Unraveling the Mystery of the "String of Pearls" in Supernova 1987A

Astronomers have long been puzzled by the clumpy appearance of the expanding, glowing ring of light from Supernova 1987A, known as the "String of Pearls." University of Michigan graduate student Michael Wadas and his colleagues have proposed that the Crow Instability, a process similar to the breakup of airplane contrails, could explain the formation of these clumps. Their simulations suggest that this instability could predict the number of clumps observed in the ring and may also help in understanding the formation of beaded rings around explosion sites or the coalescence of dust around stars to form planets.