Stunning imagery illustrates Hubble Space Telescope part in a global scientific effort to understand how stars explode, what effect they have on the universe, and what they can tell us about its origins and future. From Hubblecast.

Most stars in the Universe are small and insignificant, like our Sun They eventually fizzle and die without much drama. But a few light up the sky when they die, and in the process, they dont just tell us about the lives of stars: they create the building blocks of life, and help us to unravel the whole history of the Universe. These are the stars that end their lives as supernovae, explosions that are among the most violent events in the Universe.