NASA has detected a precursor or progenitor to a supernova for the first time – and it's all thanks to old photos. Researchers have now been able to study some of a supernova's progression by comparing images from the James Webb Space Telescope.
The star, designated 2025pht, was located in the galaxy NGC 1637 and died some 40 million years ago. It took the light from the cosmic explosion this long to reach the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) – NASA’s multi-telescope system for detecting supernovae.
