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Exploding Star

Photo: Glowing cosmic debris resembling pearl necklace

Located 163,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the remnants of Supernova 1987a resemble a one-light-year-wide pearl necklace. These bright spots are pieces of debris likely shed thousands of years ago and illuminated by the shock wave when the star exploded. The two bright objects that look like car headlights are a pair of stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Astronomers aren't sure what the two faint, overlapping red rings are.

Photograph courtesy NASA/ESA/P. Challis and R. Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)