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These gaseous supernova remnants glow in colors determined by the elements they contain. For example, the dark blue areas are rich in oxygen and the red material is rich in sulfur.
picture (c) STScI/AURA

Since this happens only to very massive stars that have undergone a full range of stellar evolution, the explosion releases a wide variety of new elements into the interstellar medium (ISM), which may ultimately incorporate them into new stars and continue the nucleosynthesis process.

The violent supernova blast produces powerful shock waves which create regions so dense and hot that they fuse some of the star's heavy elements into still heavier elements. It is in these supernova shocks that all natural elements heavier than iron are created, including uranium, the heaviest natural element found on Earth. Supernova shocks create even heavier elements (as do experiments with supercolliders), but they decay much more quickly than uranium.

Text used with the kind permission of:

Jet Propulsion Laboratory - California Institute of Technology