SUPERNOVA!
in 1987 (the year of my birth) was a supernova in the outskirts of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby dwarf galaxy. It occurred approximately 51.4 kiloparsecs from Earth, close enough that it was visible to the naked eye. It was the closest supernova since 1604, which occurred in the Milky Way itself. The light from the supernova reached Earth on
February 23, 1987.
Its brightness peaked in May with an apparent magnitude of about 3 and slowly declined in the following months. It was the first opportunity for modern astronomers to see a supernova up close.
Since 51.4 kiloparsecs is approximately 168,000 light-years, the cosmic event itself happened approximately
168,000 years ago. (1+6 = 7)&(8)
To put this in perspective, Homo sapiens sapiens (modern humans) evolved about 200,000 years ago.
This was cool to know ;o)
~jTURDle