"Life exists because of supernovae."

NASA scientists have caught a glimpse of the so-called "shock breakout" of a supernova explosion in visible light, through the Kepler Space Telescope. (YouTube/NASA's Ames Research Center)

Rachel Feltman reports at The Washington Post,

Sometimes, when a star dies, it goes supernova – going out in a massive explosion. For the first time, scientists have caught the so-called “shock breakout” of a supernova explosion in visible light.

...they caught two supernovae – massive red supergiants called KSN 2011a and KSN 2011d. The stars, each close to a billion light-years away, are 300 and 500 times the size of our sun, respectively.

You can see an animation based on the collected data in the video above. After the implosion of the old star, a shockwave rushes up toward its surface – breaking through in jets of plasma. Then, just minutes later, the shockwave finishes bursting through and the star explodes.

..."All heavy elements in the universe come from supernova explosions. For example, all the silver, nickel, and copper in the earth and even in our bodies came from the explosive death throes of stars," Steve Howell, project scientist for NASA's Kepler and K2 missions, said in a statement. "Life exists because of supernovae."

Read more here.