We model the infrared emission of silicon monoxide in SN 1987A from 257 to 519 days. Optical depth effects on the fundamental emission of SiO are significant and the vibrational level populations of SiO fall out of thermal equilibrium. We solve the equations of statistical equilibrium and fit the observed spectra. The resulting mass of SiO in the supernova is a few times 10^-4^ M_sun_. It can be produced by chemistry models in which there is no mixing of helium into the oxygen-silicon region of the ejecta.
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Liu et al. (1994) studied this question.