European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatoryhas released new data related with the famous supernova SN1987A explosion some 24years back. The data tell us about the huge amounts of cold dust produced. The explosion had taken place in a galaxy Large Magellanic Cloud neighboring to ours i.e. the Milky Way. This has been made clear for the first time that large amounts are produced during such events at a very short interval of time. Science Express has published the results.

The discovery has opened new horizons and perspectives on the issue. The data consist of spectral range which generally was obtained from strong emissions from cold cosmic dust. The dust is in very little amount in a galaxy but its importance is far more than its amount. It is related with the life cycle of the stars in a galaxy. It is specifically related with the process of star formation. Every new observation lie this gives a hint on the origin of the universe itself. The issue of origin of universe is a debated issue among theoretical physicists and there are different schools advocating different theories. The dust which consists of small amounts of heavy elements is by now supposed to be existent since ever.

“Interestingly, this brand new clue does not come from observations of very distant galaxies, but from one of our closest galactic neighbors,” commented Mikako Matsuura from University College London, in the UK. The Large Magellanic Cloud, is a dwarf galaxy orbiting the Milky Way. Because of its distance of only 160,000 light years from our galaxy; this neighboring supernova has become a ‘local’ laboratory for studies on Universe.

“With SN1987A, we can investigate details that are almost impossible to discern in supernovae inside more distant galaxies. This helps us improve our understanding of these stellar explosions, which we can then apply to the broader context of galaxy evolution,” added Matsuura.

“We didn’t expect to see SN1987A when we planned the survey,” explained Margaret Meixner, HERITAGE from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. “Based on our existing knowledge of dust in supernovae, we could not have anticipated that Herschel would have detected this source. It has definitely been one of the biggest surprises of our project,” she added.

“Since no facility comparable to Herschel has existed during the past two decades, we cannot say for certain whether this large amount of cold dust was produced recently or whether we have observed it only now because we are finally able to spot it with Herschel,” notes Matsuura. But this does not affect the credibility and importance of the results of the study. “We have proved that a supernova can produce an amount of dust comparable to the mass of the Sun over a period of, at most, a couple of dozen years — a blink of an eye with respect to a star’s lifetime,” she adds.

“This result, based on measurements performed in our cosmic backyard, provides a possible explanation for Herschel’s observations of dust in very distant galaxies,” remarks Göran Pilbratt, Herschel Project Scientist. “This demonstrates how the observatory allows us to build a deeper understanding of how the Universe has evolved over cosmic time,” he concludes.

NASA and European-led Principal Investigator consortia provide science instruments to the observatory. PACS and SPIRE instruments were used in this study.