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Utilizing the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have for the very first time recognized the progenitor of a neighboring supernova– a red supergiant star masked in thick, dust-rich shrouds that made it undetectable to previous observatories.
The primary image at left reveals a combined Webb and Hubble view of the spiral nebula NGC 1637, with the area of interest in the leading right; the staying 3 panels reveal a comprehensive view of a red supergiant star before and after it blew up; the star is not noticeable in the Hubble image before the SN 2025pht surge, however appears in the Webb image; the July 2025 view from Hubble reveals the radiant consequences of the surge. Image credit: NASA/ ESA/ CSA/ STScI/ C. Kilpatrick, Northwestern/ A. Suresh, Northwestern/ J. DePasquale, STScI.
The supernova occasion in concern, designated SN 2025pht, was found in NGC 1637 on June 29, 2025.
Astronomers instantly turned their resources to this supernova to read more about it.
Northwestern University astronomer Charlie Kilpatrick and his coworkers rather turned to archives, looking for to utilize pre-supernova images to determine precisely which star amongst lots of had actually taken off.
The images of NGC 1637 taken by Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) and NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) in 2024 revealed a single red supergiant star situated precisely where the supernova now shines.
“We’ve been awaiting this to take place– for a supernova to blow up in a galaxy that Webb had actually currently observed,” Dr. Kilpatrick stated.
“We integrated Hubble and Webb information sets to totally identify this star for the very first time.”
“It’s the reddest, most dirty red supergiant that we’ve seen take off as a supernova,” stated Aswin Suresh, a college student at Northwestern University.
This excess of dust might assist discuss an enduring issue in astronomy that might be referred to as the case of the missing out on red supergiants.
Astronomers anticipate the most huge stars that blow up as supernovae to likewise be the brightest and most luminescent.
They must be simple to determine in pre-supernova images. That hasn’t been the case.
One prospective description is that the most huge aging stars are likewise the dustiest.
If they’re surrounded by big amounts of dust, their light might be dimmed to the point of undetectability.
The Webb observations of SN 2025pht assistance that hypothesis.
“I’ve been arguing in favor of that analysis, however even I didn’t anticipate to see it as severe as it was for SN 2025pht,” Dr. Kilpatrick stated.
“It would discuss why these more enormous supergiants are missing out on due to the fact that they tend to be more dirty.”
The authors likewise discovered that the dust surrounding the star is most likely abundant in carbon– an unanticipated outcome, given that researchers would usually expect silicate-dominated dust in such an environment.
They hypothesize that this carbon may have been dredged up from the star’s interior quickly before it blew up.
“Having observations in the mid-infrared was essential to constraining what sort of dust we were seeing,” Suresh stated.
The group’s paper was released In October 2025 in the Astrophysical Journal Letters
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Charles D. Kilpatrick et al2025. 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. ApJL 992, L10; doi: 10.3847/ 2041-8213/ ae04de
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