The new space telescope has just spotted what could be the most distant galaxy ever observed, and it's the first one. It might have seen its first supernova.
According to Inverse, researchers believe they have observed a supernova using the NIR cam instrument. They looked at the data collected using Hubble and found a bright object that could be a star that has just exploded.
A supernova happens when a star runs out of fuel and dies. Much of the star's material is thrown in an explosion which releases a lot of light. The light can be seen from a long distance. There was a bright flash in the sky. The flash from the telescope was less bright in the second observation than it was in the first one.
The data we have does match that of a supernova, so it is a very good candidate, according to the leader of the study.
Even with the extreme sensitivity of the person, this finding is quite surprising. You need to be lucky to observe a supernovae because they don't last for long. Although technically, the supernova happened billions of years ago, we are only seeing it now because it takes time for the light to travel from the distant universe.
Webb wasn’t designed to detect supernovae, but researchers are making the most of the data collected so far and are finding surprising uses for it. The advantage of looking at this kind of target with Webb is that it will be able to observe the area around the supernova to see its effects and the aftermath of such a large explosion.
Understanding more about supernovae is important not only for understanding the life cycles of stars, but also for measuring the expansion of the universe. A class of supernovae called Type 1a are used as “mile markers” for measuring distances because they have consistent levels of brightness and can be seen from great distances.
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