For the first time, astronomers have used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to get a clear look at a giant star right before it blew up in a spectacular explosion.
This star, buried under a thick blanket of dust, may finally help explain why astronomers have struggled for decades to find massive red supergiants that are supposed to explode as supernovae but often seem to be “missing.”
The discovery, led by Northwestern University scientists, shows that these stars are not missing at all—they are simply hidden from view by thick clouds of dust.
With JWST’s ability to see in infrared light, which can pass through dust, astronomers are now able to reveal these stars in their final moments.
The team studied a supernova called SN2025pht, which was first spotted on June 29, 2025.
The explosion came from a galaxy called NGC 1637, located about 40 million light-years from Earth.
By comparing images from JWST and older images from the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists identified the star that exploded.
What they found was extraordinary. The doomed star was extremely bright—around 100,000 times brighter than the Sun—but also extremely red.
The reason for its strange color was the thick veil of dust surrounding it.
In visible light, this dust made the star look over 100 times dimmer than it really was, hiding much of its true brightness. Because dust blocks blue light more effectively than red, the star appeared unusually red, making it the “reddest, dustiest red supergiant ever seen to explode.”
Red supergiants are some of the largest stars in the universe. When they reach the end of their lives, their cores collapse, triggering an explosion known as a Type II supernova.
These explosions leave behind dense objects such as neutron stars or black holes. Betelgeuse, the famous red star in Orion’s shoulder, is one of the best-known examples of this type of star.
But for years, astronomers noticed a puzzle: although red supergiants should be the main stars exploding as supernovae, they often seemed absent from the data.
The new Webb observations provide the missing piece of the puzzle. Many of the most massive red supergiants appear to surround themselves with so much dust in their final years that they become nearly invisible to telescopes that rely on visible light.
In the case of SN2025pht, the dust was not only dense but also unusual. Red supergiants typically produce oxygen-rich dust, but this star’s dust was rich in carbon.
This suggests that during its last years, powerful currents inside the star carried carbon from deep layers up to the surface, changing the chemistry of the dust it released.
This finding is exciting because it is the first time JWST has directly identified the star that exploded in a supernova, opening the door to many more discoveries. Webb’s ability to observe in both near- and mid-infrared light means it can pierce through the dust and finally reveal stars that were previously hidden.
Astronomers believe this is just the beginning. The upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will also play a role in finding red supergiants on the brink of explosion, potentially catching them as they dim and brighten while shedding enormous amounts of dust.
“This is an exciting time,” said lead researcher Charlie Kilpatrick. “With JWST and soon the Roman telescope, we’re finally getting the kind of data we’ve dreamed about for decades. It will transform our understanding of how the biggest stars in the universe live and die.”
