This Hubble Space Telescope image shows a wide-field view of Supernova 1987A within the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighboring galaxy to our Milky Way. Distant stars serve as a backdrop for Supernova 1987A, located in the center of the image.

Supernova 1987A was discovered in 1987, and Hubble began observing the exploded star in the early 1990s. This latest view was taken by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 in January 2017. The colors of the foreground and background stars were added from observations taken by Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. Supernova 1987A resides 163,000 light-years away.

HubbleSite press release: "The Dawn of a New Era for Supernova 1987A"

HubbleSite video: "The Development of Supernova 1987A"

HubbleSite video: "A Zoom into Supernova 1987A"

Tales of ...: "Key events in the history of Supernova 1987A"

Amazing Space resources by topic: Stars and stellar evolution

Amazing Space resources by topic: Electromagnetic spectrum/Light & color