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Supernova 1987A

A Hubble image of supernova 1987A shows a glowing wheel of debris ejected by a dying star some 20,000 years before it exploded. The ring, described as "cosmic pearls," is being illuminated by a shockwave of material emitted by the massive supernova explosion. The two bright spots outside the ring are stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

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