On February 23, 1987, the night sky gifted modern astrophysics its most significant event in over 380 years. Located just 168,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC)—a dwarf satellite galaxy of our Milky Way—SN 1987A exploded into view. Come watch and learn more about the nearest observable supernova in recent history.
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Simulation of SN 1885A or S Andromedae
On the night of August 19/20, 1885, Irish amateur astronomer Isaac Ward noticed something unusual while gazing through his telescope at the heart of the Great Andromeda Nebula. A tiny, reddish star was flickering just 16 arcseconds from the brilliant nucleus. It's brightest was estimated an close to -6 magnitude (quite bright and almost naked eye visible) and it outshown the nebula's core. See, in 1885 Astronomers didn't know that Messier 31 was its own Island Universe or separate galaxy. They thought it was a star forming region creating another solar system. Then in 1923 Hubble proved them wrong! Come learn more about the only supernova we've yet to visually see in Messier 31!
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