{"id":304429,"date":"2026-02-27T06:14:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T06:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/304429\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T06:14:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T06:14:29","slug":"weve-been-waiting-for-this-to-happen-for-the-first-time-nasa-scientists-detected-what-happens-before-a-supernova-explodes-and-its-all-thanks-to-old-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/304429\/","title":{"rendered":"“We’ve been waiting for this to happen.” For the first time, NASA scientists detected what happens before a supernova explodes \u2013 and it’s all thanks to old photos"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASA has detected a precursor or progenitor to a supernova for the first time \u2013 and it’s all thanks to old photos. Researchers have now been able to study some of a supernova’s progression by comparing images from the James Webb Space Telescope.<\/p>\n

The star, designated 2025pht, was located in the galaxy NGC 1637 and died some 40 million years ago. It took the light from the cosmic explosion this long to reach the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) \u2013 NASA\u2019s multi-telescope system for detecting supernovae.<\/p>\n

Researchers first spotted the supernova in June of 2025, but, most importantly, the exploding star is in a region that the telescope has photographed before. Researchers then got to work identifying the progenitor \u2013 the star that died \u2013 by aligning and analyzing archive images of Galaxy NGC 1637 taken by the Hubble and James Webb telescopes before it exploded. It’s the first time that a supernova progenitor has been photographed by Webb, NASA says.<\/a><\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

\n

\"A
\n<\/p>\n

A combined James Webb and Hubble view of spiral galaxy NGC 1637. The panels show a red supergiant star before and after it exploded (Image credit: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Charles Kilpatrick (Northwestern), Aswin Suresh (Northwestern); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI))<\/p>\n

NASA has photographed a supernova before, but this time, researchers had old photos to use as a reference and gather data about what happened before the star became a supernova.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve been waiting for this to happen \u2013 for a supernova to explode in a galaxy that Webb had already observed,” explained the study’s lead author, Charlie Kilpatrick of Northwestern University. “We combined Hubble and Webb data sets to completely characterize this star for the first time,\u201d<\/p>\n

The researchers found that the supernova progenitor star was a \u201csurprisingly red\u201d supergiant in 2024, indicating that it was surrounded by dust blocking shorter wavelength blue light.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the reddest, most dusty red supergiant that we\u2019ve seen explode as a supernova,\u201d said graduate student and co-author of the results paper<\/a> published on the analysis, Aswin Suresh of Northwestern University.<\/p>\n

The best camera deals, reviews, product advice, and unmissable photography news, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

The James Webb Telescope uses a MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) and NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) to create images of the night sky.<\/p>\n

NIRCam observes near-infrared light with wavelengths (0.6\u20135 microns) slightly longer than those of visible light to capture crisp images of stars and early galaxies, while MIRI observes longer mid-infrared wavelengths (5\u201328 microns) to detect cooler cosmic dust, gas, and proto-stars.<\/p>\n

\n

\"NASA
\n<\/p>\n

The “cosmic tarantula” is another incredible image captured by the James Webb Telescope (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team)<\/p>\n

NASA launched the James Webb Telescope in 2021 with the mission of studying \u201cevery phase of the history of the universe\u201d from the Big Bang to the formation of solar systems that can support life.<\/p>\n

Since then, the telescope has captured unbelievable images, including of the most distant galaxy ever photographed<\/a> and previously undiscovered planets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, NASA announced it’ll launch a new space telescope by May 2027. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will boast a 288MP camera<\/a> and work in collaboration with James Webb to reveal \u201dbillions of stars, hundreds of black holes and hundreds of forming planetary systems.”<\/p>\n

You might also like\u2026<\/p>\n

Check out these mesmerizing images from the James Webb Telescope<\/a>, enabling you to gaze into a black hole and see the \u201cjewelled ring\u201d in the cosmos<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASA has detected a precursor or progenitor to a supernova for the first time \u2013 and it’s all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-304429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}