Watching the First Moments in a Star's Death

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This artist's illustration shows a star exploding as a supernova.</p><p>Astrophysicists caught the shock break out from a supernova 500 million light years away, the first indication of a massive stellar explosion.</p><p>By detecting the break out, researchers were able to learn a lot about the progenitor and its surroundings.</p><p>Image Credit: NASA/Swift/Skyworks Digital/Dana Berryhttps://www.universetoday.com/article_images/Supernovae-UT-1024x576.jpg" width="1280" />

Astronomers were fortunate when the Einstein Probe detected the difficult-to-observe initial shock break out (SBO) from a supernova.

The SBO is the first electromagnetic indication that a star is going to explode, and by observing it and the aftermath, researchers were able to determine what type of progenitor star exploded, and what it's pre-explosion environment was like.

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