Fact Sheet
Supernova 1987A
The remarkable ring structures seen in supernova 1987A (at center) are shells of gas illuminated by the tremendous energy released by the star's explosion. Debris from the explosion also can be seen racing away at near light-speed. The image is a composite of several Hubble wide-field planetary camera exposures taken in September 1994, February 1996, and July 1997 by Robert Kirshner, Nino Panagia, and colleagurs. SN 1987A is about 168,000 light-years from Earth in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way.
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