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Scientists saw almost the entire death of a giant star, but in the end they were surprised by something they didn't expect.

2026-08-12 23:23:25Lifestyle SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

A star about 30 times more massive than the Sun, located approximately 500 million light-years from Earth, gave astronomers an extremely rare opportunity: to follow its death process from the first moments of the explosion.

It all started in March 2026, when the Chinese Einstein Probe space telescope recorded a brief burst of X-rays.

This signal represented what astronomers call a “shock breakout”: the moment when the shock wave created by the star’s internal collapse reaches the surface and explodes outward. The phenomenon lasts very short and is therefore extremely rarely captured.

Astronomers activated other telescopes and continued to monitor the object as it turned into a supernova.

The star belonged to the Wolf-Rayet class. These are extremely massive and hot stars that have lost most of their outer layers of hydrogen and helium before dying.

The supernova created was a broad-line type Ic, a category often associated with very energetic explosions and, in some cases, gamma-ray bursts.

This is where the surprise came.

Astronomers did not see the powerful gamma-ray burst that might have been expected.

One possible explanation is that very powerful jets of material were created inside the star, but they failed to break through the remaining layers and escape into space. Astronomers call these “choked jets,” or “drowned” jets.

The observation shows that the death of massive stars may be more complex than simple models suggest.

Supernovae are of extraordinary importance to the history of the universe. In these explosions, many of the elements that later end up in stars, planets, and even living organisms are created and dispersed.

In this case, astronomers didn't just see the aftermath of the catastrophe. They caught its first signal and were able to follow the unfolding of the event, getting a rare glimpse of the moments when a giant star ceases to exist in the form it had for millions of years.


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