Supernova 1987A occurred in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy only 160,000 light years from Earth. The outburst was visible to the naked eye, and is the brightest known supernova in almost 400 years. Optical hot-spots (pink-white) now encircle the ring like a necklace of incandescent diamonds. The Chandra data (blue-purple) reveals multimillion-degree gas at the location of the optical hot-spots.
NASA/CXC/PSU/S.Park/D.Burrows/STScI/CfA/P. Challis
