Nasa has photographed what could be the most powerful supernova ever discovered.
The massive gamma-ray burst was the brightest and longest ever recorded, Nasa said.
The sight was said to be "eye-wateringly bright" despite being located more than 3.6 billion light years from Earth in the constellation Leo.
The search is now on for the supernova which caused the sudden burst of radiation to echo across the galaxy.
Scientists think the "shocking" explosion represents the final stage of a massive, distant star's violent life.
While the explosion itself happened billions of years ago, it was only captured on 26 April by Nasa's Swift Space Telescope and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.
"We have waited a long time for a gamma-ray burst this shockingly, eye-wateringly bright," Julie McEnery, a project scientist for the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, told Space.com.
