Lifeboat Foundation

Astronomers have for the first time seen a shockwave generated by a star’s collapsing core and captured the earliest minutes of two exploding stars.

An international team of scientists found a shockwave only in the smaller supernova, a finding that will help them understand these complex explosions which create many of the elements that make up humans, the Earth and the Solar System.

“It’s like the shockwave from a nuclear bomb, only much bigger, and no one gets hurt,” says Brad Tucker from the Australian National University (ANU).