The progenitor blue supergiant star of SN 1987A

sketchfab

Blue supergiants (BSGs) are explosive stars that end their lives in violent supernova explosions. The model features Sanduleak -69° 202, the BSG progenitor of supernova (SN) 1987A, right before nuclear collapse. The massive star is barely visible at the center of the scene. A red torus surrounds the star, formed from circumstellar medium accumulated during interaction between a slow dense wind and the faster wind of the BSG. Magnetic field lines are represented by sampled lines; stellar wind velocity is depicted by arrows. An MHD simulation was performed with the PLUTO code. Reference: Orlando et al. 2019, A&A 622, id.A73. Credits go to INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, and the Milky Way image comes from ESO/S. Brunier.