The sun has been a perennial force throughout human history. It has been present through every rise and fall of a civilization. The sun is a constant and it would probably see the demise of present society.

Despite the seemingly everlasting nature, the lifespan of the Earth's star is finite.  According to scientists, the sun was formed 4.6 billion years ago and is currently half-way through its main-sequence stage. The sun would eventually exhaust its helium reserves in approximately 5 billion years. Because the Earth's star is not massive enough, its death would be more like a whimper.

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However, the same cannot be said about the death of KSN 2011d and for the first time, astronomers have captured the star's massive explosion.

According to The Washington Post, KSN 2011d is located 1.2 billion light years away from Earth. Because the star is five hundred times more massive than the sun, the lifespan of KSN2011d ended with a likewise massive explosion. This explosion produced a shockwave that is visible in light, known as shock breakouts, and for the first time astronomers were able to observe the phenomenon.

The team from the University of Notre Dame has explained that the process of capturing the shockwave has been incredibly difficult. The phenomenon usually only lasts less than an hour and given the massive nature of the universe, research is needed to pinpoint when and where exactly the shockwave would occur. The team however successfully documented the phenomenon using the Kepler Space Telescope.

"In order to see something that happens on timescales of minutes, like a shock breakout, you want to have a camera continuously monitoring the sky" quipped Peter Garnavich, one of the members of the team of astronomers that spotted the breakout.  

The scientists have since shed light on the importance of the recent breakthrough as reported by Yahoo News. According to them, in studying supernovas, the mysteries of how life started are unravelled.

"All heavy elements in the universe come from supernova explosions. For example, all the silver, nickel and copper in the earth and even in our bodies came from the explosive death throes of stars. Life exists because of supernovae" explained NASA scientist Steve Howell.