Sanduleak −69 202
Supernova in the constellation Dorado
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Sanduleak -69 202 (Sk -69 202, also known as GSC 09162-00821) was a magnitude 12 blue supergiant star, located on the outskirts of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It was the progenitor of supernova 1987A.
| Observation data Epoch J2000 Equinox ICRS | |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Dorado |
| Right ascension | 05h 35m 27.92s[1] |
| Declination | −69° 16′ 11.1″[1] |
| Characteristics | |
| Spectral type | B3 Ia[2] |
| Astrometry | |
| Distance | 168,000 ly (51,400[1] pc) |
| Details | |
| Mass | ~20[2] M☉ |
| Radius | 41.15[2] R☉ |
| Luminosity | ~100,000[2] L☉ |
| Temperature | 16,000[2] K |
| Other designations | |
| Sk -69 202, GSC 09162-00821 | |
| Database references | |
| SIMBAD | data |
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The star was originally charted by the Romanian-American astronomer Nicholas Sanduleak in 1970, but was not well studied until identified as the star that exploded in the first naked eye supernova since the invention of the telescope,[1] when its maximum reached visual magnitude +2.8.[3]
The discovery that a blue supergiant was a supernova progenitor contradicted the prevailing theories of stellar evolution and produced a flurry of new ideas about how such a thing might happen,[4] but it is now accepted that blue supergiants are a normal progenitor for some supernovae.[5]
Sher 25, HD 168625 and SBW1 possess bipolar nebulae that are very similar to that around Sk -69 202. It is speculated that Sk -69 202 may have been a luminous blue variable in the recent past, although it was apparently a normal luminous supergiant at the time it exploded.[2]