Abstract
We propose that the progenitor of supernova 1987A was a previously undetected red star in orbit about a blue supergiant (star 1 in the field of Sk–692021,2). The progenitor was the remnant of an asymptotic-branch giant that had lost most of its hydrogen-rich envelope to its blue companion by type C mass transfer3. A detailed evolutionary model strongly supports the feasibility of our proposition. We find that the original mass of the supernova precursor was 10–15M⊙ (unless a large fraction of its mass was ejected from the binary system), and its final mass, just before the supernova event, was 3–6M⊙. The system remained bound, with a new orbital period of 3–10 yr and an eccentricity of 0.1–0.4. Our picture can provide plausible qualitative explanations for several anomalies in the observational properties of this supernova.
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Joss, P., Podsiadlowski, P., Hsu, J. et al. Is supernova 1987A a stripped asymptotic-branch giant in a binary system?. Nature 331, 237–240 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/331237a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/331237a0
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