Physics
Webb Spots a Possible Supernova Just Days After the Star Exploded
A transient called AT 2026abck, in a galaxy at redshift 5.017, was caught four to 10 days after its blast without help from a gravitational lens, astronomers report.
Topic
Supernova
18 stories from Planck Standard. Latest: October 17, 2026.
PhysicsAstronomers Record a Gamma-Ray Burst Whose Engine Kept Firing for 27 Days, a New Record
GRB 220706A kept flaring in X-rays for about 51 days after detection, and its central engine stayed active roughly 20 days longer than any burst on record. No single explanation fits every detail.
PhysicsGhostly Neutrinos Switching Identity May Decide Whether a Dying Star Explodes
In 195 simulated star deaths, adding neutrino 'flavor' changes flipped many stars between 16 and 30 solar masses from supernovae to silent black holes, which could explain why astronomers see fewer explosions than expected.
PhysicsA Star 500 Million Light-Years Away Exploded Without the Gamma-Ray Burst It Was Supposed to Produce
The Einstein Probe caught the faintest X-ray shock breakout ever seen from this class of supernova. Two independent teams found no jet, no burst, and a 20-solar-mass Wolf-Rayet star that should have made both.
PhysicsTwo Stars Orbited Each Other, Then Both Exploded. Astronomers Just Found the Wreckage Side by Side
The Jellyfish Nebula turns out to have a sibling. A Stanford-led team used 16 years of gamma-ray data to show the two remnants came from a single binary system — a pairing never seen before.
ScienceSome Exploding Stars May Have Been Detonated by Black Holes Left Over From the Big Bang
A team led by SUNY Poly and the Kavli IPMU finds that a primordial black hole passing through a white dwarf could tidally heat it into a thermonuclear runaway — and that the resulting explosions would leave a distinctive chemical signature already visible in the Milky Way.
PhysicsAstronomers Catch a Magnetar Being Born, Hearing Its 'Chirp' in a Distant Supernova
A rising, bird-like pattern in an exploding star's light gave away the birth of one of the universe's most magnetic objects — and forced Einstein's relativity into the story of a supernova for the first time.
PhysicsA Strange Cosmic 'Chirp' Reveals the Birth of a Magnetar for the First Time
Watching a distant supernova flicker four times in a quickening rhythm, astronomers caught the moment an ultra-magnetic neutron star switched on — and saw Einstein's relativity at work in an exploding star.
ScienceWebb Spots the Earliest Supernova Ever Seen — a Star That Blew Up When the Universe Was 730 Million Years Old
Following a gamma-ray burst to its source, the James Webb Space Telescope caught a collapsing massive star from the cosmic dawn and, for the first time at such a distance, imaged its faint host galaxy.
PhysicsFermi Telescope Catches First Gamma-Ray Signal From a 'Monster' Supernova, Pointing to a Magnetar
Nearly two decades of NASA data revealed that a rapidly spinning magnetar powered superluminous supernova SN 2017egm, helping settle a long debate over what drives the universe's brightest stellar explosions.
PhysicsScientists Crack 100-Year Mystery of Cosmic Rays with Universal Pattern Discovery
Researchers using the DAMPE space telescope uncovered a hidden rule governing ultra-powerful particles that travel across the galaxy, potentially solving one of physics' longest-standing puzzles.
PhysicsScientists Recreate Rare Cosmic Reaction That Forges Universe's Most Elusive Elements
Breakthrough experiment measures key reaction creating selenium-74, shedding new light on supernova nucleosynthesis while revealing gaps in current theories.
PhysicsScientists Recreate Rare Cosmic Reaction That Creates Universe's Rarest Elements
Breakthrough experiment directly measured how arsenic-73 captures protons to form selenium-74, shedding new light on the mysterious origin of proton-rich elements in supernovas.
- Physics
Most Magnified Supernova Ever Found: Astronomers Detect Stellar Explosion Amplified 250 Times by Cosmic Gravity
International astronomers led by Stockholm University's Oskar Klein Centre discovered SN 2025mkn, a Type II supernova 9 billion light-years away whose light is bent and amplified by an entire foreground galaxy, creating a natural telescope of unprecedented power.
- Physics
Scientists Recreate Rare Cosmic Reaction Never Seen Before in Laboratory
Breakthrough experiment directly measures key nuclear process that creates selenium-74 in supernova explosions, cutting uncertainty in stellar models by half.
- Physics
Scientists Directly Measure a Rare Cosmic Reaction for the First Time, Unlocking the Origin of the Universe's Rarest Elements
A 45-scientist team at Michigan State's FRIB measured the arsenic-73 + proton reaction that occurs inside supernovae, cutting uncertainty in p-nuclei abundance predictions by 50% and advancing a 60-year-old astrophysics mystery.
ScienceNASA Captures Stunning X-Ray Portrait of RCW 86, the Oldest Documented Supernova in Human History
The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer spacecraft revealed new detail in the remains of a stellar explosion first recorded by Chinese astronomers in 185 AD, using polarized X-rays to map its magnetic fields.
PhysicsGravitationally Lensed Supernova From 10 Billion Years Ago Could Crack Dark Energy Mystery
An unprecedented superluminous supernova, split into multiple images by a foreground galaxy, may help resolve the Hubble Tension
