Video, text by NASA Ames, STScI/G. Bacon

The brilliant flash of an exploding star’s shockwave – what astronomers call the “shock breakout” – is illustrated in this cartoon animation.

The animation begins with a view of a red supergiant star that is 500 times bigger and 20,000 brighter than our sun. When the star’s internal furnace can no longer sustain nuclear fusion its core collapses under gravity.

A shockwave from the implosion rushes upward through the star’s layers. The shockwave initially breaks through the star’s visible surface as a series of finger-like plasma jets.

Only 20 minute later the full fury of the shockwave reaches the surface and the doomed star blasts apart as a supernova explosion.

This animation is based on photometric observations made by NASA’s Kepler space telescope. By closely monitoring the star KSN 2011d, located 1.2 billion light-years away, Kepler caught the onset of the early flash and subsequent explosion.