"This tangible evidence of a double detonation not only contributes towards solving a long-standing mystery, but also offers a visual spectacle."

An explosion captured in a new image could help astronomers to better understand the "standard candles" at the center of a major cosmological mystery.

For the first time, astronomers have obtained visual evidence that a star met its end by detonating twice. By studying the centuries-old remains of supernova SNR 0509-67.5 with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT),