dust exactly where the neutron star was predicted to be. Cigan commented in a statement:

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A blue supergiant star called Sanduleak A had exploded, about which little was known. Astronomers were optimistic that by studying the event they could see if their theories about the death of massive stars were correct. The hope was that the supernova would leave behind a neutron star: better still, an easily detectable pulsar (all pulsars are neutron stars, but not all neutron stars are pulsars). If so, then the chain of events from core-collapse supernova explosion to neutron star could at last be verified. It was seen as something of a golden opportunity to confirm what we thought we knew about Type II supernovae and their aftermath.
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more: https://earthsky.org/space/astronomers-find-missing-neutron-star-sn1987a