Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a supernova, or exploding star, called AT 2026abck. It may be among the most distant supernovas ever observed. Its light was released more than 12.5 billion years ago, when the universe was about 1.15 billion years old—less than one-tenth of its current age.
The researchers estimate that they caught the explosion as it looked just four to 10 days after it began. At its brightest, it produces about 8 billion times as much light as the sun, nearly matching the brightness of the entire Milky Way. Finding such a distant explosion so early requires repeatedly observing the same small area of sky at the right time.
Because the universe has expanded since the light began its journey, the explosion appears to develop about six times more slowly from Earth. A change lasting one week there takes about six weeks for us to observe. Researchers suspect it may be an unusually powerful type of supernova, but further observations are needed to identify the explosion more confidently.
