In 1987 a star in the Southern Hemisphere was observed to grow in brightness by almost a billion times. The cause was a supernova from Star 1 of the Sanduleak - 69 202 trio in the Tarantula Nebula, which is part of the Large Magellanic Cloud. Astronomers refer to this supernova as SN1987A. If the supernova was first observed in 1987, what year B. C. did the star actually explode? Round your answer to three significant figures and enter your answer as a number, do not include the B. C. Data: The distance to SN1987A is approximately 167,000 light-years.