Supernova 1987A is a neutron star

[PaulM]

I remember this event as a child and was gutted I couldnt see it trom the UK

Looks like its left behind a neutron star

https://public.nrao.edu/news/alma-finds-possible-sign-of-neutron-star-in-supernova-1987a/

[Nigeyboy]

I saw this! Like you, I was a kid of 10 at the time, and was gutted I couldn't see it from the UK! Some of the imaging of 1986A that has been coming out over the past 34 years (crikey - 34 years . . . !)  has been amazing. I saw some animation put together from images taken over the years, showing the evolution of the immediate area, and you could see the shockwave expanding and heating the surrounding gas up into luminous pearls around it! Awesome!! 

[Tenor Viol]

Once upon a time... around 1990 I taught an astronomy adult evening class... I remember we discussed 1987A and watched a bit of the Horizon programme about it (which really annoyed me as by then Horizon had ceased to be the serious science programme of earlier years and degenerated into lots of scene setting, endlessly repeating itself and very little actual content) 

[PaulM]

34 minutes ago, Tenor Viol said:

Once upon a time... around 1990 I taught an astronomy adult evening class... I remember we discussed 1987A and watched a bit of the Horizon programme about it (which really annoyed me as by then Horizon had ceased to be the serious science programme of earlier years and degenerated into lots of scene setting, endlessly repeating itself and very little actual content) 

Your right Horizon used to be brilliant I remember watching the episode about Voyager at Jupiter and being spellbound as a young kid

[Guest]

They did a Horizon episode called Lights of the 21st Century about lasers.  Great programme, but never saw any repeat of that one (unusual for the Beeb).

Edited August 4, 2020 by Guest

[Tenor Viol]

It's quite sad really. If you watch just about any documentary or factual programme and analyse it, the amount of content is shockingly small. The tendency started in the 80s and it's got much worse. In an hour long programme, if you remove the 'scene setting' including the pointless 'travelling' part, the repeated images, the repeated text etc you will find there is about 10 minutes of actual content. 

If you look back at classic Horizon episodes from the 70s for example (I remember a 3 parter on particle physics around 1978ish?) they weren't scared of giving you serious content and plenty of it. The standard was probably similar to say Scientific American. We've just gone to the lowest common denominator and dumbed it all down. It's all become very trite.