The James Webb Space Telescope has detected a colossal supernova, one of the largest and oldest ever observed. The star that exploded was a behemoth, over 20 times more massive than our Sun, and its cataclysmic event shook the cosmos just 2 billion years after the Big Bang, approximately 11.4 billion years ago.
The discovery, published on the arXiv platform, was presented at the American Astronomical Society meeting by a team of researchers led by the Space Telescope Science Institute. The data collected suggests that these explosions in the early universe may have differed from more recent ones, particularly in their significantly greater violence. "The first stars were considerably different from those of today: they were massive, very hot, and produced truly gigantic explosions," said David Coulter, who led the study. It is believed that the lack of heavy elements in these early stars shortened their lifespans, leading to more violent supernovae.
The newly identified supernova, dubbed 'AT 2023adsv,' stands out among its primordial counterparts due to its colossal size and energy, twice the average. "The high energy of the AT 2023adsv explosion could indicate that the properties of supernovae may have been different in the early universe," adds Takashi Moriya of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, a co-author of the study. "But we need more observations to confirm this idea." In this regard, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, scheduled for launch by NASA in 2027, could play a crucial role. With its wide field of view, it could potentially discover thousands of similar supernovae.