Supernova 1987a remnant, Hubble Space Telescope image. The remnant (centre) is surrounded by a glowing ring of bright spots (pink). These spots are where the shockwave from the supernova has slammed into a ring of material ejected by the star before it exploded as a supernova. The first bright spot was seen in 1997, 10 years after the object was discovered. Now, another 10 years later, a whole circle of bright spots is seen. Eventually, the entire ring will be ablaze. The ring is about 1 light year across. It is 163,000 light years from Earth in the Large Magellanic Cloud, in the constellation Dorado. This image was obtained in December 2006 by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys instrument. Two unrelated stars are at upper right and lower left.

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