Watch: The Astonishing Beauty of a Star's Explosion

If you've ever wondered what happens in space when a star explodes, NASA has released spectacular footage in vibrant colors.

The footage captures a star exploding and collapsing inward due to a gravitational imbalance. Special telescopes reveal the gases as they burst into massive expanses across the universe.

This explosion occurs thousands of light-years from Earth, with a diameter of 11 light-years, expanding rapidly at 1,500 kilometers per second.

NASA explains that when the star's internal body fails and can no longer sustain nuclear fusion, the star's core simply collapses under gravity's force. A shock wave from the explosion swiftly travels through the star's various layers. Initially, the wave breaks through the star's visible surface in a series of minor bursts. It is only 20 minutes later that the full force of the shock wave hits the surface – resulting in a supernova explosion.