The Webb telescope spots a supernova from 13 billion years ago

"The James Webb Space Telescope and other international observatories have spotted a 13-billion-year-old supernova. On Tuesday, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced the sighting of a gamma-ray burst from a star that exploded when the Universe was only 730 million years old. The Webb telescope even detected the supernova's host galaxy. Before this observation, the oldest recorded supernova was from when the Universe was 1.8 billion years old. That's a difference of more than a billion years."

""This observation also demonstrates that we can use Webb to find individual stars when the Universe was only 5 percent of its current age," co-author Andrew Levan wrote in the ESA's press release. "There are only a handful of gamma-ray bursts in the last 50 years that have been detected in the first billion years of the Universe. This particular event is very rare and very exciting.""

"Researchers learned that the 13-billion-year-old explosion shared many traits with modern, nearby supernovae. While that may not sound shocking, scientists expected a more profound difference. That's because early stars likely had fewer heavy elements, were more massive and didn't live as long. "We went in with open minds," co-author Nial Tanvir said. "And lo and behold, Webb showed that this supernova looks exactly like modern supernovae.""

A gamma-ray burst tied to a supernova was observed from a star that exploded when the Universe was 730 million years old, about 13 billion years ago. The James Webb Space Telescope detected the supernova's host galaxy and enabled distance determination. The previous oldest recorded supernova dated to when the Universe was 1.8 billion years old, extending the record by over a billion years. The explosion exhibited many traits matching modern, nearby supernovae despite expectations that early stars had fewer heavy elements, greater mass, and shorter lives. Detection required an international observational relay using Swift, ground telescopes, and Webb.

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