The James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged the most distant galaxy ever. Now the first supernova discovery in the vehicle’s history may have occurred.

Researchers, Webb’s NIRCam He thinks he witnessed a supernova with his equipment called The Structure, which is seen as a bright object in the data collected by Hubble, the telescope before Webb, which is considered a recently exploded star.

A first for James Webb

supernovasappears when giant stars reach the end of their lifespan. In billions of years, as will happen to our sun, when the star’s fuel runs out, the material in it is thrown into space in a big explosion. This explosion is so bright that it can even be seen from other galaxies.

James Webb Space Telescope, SDSS.J141930.11+5251593 managed to observe a similar eruption in its galaxy. The telescope has observed this galaxy twice, five days apart. On the second observation, the glow was seen to be at a much lower level. In other words, the glow in this region started to fade over time.

from researchers Mike Engesserstated that for now they need to examine more data to be sure, but if they talk according to the data they have, this structure is a very serious supernova candidate.

on the other hand James Webbis not designed to detect supernovae. Still, researchers are in the process of evaluating all of the incoming data. It’s not easy to find a supernova among them. Because this gigantic cosmic fireworks show takes place in a very short time, it is necessary to look at the right place at the right time.