NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) has released a breathtaking time-lapse video of a red star exploding in our galaxy.

The Hubble Space Telescope recorded the footage of red star V838 Monocerotis exploding around 20,000 light years away over a period of four years, between 2002 and 2006.

In early 2002 V838 Monocerotis temporarily increased in brightness to become around 600,000 times more luminous than the Sun, but the origins of the explosion remains a mystery to astronomers, as NASA explains:

“The outburst may represent a transitory stage in a star’s evolution that is rarely seen. The star has some similarities to highly unstable aging stars called eruptive variables, which suddenly and unpredictably increase in brightness.”