00:04Back in 1987, the Large Magellanic Cloud lit up as a star went supernova and could be seen by
00:10Earthlings with the naked eye. The whole thing happened just 168,000 light years away, extremely
00:15close by cosmic standards. Now NASA has turned the James Webb Space Telescope in that direction,
00:21and they've found something interesting hiding in the remnants of the stellar explosion. This
00:25is the highest resolution look at what's left of SN 1987A, showing the continually evolving material
00:32and this, an unexpected neutron star. Neutron stars are extremely dense collapse cores of extremely large
00:38stars, being only a few miles wide yet having a density twice that of our sun. Astronomers were
00:44able to identify such a small neutron star by the heavy argon and sulfur radiation coming from that
00:49spot, elements stripped of their outer electrons via ionization. With the researchers saying about
00:54the discovery, the mystery over whether a neutron star is hiding in the dust has lasted for more
00:59than 30 years, and it is exciting that we have solved it, with the researchers adding that this
01:04is some of the first chronological evidence to partially confirm neutron star theory models.
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