A star is dead: Scientists watch supernova in real time.

Scientists from Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot have gotten the most complete look at a supernova ever, watching and tracking a star's explosion in real time, as noted in a new study.

This discovery is a major step forward in our understanding in one of the most important phenomena in the universe.

The findings of this study were published in the peer-reviewed academic journal Nature.

When a star can no longer produce energy, it dies. The larger stars, which are now filled with heavy elements, will unleash a powerful explosion known as a supernova. This fuses some of those heavy elements together to make even heavier ones, and all of them get blasted out into the cosmos.

This process is essential to the function of the universe, allowing everything to keep expanding and ultimately sending forth the building blocks of the universe's continued expansion.

In other words, everything in the universe is made of stardust, and supernovas are what send that stardust out there to accumulate and make new things. 

The remnants of that star are still there, condensing together to form either a neutron star or a black hole. 

A star is dead: Scientists watch supernova in real time (msn.com)