James Webb Telescope Discovers Ancient Supernova

The James Webb Space Telescope and international observatories have identified a gamma-ray burst from a supernova that exploded 13 billion years ago, shortly after the formation of the universe. This discovery, announced by the European Space Agency, marks the oldest supernova ever recorded, occurring when the universe was only 730 million years old.

Co-author Andrew Levan emphasized that this finding demonstrates Webb's capability to detect individual stars from such an early cosmic period, suggesting significant similarities between this ancient supernova and modern ones, despite differences in elemental composition due to the early universe's lack of heavy elements.

The sequence of observations began on March 14 when the SVOM satellite detected a gamma-ray burst, followed by confirmations from NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and others, culminating with Webb capturing the supernova's light using its Near-Infrared Camera.

This unprecedented observation opens avenues for deeper studies into early galaxies and stellar evolution, with the team already approved for further Webb observations of gamma-ray bursts from that era.