In a first, astronomers capture real-time death of star and supernova explosion

In a first, astronomers have imaged in real-time the death by explosion of a giant red star into Type II supernova. "It's like watching a ticking time bomb. We've never confirmed such violent activity in a dying red supergiant star where we see it produce such a luminous emission," said Raffaella Margutti, an Associate Professor of Astronomy at UC Berkeley.