Twenty five years ago, the brightest supernova of modern times
astronomers have watched and waited for the expanding debris
from this tremendous stellar explosion to crash into previously
expelled material. A clear result of such a collision is
demonstrated in the above time lapse video of images recorded by
the Hubble Space Telescope between 1994 The movie depicts the
collision of an outward blast wave with the pre-existing, light-
year wide ring. The collision occurred at speeds near 60 million
kilometers per hour and ring material causing it to glow.
Astronomers continue to study the collision as it illuminates
the interesting past of SN 1987A, and provides clues to the
origin of the mysterious rings.