JWST Identifies Supernova from Early Universe, Expanding Cosmic Understanding

The James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, has identified a supernova from only 730 million years after the Big Bang, marking a significant milestone in astrophysics. This extraordinary supernova, responsible for a gamma-ray burst named GRB 250314A, was detected in March 2025.

The lead author of one of the studies, Andrew Levan from Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands, stated that JWST's ability to show that this light originated from a collapsing massive star is groundbreaking, as it allows astronomers to find individual stars from when the universe was only five percent of its current age.

The discovery surpasses the previous record for the most distant supernova found by JWST, which was from 1.8 billion years after the Big Bang. Long gamma-ray bursts, or LGRBs, are believed to result from the collapse of massive stars and are considered powerful indicators of star formation across cosmic time.

The light from this ancient supernova was observed approximately 3.5 months after the gamma-ray burst ended, highlighting the rapid and sensitive follow-up capabilities of the JWST. The GRB was initially detected by SVOM, a space telescope developed by China and France, on March 14th, 2025, which then led to further observations by NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and other telescopes.

The findings indicate that, despite the vast changes in the universe since the time of this GRB, the properties of this supernova remarkably resemble those of modern supernovae. Future research aims to capture the warm afterglow from GRBs to enhance our understanding of ancient galaxies and to clarify uncertainties regarding the contributions of the host galaxy to the detected light.

The studies were published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics Letters, with further observations planned to refine these findings. This discovery emphasizes the importance of JWST as a tool for exploring the early universe and the formation of stars and galaxies.