JWST spots super-old supernova from the early universe
The James Webb Space Telescope recently observed a rare supernova that formed about 730 million years after the Big Bang—a seriously ancient event.
This cosmic blast is tied to a gamma-ray burst (GRB 250314A) detected in March 2025, all happening in a tiny, faint galaxy during one of the universe's earliest eras.
How astronomers figured it out
First, telescopes SVOM and Swift caught the gamma-ray burst. Then, JWST snapped pictures months later when the supernova's light was at its brightest—stretched out by billions of years of cosmic expansion.
Scientists confirmed this link in two new research papers. As astronomer Andrew Levan put it, "Only Webb could reveal that this light comes from a supernova."
Why this matters
Long gamma-ray bursts help us track how stars formed way back when.
Even though this star had fewer heavy elements than modern ones, its explosion looked surprisingly familiar.
Teams used models to predict what they'd see—and JWST's powerful infrared eyes matched those predictions almost perfectly.
Future missions might let us catch these epic events even faster!