For the first time, astronomers have observed the earliest stages of a supernova, capturing a massive star's explosive death just hours after it began. Using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile, researchers studied a star roughly 15 times the mass of the sun, located 22 million light-years away in the galaxy NGC 3621. The star's initial explosion formed a distinctive olive-like shape, challenging previous assumptions about how supernovae unfold.
The rapid response allowed scientists to observe the supernova 26 hours after its detection. They found the star surrounded at its equator by a disk of gas and dust, which distorted the explosion into a vertical-standing olive, rather than a simple spherical blast. This geometry offers critical clues about the processes driving the violent ejection of material from the stellar core.
Unlocking stellar secrets
Lead researcher Yi Yang explains that the early observations provide key insights into stellar evolution and the mechanisms behind supernova explosions of massive stars. The doomed star, a red supergiant about 25 million years old, had a diameter 600 times larger than the sun at the time of its death. Some of its mass was expelled into space, while the remainder likely became a neutron star, a dense stellar remnant.
By capturing the shockwave breaking through the star's surface, scientists can refine models of massive star deaths and better understand how these cosmic events are triggered. The discovery marks a milestone in astrophysics, offering a rare glimpse of the violent, fleeting moments that follow a star's collapse. Of course, if you want to learn more details, you can check out the study published on Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.