Extraordinary Hubble Photo Shows a Gigantic Exploding Death Star In Space—or Homer Simpson

Astronomers are in awe as they witness the evolution of Supernova 1987A using the Hubble Space Telescope. I don't blame them. It's awesome indeed. The actual explosion was first detected in February 1987, in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Supernova 1987A—NASA, can we call this Flabbergasting Giganormous Pink Glitter Ring of Glowing Awesomeness?—is "the closest supernova explosion witnessed in almost 400 years." The debris sprayed by this extremely violent stellar event started to fade away as it moved out of the center, but now it's impacting the surrounding ring "creating powerful shock waves that generate X-rays observed with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory."