On 23 February 1987, SN 1987A appeared in the Large Magellanic Cloud, sparking an intensity of observational and theoretical activity rarely before experienced in astronomy. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of this event, a week-long workshop was held in La Serena on 22-28 February. This meeting marked the fifth in a series of scientific workshops begun in 1990 and jointly sponsored by CTIO and ESO. We were pleased to have the the Las Campanas Observatory join us in co-sponsoring the meeting, and look forward to continued collaboration between all three observatories for future workshops.
Although the idea behind the SN 1987A workshop was to celebrate the many discoveries that have come (and are still coming!) from the study of this important supernova, the meeting also highlighted what has been learned in general about core-collapse supernovae and explosive nucleosynthesis over the past 10 years. Among the topics discussed were: the pre-explosion evolution of Sk 202-69 as seen in the general framework of the stellar population and chemical evolution of the LMC; early and late time observations of SN 1987A including neutrinos, gamma-rays, X-rays, UV, optical, IR, and radio; modeling of the evolution of the SN; nucleosynthesis in SN 1987A and in other type II SNe; observations and modelling of the formation of dust in the SN debris; the circumstellar environment of Sk 202-69 and the interaction with the SN; SN 1987A in the context of observations and modeling of other type II SNe; the distance to the LMC as derived from observations of SN 1987A, and the general use of SNe II as distance indicators; and the future evolution of SN 1987A. The workshop was attended by approximately 90 astronomers from all over the world, many of whom had never visited Chile before.
The neutrino burst that announced the core collapse and resulting explosion of Sk 202-69 was detected at 7:35 UT on 1987 23 February. In keeping with the supernova theme, the Workshop began with a real bang---the "Ten Years After Party" on the night of Saturday, 22 February. Although the "official" party ended just after midnight, at the precise moment of the 10th anniversary of the neturino burst (4:35 a.m. local time), many true disciples could be found in the hotel swimming pool, which presumably served as a symbol of the giant detectors that intercepted the ~ 20 neutrinos from SN 1987A!
SN 1987A was discovered at Las Campanas Observatory independently by Ian Shelton and Oscar Duhalde around midnight on 23 February 1987. In honor of this historic event, the workshop participants took a Sunday afternoon "pilgrimage" to Las Campanas. The highlight of this tour was seeing the mighty 0.25-m Astrograph with which Shelton took his discovery plate, and a tour of the twin Magellan 6.5-m telescopes that are currently under construction. A side trip to La Silla was included, and later in the week workshop participants visited Cerros Tololo and Pachon.
Space limitations do not allow us to summarize all of the interesting papers presented at the workshop. Look for the workshop proceedings, which will be published in the ASP Conference Series later this year. By most accounts the workshop was a great success---all agreed to return to La Serena in 2007 to celebrate the 20th anniversary!
Mark Phillips, Nick Suntzeff (CTIO),
Patrice Bouchet (ESO), Pat Knezek (LCO)