The $Z$-Pinch Morphology of Supernova 1987A and Electric Stars

Supernova 1987A (SN 1987A) is the closest supernova event since the invention of the telescope. It was first seen in February 1987 in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud, which is a dwarf companion galaxy of the Milky Way and only 169000 light years from Earth. The Hubble images of the rings of SN 1987A are spectacular and unexpected. The ldquobeaded ringrdquo pattern of brightening is not well explained as an expanding spherical shock front into an earlier stellar ldquowind.rdquo The axial shape of SN 1987A is that of a planetary nebula. It seems that new concepts are required to explain supernovae and planetary nebulae. The new discipline of plasma cosmology provides a precise analog in the form of a Z-pinch plasma discharge. The phenomena match so accurately that the number of bright beads can be accounted for and their behavior predicted. If supernovae are a plasma discharge phenomenon, the theoretical conditions for forming neutron stars and other ldquosupercondensedrdquo objects are not fulfilled, and plasma concepts must be introduced to explain pulsar remnants of supernovae. If the bipolar Z-pinch pattern is introduced to explain supernovae and planetary nebulae, a new electrical theory of stars is required.