The Hubble Space Telescope is a Powerful Science Instrument Despite its Age

This is supernova SN 2022aajn as observed by the Hubble. It's the small blue dot near the center of the image. The space telescope is examining this SN and 99 other Type Ia SN to refine our understanding of standard candles. Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz)

This Hubble image shows a supernova named SN 2022aajn in a distant galaxy about 600 million light-years away with the unwieldy name of WISEA J070815.11+210422.3. However, the obtuse yet scientifically descriptive names aren’t what’s important.

What’s important is that SN 2022aajn is a Type 1a supernova, also known as a standard candle, and this image is part of a critical effort in cosmology.

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Rubin Will Find Millions of Supernovae

This illustration depicts NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory capturing light from supernovae, the explosive deaths of massive stars. These cosmic beacons are important for studying the expansion of the Universe. In particular, Type Ia supernovae serve as “standard candles” to measure cosmic distances. By observing thousands of supernovae across vast regions of the sky, Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will provide the largest sample of Type Ia supernovae yet, helping scientists refine the Universe's expansion rate and gain deeper insights into the mysterious “dark energy” driving its acceleration.

The discovery of a few thousand type 1a supernovae over the last few decades has helped measure the expansion of the Universe. The new Vera Rubin Observatory will soon to start scour the skies looking for more. Astronomers hope that the discovery and observations of millions more exploding stars will allow the universal expansion to be mapped in unprecedented detail. If all goes to plan, the survey will begin in a few months with the entire southern sky being scanned every few nights. 

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Habitable Worlds Could Have Formed Before the First Galaxies

This artist’s impression shows the planet K2-18b, it’s host star and an accompanying planet in this system. K2-18b is now the only super-Earth exoplanet known to host both water and temperatures that could support life. Could habitable worlds like this have formed before galaxies formed? Image Credit: ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser

What came first, galaxies or planets? The answer has always been galaxies, but new research is changing that idea.

Could habitable planets really have formed before there were galaxies?

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Webb Sees Light Echoes in a Supernova Remnant

Supernovae are one of the most useful events in all of astronomy. Scientists can directly measure their power, their spin, and their eventual fallout, whether that’s turning into a black hole or a neutron star in some cases or just a much smaller stellar remnant. One of these events happened around 350 years ago (or around 11,000 years ago from the star’s perspective) in the constellation Cassiopeia. The James Webb Space Telescope recently caught a glimpse of the aftereffects of the explosion, and it happened to shed light (literally) on a familiar area of study – interstellar gas.

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Zwicky Classifies More Than 10,000 Exploding Stars

Artistic impression of a star going supernova, casting its chemically enriched contents into the universe. Credit: NASA/Swift/Skyworks Digital/Dana Berry

Even if you knew nothing about astronomy, you’d understand that exploding stars are forceful and consequential events. How could they not be? Supernovae play a pivotal role in the Universe with their energetic, destructive demises.

There are different types of supernovae exploding throughout the Universe, with different progenitors and different remnants. The Zwicky Transient Facility has detected 100,000 supernovae and classified 10,000 of them.

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Do We Really Know What Becomes a Type Ia Supernova?

Illustration of a Type Ia supernova. Credit: Kiso Observatory, The University of Tokyo

Lots of things out in the Universe can cause a supernova, from the gravitational collapse of a massive star, to the collision of white dwarfs. But most of the supernovae we observe are in other galaxies, too distant for us to see the details of the process. So, instead, we categorize supernovae by observed characteristics such as the light curves of how they brighten and fade and the types of elements identified in their spectra. While this gives us some idea of the underlying cause, there are still things we don’t entirely understand. This is particularly true for one particular kind of supernova known as Type Ia.

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A Nearby Supernova Could Finally Reveal Dark Matter

SN 1987a as seen by JWST's Near-Infrared Camera. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, M. Matsuura, R. Arendt, C. Fransson

Despite 90 years of research, the nature and influence of Dark Matter continue to elude astronomers and cosmologists. First proposed in the 1960s to explain the rotational curves of galaxies, this invisible mass does not interact with normal matter (except through gravity) and accounts for 85% of the total mass in the Universe. It is also a vital component in the most widely accepted cosmological model of the Universe, the Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) model. However, according to new research, the hunt for DM could be over as soon as a nearby star goes supernova.

Currently, the axion is considered the most likely candidate for DM, a hypothetical low-mass particle proposed in the 1970s to resolve problems in quantum theory. There has also been considerable research into how astronomers could detect axions by observing neutron stars and objects with powerful magnetic fields. In a recent study supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, a team of astrophysicists at the University of California Berkeley argued that axions could be discovered within seconds of detecting gamma rays from a nearby supernova explosion.

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The First Close-Up Picture of Star Outside the Milky Way

WOH G64 is a massive red supergiant star in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Thanks to the ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer, this is the first close-up picture of a star in another galaxy. Image Credit: ESO/K. Ohnaka et al.

Like a performer preparing for their big finale, a distant star is shedding its outer layers and preparing to explode as a supernova.

Astronomers have been observing the huge star, named WOH G64, since its discovery in the 1970s. It’s one of the largest known stars, and also one of the most luminous and massive red supergiants (RSGs). The star is surrounded by an envelope of expelled star-stuff, which could indicate it’s getting ready to explode.

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A Star Disappeared in Andromeda, Replaced by a Black Hole

This Illustration shows a failed supernova turning directly into a black hole without an explosion. Credit: NASA/ESA/P. Jeffries (STScI)

Massive stars about eight times more massive than the Sun explode as supernovae at the end of their lives. The explosions, which leave behind a black hole or a neutron star, are so energetic they can outshine their host galaxies for months. However, astronomers appear to have spotted a massive star that skipped the explosion and turned directly into a black hole.

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Learning More About Supernovae Through Stardust

Illustration of Supernova 1987A based on observations by ALMA. Credit: Alexandra Angelich (NRAO/AUI/NSF)

Most of the diverse elements in the Universe come from supernovae. We are, quite literally, made of the dust of those long-dead stars and other astrophysical processes. But the details of how it all comes about are something astronomers strive to understand. How do the various isotopes produced by supernovae drive the evolution of planetary systems? Of the various types of supernovae, which play the largest role in creating the elemental abundances we see today? One way astronomers can study these questions is to look at presolar grains.

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