The Three‐dimensional Circumstellar Environment of SN 1987A

We present the detailed construction and analysis of the most complete map to date of the circumstellar environment around SN 1987A, using ground and space-based imaging from the past 16 years. PSF-matched difference-imaging analyses of data from 1988 through 1997 reveal material between 1 and 28 ly from the SN. Careful analyses allows the reconstruction of the probable circumstellar environment, revealing a richly-structured bipolar nebula. An outer, double-lobed ``Peanut,'' which is believed to be the contact discontinuity between red supergiant and main sequence winds, is a prolate shell extending 28 ly along the poles and 11 ly near the equator. Napoleon's Hat, previously believed to be an independent structure, is the waist of this Peanut, which is pinched to a radius of 6 ly. Interior to this is a cylindrical hourglass, 1 ly in radius and 4 ly long, which connects to the Peanut by a thick equatorial disk. The nebulae are inclined 41\degr south and 8\degr east of the line of sight, slightly elliptical in cross section, and marginally offset west of the SN. From the hourglass to the large, bipolar lobes, echo fluxes suggest that the gas density drops from 1--3 cm^{-3} to >0.03 cm^{-3}, while the maximum dust-grain size increases from ~0.2 micron to 2 micron, and the Si:C dust ratio decreases. The nebulae have a total mass of ~1.7 Msun. The geometry of the three rings is studied, suggesting the northern and southern rings are located 1.3 and 1.0 ly from the SN, while the equatorial ring is elliptical (b/a < 0.98), and spatially offset in the same direction as the hourglass.