Milky Way explosion hits nearby Magellanic clouds

S U P E R N O V A • • • SUPERNOVA: Most chemical elements are made in a supernova. The normal process inside stars, stellar nucleosynthesis, fuses hydrogen to create the elements, from helium through the periodic table to iron. To create the heavier elements through to uranium, however, requires something exponentially hotter and more energetic even than the core of a star – those forces typically found in the instant of a supernova. Not all supernovae destroy stars. Some stellar explosions don’