00:00 Back in 1987, the large Magellanic Cloud lit up as a star went supernova and could be seen
00:09 by Earthlings with the naked eye.
00:11 The whole thing happened just 168,000 light years away, extremely close by cosmic standards.
00:17 Now NASA has turned the James Webb Space Telescope in that direction and they've found something
00:22 interesting hiding in the remnants of the stellar explosion.
00:25 This is the highest resolution look at what's left of SN 1987A, showing the continually
00:31 evolving material and this, an unexpected neutron star.
00:35 Neutron stars are extremely dense collapse cores of extremely large stars, being only
00:39 a few miles wide yet having a density twice that of our sun.
00:43 Astronomers were able to identify such a small neutron star by the heavy argon and sulfur
00:47 radiation coming from that spot, elements stripped of their outer electrons via ionization.
00:53 With the researchers saying about the discovery, "The mystery over whether a neutron star
00:57 is hiding in the dust has lasted for more than 30 years and it is exciting that we have
01:02 solved it."
01:03 With the researchers adding that this is some of the first chronological evidence to partially
01:07 confirm neutron star theory models.
01:10 [music]
Comments