Detailed look at earliest moments of supernova explosion

Illustration of a supernova explosion. Photo: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss - In a world-first, astronomers at The Australian National University (ANU), working with NASA and an international team of researchers, have captured the first moments of a supernova - the explosive death of stars - in detail never-before-seen. NASA's Kepler space telescope captured the data in 2017. The ANU researchers recorded the initial burst of light that is seen as the first shockwave travels through the star before it explodes. PhD scholar Patrick Armstrong, who led the study, said researchers are particularly interested in how the brightness of the light changes over time prior to the explosion. This event, known as the "shock cooling curve", provides clues as to what type of star caused the explosion. "This is the first time anyone has had such a detailed look at a complete shock cooling curve in any supernova," Mr Armstrong, from the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, said.