Princeton researchers catch a star in the act of exploding

Researcher Alicia Soderberg says she “won the astronomers’ lottery.”

Office of Communications

See a digital video re-creation of the supernova explosion:

The animation shows an artist's rendering of the shock wave discovered by Princeton University's Alicia Soderberg and a team of scientists. A supernova is born when the core of a massive star (the blue orb) runs out of nuclear fuel and collapses under its own gravity to form an ultradense object known as a neutron star. The shock wave erupts and ripples through the star, emitting X-rays (seen here as bright white light). The remnants of the explosion cool (the white light gets smaller), and then the visual light from the supernova glows (seen as yellow clouds). The fading white dot in the middle of the animation represents a newly born neutron star. Courtesy NASA/Swift/Skyworks Digital/Dana Berry

Click here for the animation.