Death flash of an exploding star seen by planet-hunting Kepler telescope
 

Death flash of an exploding star seen by planet-hunting Kepler telescope
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In a first, the alien planet hunting telescope Kepler has seen a bright flash of a shockwave sent out by an exploding star at the end of its life.

The shockwave was propelled out into the universe by a red supergiant star, which exploded in 2011, 1.2 billion light-years from Earth. The star was about about 500 times the size of the sun.*

The bright flash of the super**va's shockwave — k**wn as the "shock breakout" — is only visible for about 20 minutes, according to current models, so actually seeing it is incredibly difficult.

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