The purpose of this research is to examine the phenomenon of supernovae. The plan of the research will be to set forth the context in which supernova observation and study have emerged in recent years, and then to discuss difficulties associated with supernova definition, study, and understanding, with reference to studies that have been undertaken regarding supernovas in general and the supernova known as SNV 1987A in particular.
On February 23, 1987, a truly cosmic event occurred--or more exactly was found to have occurred. Telescopes in New Zealand and Chile observed what was called the "brightest and closest" supernova to earth since "Kepler's supernova" in 1604 (Rensberger A7; Cowen 120). This was front-page news because telescopes had witnessed the event (marked by uncommon brightness), the historic proximity of the event to earth, and the fact that the initial observation occurred in the Southern hemisphere. What came to be called Supernova 1987 A (SNV 1987A) has been under observation ever since, not only in Chile and New Zealand but in outer space itself. As striking as SNV 1987A was, it was not unique in astronomy history. In the Northern hemisphere in 1054, Chinese astronomers described a "guest star" in Taurus, and Anasazi in the American Southwest created a pictograph of the same star, which was eventually to be identified as the Crab Supernova, the progenitor of the still observable Crab Nebula. In 1572 and 1606, Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler, respectively, made the first and only European telescopic observations of supernova activity in the Milky Way (Sagan 237). SNV 1987A was discovered in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way (Sagan 237; Rensenberger A4).
A simple definition of a supernova is that it is a dying star, or one whose gravity is starting to collapse, that undergoes a massive, ultrabright nuclear explosion of energy before disappearing altogether (Arnett, 75ff et passim)--wh...