In 1994, the Hubble Space telescope took this photograph of glowing rings around the remnant of Supernova 1987A. [The image was taken in visible light (hyrdrogen-alpha emission), with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, in February 1994. credit: Dr. Christopher Burrows, ESA/STScI and NASA]
Here is a more recent Hubble Space Telescope picture of the central ring in optical light along with an x-ray photograph from the Chandra x-ray telescope. [Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/PSU/S.Park & D.Burrows.; Optical: NASA/STScI/CfA/P.Challis]
Updated 19 November 2007
Davison E. Soper, Institute of Theoretical Science, University of Oregon, Eugene OR 97403 USA