Herschel Detects a Massive Dust Reservoir in Supernova 1987A

We report far-infrared and submillimeter observations of Supernova 1987A, the star that exploded on February 23, 1987 in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy located 160,000 lightyears away. The observations reveal the presence of a population of cold dust grains radiating with a temperature of ~17-23 K at a rate of about 220 solar luminosity. The intensity and spectral energy distribution of the emission suggests a dust mass of ~0.4-0.7 solar mass. The radiation must originate from the SN ejecta and requires the efficient precipitation of all refractory material into dust. Our observations imply that supernovae can produce the large dust masses detected in young galaxies at very high redshifts.
Comment: This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of the AAAS for personal use, not for redistribution. To appear in Science; available in Science Express on 7th July, DOI:10.1126/science.1205983 at http://www.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1205983 ; 14 pages, 2 figures, 4 tables. High resolution images are available from the authors