DOUBLE IMAGES OF THE SUPERNOVA 1987A BY THE GRAVITATIONAL LENS

Abstract

We propose that the observed bright object near the Supernova 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud is an image of the supernova itself by the effect of the gravitational lens. If this is the case, the lens effect should also act on the neutrino; in fact the lens effect may be able to account for the similarity between the first and the third bunch of the neutrino burst observed by Kamiokande-II. From the observed information that the bright optical source is separated from the supernova by ~0.06 arc sec, its luminosity is smaller than the supernova by a factor ~12, and the time lag between the first and the third bunch of the neutrino burst is 10 seconds, we derive that the lensing object is located at the distance of 49 Kpc from the earth (assuming the distance to the supernova 50 Kpc) and its mass is 1.8 × 105 M ⊙. The lens model will be tested by the observation in the very near future.