Hey, I'm Flor Lichtenen and you're listening to Science Friday.

Today in the podcast, astronomers caught a glimpse inside an exploding star and found some surprises.

We immediately realized this is something that we have never observed before, but we didn't know what we actually did observe.

You might think of a star as just a mass of incandescent gas.

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace, where hydrogen is built into helium at a temperature of millions of degrees.

Yo-ho, it's hot the sun.

It is hot, but a new study suggests stars aren't just a big old mass of gas.

This week, researchers report that they've observed some of what lies beneath all of that

hydrogen and helium, at least inside one unusual supernova. And they found layers, like a giant

bloomin onion. Astronomer spotted this star in the act of exploding, and they were able to see one of those inner layers

after all that outer star stuff was stripped away.

Joining me now to talk about it is study author Dr. Steve Schulze.

They're a research associate at Northwestern University's Sierra.

That's the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics.

Steve, welcome to Science Friday.

Hi, Flora.

Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you, too.

So I've been trying to come up with the right analogy.

How off base is a giant bloom and onion?

This is absolutely perfect description.

I think you're being kind, but go ahead.

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