An article published in the journal “Science” reports new evidence that the supernova SN 1987A generated a pulsar. A team of researchers used observations conducted with the James Webb Space Telescope to detect the effects of high-energy emissions coming from the pulsar or the pulsar wind nebula, a nebula that surrounds it and is powered by the pulsar. These are confirmations of conclusions reached by other teams of researchers in recent years using observations in other electromagnetic bands.

An image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope shows a part of the star-forming area cataloged as IRAS 16562–3959. The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument offers many details of that area at infrareds, in particular of the emissions coming from a massive star still in its formation phase whose consequences are visible in the part of the image that goes from the center towards the upper left and lower right. These and many other details can help reconstruct star formation processes.

An article published in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics” reports a study of the supernova remnant cataloged as SN 1006 which led to the identification of an ejecta fragment of the progenitor star. A team of researchers led by Roberta Giuffrida of the University of Palermo and the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics used observations conducted with various telescopes exploiting X-ray emissions and compared them with theoretical models. The conclusion is that this iron-rich fragment is moving at a very high speed within the debris cloud generated by the supernova. This discovery is useful in the study of supernovae like this one, generated by explosions of white dwarfs.