When one supernova commenced, it looked like an olive — at least before it got shaken and stirred.
This insight, reported in the Nov. 12 Science Advances, comes from new observations taken in the wake of a massive star’s death. As some of the most comprehensive views ever captured of a supernova’s first moments, the findings give astronomers important clues about how these explosions begin.
On April 10, 2024, a supernova was detected in a nearby galaxy. Over the next 26 hours, an international collaboration of astronomers sprang into action to gather additional observations of the explosion before it progressed too far. Their efforts produced the earliest look at