Scientists know for a fact that in the last stages of a star's life, most of them turn into extremely hot and very dense versions of themselves. When the star draws its last breath, it explodes in a cataclysmic blaze of glory and shoots matter into the vastness of space. Of course, that's all theory and nobody's ever seen such a sight come to pass.

Now, scientists at the University of Chicago claim that they've actually witnessed such an event. The whole, thing, however all happened in a computer simulation.

Don't let that fool you. The simulation isn't some scenario that astronomers dreamed up, sent to Pixar, and got a DVD in return. They put all available knowledge into one big program and saw just what the computer thinks happens to a white dwarf in the course of the explosion.

To do this, astronomers invested 58,000 hours of study and work and gave all the knowledge a run at 700 computer processors to do the intense math of the most accurate simulation possible. The results were astounding.

Scientists watched in amazement as they saw what triggers the explosions in these small stars and how everything comes to a conclusion. What happens is actually similar to a diesel engine combustion process where a spark triggers combustion in the chamber and lets off mechanical energy.

In stars, the computer revealed that near the center of the star's core, a jet of white-hot hydrogen 10 miles in diameter rushes upward and shoots to the surface. That provides the spark in which catastrophe follows soon after. Astronomers now believe that the matter spewed after the big blast may be the source of iron in the universe.