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LiveScience
LiveScience
Patrick Pester

Hidden 'doomed' star revealed by James Webb Space Telescope could solve decades-old mystery

An image of spiral galaxy NGC 1637 with the massive red supergiant marked in a box.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has revealed a hidden "doomed" star that could help solve a giant astrophysical mystery.

The star is a massive red supergiant, which JWST snapped just before the star exploded in a fiery supernova. Massive red supergiants should, in theory, cause most supernovas, but they're rarely observed. The latest JWST observation, described in a new study published Wednesday (Oct. 8) in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, adds weight to the idea that these giants are often obscured by clouds of dust.

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