The progenitor blue supergiant star of SN 1987A

Blue supergiants (BSG) are massive stars which end their lives with violent supernova explosions. The model shows Sanduleak -69° 202, the progenitor BSG of [supernova (SN) 1987A](https://skfb.ly/6N6yF), immediately before the collapse of the nucleus. The BSG is barely visible in the center of the scene. The red torus around the star is circumstellar medium accumulated during the interaction between a slow dense wind of a previous phase of star evolution (when the it was a red supergiant) and the faster wind of the BSG. The lines are sampled magnetic field lines; the arrows describe the velocity field of the stellar wind. MHD simulation performed with the PLUTO code. Reference: [Orlando et al. 2019, A&A 622, id.A73](http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019A%26A...622A..73O). Credits: INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo. The Milky Way image is from ESO/S. Brunier.