Inbox Astronomy: NASA=?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=99s_?=Webb Identifies Earliest Supernova to Date, Shows Host Galaxy

INBOX ASTRONOMY

NASA’s Webb Identifies Earliest Supernova to Date, Shows Host Galaxy

Release date: Tuesday, December 9, 2025 11:00:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

The telescope captured near-infrared light from one of the earliest stars seen to explode in the history of the universe.

With a few near-infrared snapshots, the James Webb Space Telescope nailed down the source of a super bright flash of light known as a gamma-ray burst, generated when a massive star exploded when the universe was only 730 million years old.

And, for the first time at this point in the history of the universe, the telescope provided a detection of the resulting supernova’s host galaxy.

Webb’s quick-turn observations verified data taken by telescopes around the world that were following the gamma-ray burst that turned up in mid-March.

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