Scientists have observed for the first time the very early stages of a supernova — the death of a star — with a massive star exploding in a distinctive olive-like shape. 

They used the European Southern Observatory’s Chile-based Very Large Telescope to observe the supernova, which involved a star roughly 15 times the mass of our sun residing in a galaxy called ‘NGC 3621’ about 22 million light-years from Earth in the direction of constellation Hydra.