New Delhi, India

Astronomers have put a stop to a nearly ten-year celestial hide-and-seek game with the help of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) after discovering a neutron star from the remains of a stellar explosion.

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"Thanks to the superb spatial resolution and excellent instruments on JWST we have, for the first time, been able to probe the centre of the supernova and what was created there," said astrophysicist Claes Fransson of Stockholm University, who led the study.

"We now know that there is a compact source of ionizing radiation, most likely by a neutron star. We have been looking for this from the time of the explosion, but had to wait for JWST to be able to verify the predictions."

Supernova 1987A comprises the remnants of an exploded star that at one point had a mass of around eight to ten times that of the sun. It is situated in the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is a dwarf galaxy that is next to the Milky Way and is some 170,000 light-years away. 

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1987 in Supernova's name refers to the year 1987 when it was first observed by scientists 37 years ago. 

Supernova 1987A first burst into dazzling light as it erupted, showering Earth with ghostly particles known as neutrinos. It was the closest and brightest supernova seen in the Earth's night sky in approximately 400 years.

Such kind of supernova explosion is what gives the universe its initial supplies of components including carbon, oxygen, silicon, and iron. These elements can even form molecules that could one day be essential to life, and also ultimately serve as the building blocks of the stars and planets that will develop after them.

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For the past 37 years, scientists have been unable to determine which of the two compact stellar remnants that are produced by these explosions—neutron stars or black holes—may be at the centre of Supernova 1987A.

"For a long time, we've been searching for evidence for a neutron star in the gas and dust of Supernova 1987A," Mike Barlow, an emeritus professor of physics and astronomy and part of the team behind this discovery, told Space.com. "Finally, we have the evidence that we've been seeking."

(With inputs from agencies)