How does a star look from inside? Astronomers get a first look at a dying star during a massive supernova blast

Stargazers often wonder what happens when a star dies. Now, scientists have caught a rare look inside one as it exploded, giving fresh clues about stellar life cycles.

What did scientists observe in the star explosion?
For the first time, researchers spotted the inner layers of a dying star during a massive blast called a supernova. The star, named 2021yfj, lies in our Milky Way galaxy. Normally, such explosions jumble up the layers, hiding the structure. But in this case, the inside was clearly visible.

The star’s outer hydrogen and helium had already vanished. What surprised scientists was that the dense inner layers of silicon and sulphur were also stripped away. “We have never observed a star that was stripped to this amount,” said Steve Schulze of Northwestern University, part of the study team.

Why does this discovery matter for stellar science?
The finding supports long-standing ideas about how massive stars end their lives, with lighter elements sitting outside and heavier ones near the core. “Because so many of the layers had been stripped off this star, this basically confirmed what those layers were,” said Anya Nugent of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who was not involved in the study.