This false-color image [ http://chandra.harv…] from the Chandra X-ray Observatory [ http://chandra.harv…] reveals a one light-year diameter ring of hot, ten million degree plasma. It is one of the most detailed X-ray images of the expanding blast wave [ http://chandra.harv…pulsar.html ] from supernova 1987A [ http://www.ggw.org/…sn1987a.html ] (SN1987A [ http://csep10.phys.…]). At visible wavelengths SN1987A [ http://www.seds.org…] is famous for its evolving rings [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…], and superposed on this image are white contour lines which outline the innermost optical ring [ http://oposite.stsc…pr-photos.html ] as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. The composite picture clearly shows that the X-ray emitting shocked material lies just inside the optical ring. In fact, the X-ray [ http://imagine.gsfc…xray_information.htm l ] emission seems to peak (whitest color) close to where the optical emission peaks (closely spaced contours), a persuasive demonstration that the optical light [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] is produced as the blast wave plows into surrounding material. What will SN1987A [ http://imagine.gsfc…cool_supernovae_fact .html ] look like in the future? According to a popular model, in coming years the expanding supernova blast wave should hit and light up even more material while the violent impacts [ http://chandra.harv…press_051100sn1987a. html ] send reverse shocks back towards the site of the explosion and light up the ejected stellar debris. In any event [ http://ads.nao.ac.j…], astronomers will watch eagerly from a ringside seat as a new supernova remnant [ http://chandra.harv…supernovas.html ] emerges.