Eli

Since 2003, about 6000 days after the explosion, the radiative energy output from SN1987A has shifted from being dominated by the release of radioactive energy from the ejecta, to the release of mechanical energy caused by the interaction of the SN blast wave with the circumstellar ring.
The energy from the interaction is released at X-ray, UV-optical, and infrared (IR) wavelengths. The 5-35 micron IR spectrum from the ring is dominated by the emission from collisionally-heated silicate dust. The circumstellar ring around SN1987A therefore provides astronomers with a unique laboratory for studying the physical conditions and gas-dust interaction in dusty astrophysical plasmas.
In particular, the X-ray and IR observations can be used to determine the erosion efficiency of dust grains in such hostile astrophysical environment. In this talk I will summarize what we have learned from 12 years of Gemini and Spitzer observations of the ring around SN1987A.