John Middleditch, together with M.R. Perez have written a lucid account of the axisymmetric explosion of SN1987a. Immediately following 87a, there arose a controversy over the apparent imaging of a "Mystery Spot"...sometimes referred to as Son-of-Supernova 1987a...by speckle interferometry by Peter Nissenson et. al, and appearing on the cover of Science News...with many claiming it to be an artifact of processing.
Initially there were doubts as to the spot's apparent near-to-speed-of-light motion...(~0.9 c)...and to subsequent image processing that revealed a second, counterspot, in the opposite direction, some months later.
Middleditch's paper neatly summarizes the three dimensional physics from correlated observations at different spectral windows, and points to the possibility of some long GRB's coming from reprocessing of collimated relativistic beamed jets of particles interacting in the extended atmospheres of a recently coalesced double degenerate binary. Well done. see:http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008AAS...212.1305M

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A third rate theory forbids.
A second rate theory explains after the fact.
A first rate theory predicts.
A. Lomonosov

I missed this - until now, thanks.

Amazing events. Not exactly what anyone was expecting. I hope we see another close one, soon.

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jwj

It's a big universe out there...is it really unwinding, really burning out?

Jerry. You're welcome. pete

__________________
A third rate theory forbids.
A second rate theory explains after the fact.
A first rate theory predicts.
A. Lomonosov

Depends on how close!

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Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

Kaptain K. Aye,Aye, Sir. I have an old bet with Antoniseb, that I'm going to have to own up to I think....a hot fudge sundae, or a pizza, or some such,... on Alnitak, as it showed some iron lines in it's spectrum some time ago, and the timescale for most models from iron accumulating to BOOM! is fairly short. He's right, I'd love to see one in our area of the Milky Way, and you're right...just not too close. Let's say 30 light years. That'd be awesome. pete

edit: see:Type 2 supernova progenitor search actually it's dinner at a four star restaurant, and with Antoniseb in Chelmsford and me in Holliston, I'll have to cough up soon...lol. I think I better e-mail him,... pete

__________________
A third rate theory forbids.
A second rate theory explains after the fact.
A first rate theory predicts.
A. Lomonosov