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December 9, 2025<\/p>\n
2 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Astronomers Spot the Most Ancient Supernova Ever Observed<\/p>\n Astronomers have sighted the oldest known stellar explosion, dating back to when the universe was less than a billion years old<\/p>\n By Clara Moskowitz edited by Claire Cameron<\/span><\/p>\n NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope identified the source of a super bright flash of light known as a gamma-ray burst: a supernova that exploded when the universe was only 730 million years old.<\/p>\n NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Andrew Levan (Radboud University); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)<\/p>\n The James Webb Space Telescope has observed the oldest known supernova\u2014the explosive death of a star that lived when the universe was only 730 million years old.<\/p>\n The ancient blast occurred when the cosmos was just 5 percent of its current age, and the supernova\u2019s light has been traveling through space ever since. Astronomers were surprised to find that this primeval explosion strongly resembles today\u2019s supernovae, which occur when massive stars run out of fuel for the nuclear fusion reactions that power them and then collapse under their own gravity.<\/p>\n Scientists had suspected that the universe\u2019s earliest supernovae might look different because they represent the deaths of some of the first stars. Compared with today\u2019s stars, they formed in a smaller, denser cosmos and contained lighter elements\u2014mainly hydrogen, helium and trace amounts of lithium. And they were more massive than modern stars.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n Astronomers first spotted this primordial supernova in March, thanks to a 10-second-long flash of high-energy light known as a gamma-ray burst. Such a burst can be caused by a collision between a black hole and a dense object called a neutron star or\u2014as in this case\u2014by the death of a large star.<\/p>\n A telescope that scans for ephemeral events in space called the Space-Based Multi-Band Astronomical Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) first detected the flash on March 14. That detection quickly set off a chain of observations around the world, including by NASA\u2019s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, which pinpointed the flash\u2019s location on the sky, the Nordic Optical Telescope on the Canary Islands, which suggested it was very far away, and the European Southern Observatory\u2019s Very Large Telescope in Chile, which determined its age.<\/p>\n Because the object was so ancient, its light has been stretched as space has expanded over time. As a result, the light from the initial supernova that caused the gamma-ray burst was expected to become brightest a few months after the burst was sighted. The James Webb Space Telescope saw it in July, confirming that the flash was caused by a supernova, which has been designated GRB 250314A. The powerful observatory was also able to spot the galaxy that hosted the exploded star, although it appeared only as a small red smudge.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. 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I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" December 9, 2025 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Astronomers Spot the Most Ancient Supernova Ever Observed Astronomers have sighted the oldest known stellar explosion, dating back to when the universe was less than a billion years old By Clara Moskowitz edited by Claire Cameron NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope identified the source<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-36590","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-environment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36590\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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