Dick McCray

University of Colorado

SN1987A: The Birth of a Supernova Remnant

During the first 10 years after its initial outburst, the radiation from 
SN1987A was dominated by energy deposited in the interior of the supernova 
debris by the decay of newly synthesized radioisotopes.

Today, the blast wave from SN1987A is overtaking the inner circumstellar 
ring, resulting in the appearance of many optical ``hot spots'' on the ring 
seen in HST images and spectra.  With Chandra and the Australia Compact 
Telescope Array, we are also observing rapidly brightening rings of X-ray 
and non-thermal radio emission from the same interaction.  This event marks 
the birth of the supernova remnant, SNR1987A, defined as the epoch when its 
light is dominated by the impact of the supernova debris with the 
circumstellar matter.  The observations provide unique opportunities to 
understand the physics of the shock interaction and the structure of the 
supernova debris and the circumstellar matter.

I shall describe what we have learned about SNR 1987A from Chandra and HST 
observations and theoretical modeling, and what we can expect to learn from 
future observations of this rapidly developing event.