At the center of the supernova remnant SN 1987A, 168,000 light-years from Earth, hides an object that astronomers have been seeking for 37 years. This is the closest supernova to have exploded in front of modern telescopes, and the only one where the compact remnant has yet to be seen directly. In 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope first discerned narrow argon and sulfur lines coming from the very heart of the ejecta. They indicated that an invisible energy source is ionizing the gas, knocking electrons off atoms with its radiation. Now, with new high-resolution spectra, astronomers have peered deeper behind the dust veil that hides this beacon.

The dust in the expanding ejecta is not just an obstacle; it is the main character in this story. It absorbs and scatters light like a dense fog through which a lighthouse beam struggles to shine. The new JWST/NIRSpec and MIRI/MRS observations, taken at 13,500 and 13,300 days after the explosion, confirmed narrow [Ar VI], [Ar II], [S IV], and [S III] lines, and for the first time identified [Ca V], [Cl II], and possibly [Fe II]. All lines are blueshifted by about −250 km/s and originate from an unresolved region to the southeast of the center. This offset, combined with the Doppler shift, gives a neutron star kick velocity of 510±55 km/s, which is 15 times faster than Earth's orbital speed around the Sun. In one second, such a star would cover the distance from Moscow to Saint Petersburg.

Until now, it was unclear what compact object lurks at the center, a neutron star or a black hole. The new analysis shows that both photoionization models, a cooling neutron star and a pulsar wind nebula, agree with the observations, except for the [Fe II] line, which is strongly underpredicted. Dust with grains of about 0.3 μm explains the line anomalies, including the redshift of [Ca IV], and the absence of many predicted short-wavelength lines. This is the first quantitative test of the dust-scattering scenario to explain line anomalies in SN 1987A.

As the ejecta expands, the optical depth of the dust will decrease as t⁻², revealing new lines at short wavelengths. The difference between the pulsar wind nebula and cooling neutron star models will show up in the appearance of [S III] 0.9533 μm, [C I] 0.9827/0.9853 μm, and [Si VI] 1.9646 μm lines. Monitoring the center in the coming years will allow us to choose the correct scenario. The method of accounting for dust is applicable to other supernova remnants, and the measured neutron star kick is important for explosion models. The dust veil is gradually lifting, and the beacon at the heart of SN 1987A is shining ever brighter.