The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has uncovered a neutron star hiding in the wreckage of Supernova 1987A, a stellar explosion that was first observed 37 years ago. This discovery marks the end of a nearly decade-long game of celestial hide-and-seek and provides crucial insights into the formation of neutron stars and their role in the universe.
Supernova 1987A, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, is the nearest and brightest supernova seen in the night sky over Earth for around 400 years. It is the remnant of an exploded star that once had a mass around 8 to 10 times that of the sun. Supernova explosions such as this are responsible for seeding the cosmos with elements like carbon, oxygen, silicon, and iron, which ultimately become the building blocks of the next generation of stars and planets, and can even form molecules that may one day become integral to life as we know it.