Funding from a Swindon-based research council has helped scientists chart what happens when a star dies.

These pictures from a galaxy 32 million light years away show the energetic explosion at the end of a star's life the supernova.

The star, imaged by the Gemini Observatory funded by Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC), was located in the galaxy M-74 in the constellation of Pisces.

A team of European astronomers, led by Dr Stephen Smartt of Cambridge University, studied what occurs before and after a star explodes.

Dr Smartt said: "We've been searching for this sort of normal progenitor star on its deathbed for some time.

"I like to think that finding the superb Gemini and HST data for this star is a vindication of our prediction that one day we had to find one of these stars in the immense data archives that now exist."

Before it exploded, the star a red supergiant was found to have a mass 10 times greater and a diameter 500 times bigger than our sun.

If our sun were the size of the supergiant it would engulf the inner solar system as far as Mars.

The Gemini partnership comprises seven international institutes, of which the UK has almost a quarter share. PPARC, in North Star Avenue, pays the UK contribution of £4m a year.

The eight-metre Gemini telescopes, located in Chile and Hawaii, are designed to produce sharp images of the universe in the infrared band.

This enables astronomers to see through the cosmic dust to reveal the inner secrets of stellar birth and the deep mysteries of the universe.

Professor Ian Halliday, PPARC chief executive said: "These latest exciting findings resulting from observations on the Gemini telescopes illustrate how UK astronomers are at the forefront of global astronomy research and discovery.

"By taking a lead role in such international projects as the Gemini Partnership, PPARC ensures that UK scientists have access to world-class facilities."

A supernova occurs when a star reaches the end of its nuclear fuel reserve.

Its core collapses, ejecting outer layers in a shock wave, resulting in an energy release one billion times brighter than our Sun.

After destroying itself, the core becomes either a neutron star or a black hole.

Red supergiant stars can be spotted during January from almost anywhere on Earth by looking at Betelgeuse, the bright red shoulder star in the constellation of Orion.

Betelgeuse could meet the same explosive fate at any time from next week to thousands of years from now.

PPARC is government funded to provide research grants and studentships to scientists in British universities.

Alex Emery