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A crew of astronomers led by Northwestern University has captured the clearest and most detailed view ever of a dying star earlier than its dramatic explosion.
Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the worldwide group recognized the supply of a supernova, often known as its progenitor, in mid-infrared gentle for the primary time. When mixed with archival observations from the Hubble Space Telescope, the info revealed that the blast originated from a large crimson supergiant star wrapped in an sudden blanket of mud.
This breakthrough might lastly clarify why astronomers not often see crimson supergiants explode, regardless that fashions predict they need to account for many core-collapse supernovae. The new findings counsel these huge stars do explode however are sometimes hidden from view by thick mud clouds. Thanks to JWST’s highly effective infrared imaginative and prescient, scientists can now see via the obscuring mud, bridging the long-standing hole between concept and statement.
The analysis, printed on Oct. 8 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, represents JWST’s first confirmed detection of a supernova’s progenitor star.
“For multiple decades, we have been trying to determine exactly what the explosions of red supergiant stars look like,” stated Northwestern’s Charlie Kilpatrick, who led the research. “Only now, with JWST, do we finally have the quality of data and infrared observations that allow us to say precisely the exact type of red supergiant that exploded and what its immediate environment looked like. We’ve been waiting for this to happen — for a supernova to explode in a galaxy that JWST had already observed. We combined Hubble and JWST data sets to completely characterize this star for the first time.”
Kilpatrick, a analysis assistant professor at Northwestern’s Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics, is an skilled on the life cycles of huge stars. His coauthor, Aswin Suresh, a graduate pupil in physics and astronomy at Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, performed a key function within the evaluation.
Reddest, dustiest progenitor ever noticed
The crew first detected the supernova, named SN2025pht, on June 29, 2025, utilizing the All-Sky Automated Survey of Supernovae. The occasion’s gentle traveled from the close by spiral galaxy NGC 1637, positioned about 40 million light-years from Earth.
By evaluating Hubble and JWST photos of NGC 1637 taken earlier than and after the explosion, Kilpatrick, Suresh, and their collaborators pinpointed the progenitor star. It instantly stood out as each good and intensely crimson. Although the star radiated roughly 100,000 instances extra gentle than the Sun, a lot of its glow was hidden by surrounding mud. The layer of mud was so dense that it made the star seem over 100 instances dimmer in seen gentle than it could in any other case look. Because the mud blocked shorter, bluer wavelengths, the star’s look shifted dramatically towards crimson.
“It’s the reddest, dustiest red supergiant that we’ve seen explode as a supernova,” Suresh stated.
Massive stars within the late phases of their lives, crimson supergiants are among the many largest stars within the universe. When their cores collapse, they explode as Type II supernovae, abandoning both a neutron star or black gap. The most acquainted instance of a crimson supergiant is Betelguese, the brilliant reddish star within the shoulder of the constellation Orion.
“SN2025pht is surprising because it appeared much redder than almost any other red supergiant we’ve seen explode as a supernova,” Kilpatrick added. “That tells us that previous explosions might have been much more luminous than we thought because we didn’t have the same quality of infrared data that JWST can now provide.”
Clues hidden in mud
The deluge of mud may assist clarify why astronomers have struggled to seek out crimson supergiant progenitors. Most huge stars that explode as supernovae are the brightest and most luminous objects within the sky. So, theoretically, they need to be simple to identify earlier than they explode. But that hasn’t been the case.
Astronomers posit that probably the most huge ageing stars additionally is perhaps the dustiest. These thick cloaks of mud may dim the celebs’ gentle to the purpose of utter undetectability. The new JWST observations assist this speculation.
“I’ve been arguing in favor of that interpretation, but even I didn’t expect to see such an extreme example as SN2025pht,” Kilpatrick stated. “It would explain why these more massive supergiants are missing because they tend to be dustier.”
In addition to the presence of mud itself, the mud’s composition was additionally shocking. While crimson supergiants have a tendency to supply oxygen-rich, silicate mud, this star’s mud appeared wealthy with carbon. This means that highly effective convection within the star’s remaining years might have dredged up carbon from deep inside, enriching its floor and altering the kind of mud it produced.
“The infrared wavelengths of our observations overlap with an important silicate dust feature that’s characteristic of some red supergiant spectra,” Kilpatrick stated. “This tells us that the wind was very rich in carbon and less rich in oxygen, which also was somewhat surprising for a red supergiant of this mass.”
A brand new period for exploding stars
The new research marks the primary time astronomers have used JWST to immediately establish a supernova progenitor star, opening the door to many extra discoveries. By capturing gentle throughout the near- and mid-infrared spectrum, JWST can reveal hidden stars and supply lacking items for a way probably the most huge stars dwell and die.
The crew now could be trying to find comparable crimson supergiants which will explode as supernovae sooner or later. Observations by NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope might assist this search. Roman may have the decision, sensitivity and infrared wavelength protection to see these stars and doubtlessly witness their variability as they expel out giant portions of mud close to the top of their lives.
“With the launch of JWST and upcoming Roman launch, this is an exciting time to study massive stars and supernova progenitors,” Kilpatrick stated. “The quality of data and new findings we will make will exceed anything observed in the past 30 years.”
The research, “The Type II SN 2025pht in NGC 1637: A red supergiant with carbon-rich circumstellar dust as the first JWST detection of a supernova progenitor star,” was supported by the National Science Foundation (award quantity AST-2432037).
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