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Astronomers have captured the death of a star from the very first explosive moments of its demise.
In March earlier this year, the Einstein Probe, an orbiting telescope hunting for high-energy events, spotted a brief flash of X-rays coming from a galaxy 500 million light-years away.
Within hours, ground-based telescopes all over the world had sprung into action, revealing what turned out to be a rapidly brightening supernova.
Now, two teams of researchers have presented the results of their observations, revealing stunning details from one of the universe's most destructive events.
Both teams independently confirmed that the first faint X-ray flash was something called a 'shock breakout'.
This is the very first moment that a powerful shockwave of a supernova explosion pushes its way through the star's outer layers, revealing the first light from the blast.
These brief flashes are thought to happen with every supernova but are famously difficult to record because they can be as short as a few seconds.
In the last two decades, astronomers have only seen one other confirmed shock breakout, making the supernova, dubbed SN 2026gzf, an exceptionally rare discovery.
In March earlier this year, scientists spotted a brief flash of X-rays, which proved to be the start of a vast stellar explosion
Catching a supernova explosion so early in its development isn't just a spectacular stellar show; it's also a unique opportunity to learn about the final moments of stars.
Co-author Dr Jillian Rastinejad, of the University of Maryland, told the Daily Mail: 'You can think of the shock like radar - as the shock ploughs through the star’s outer layers and any material in the vicinity, it leaves an imprint on the signal that we detect in X-rays.
'We can use these X-rays to give us an unprecedented, close-up view of the star at the brink of collapse.'
Theories say that stars at this stage of their lives should be pretty volatile and surrounded by a lot of material, but scientists have so few observations to work with.
'With this event, we’re finally able to match theoretical predictions with what we observe,' says Dr Rastinejad.
Using dozens of observations from telescopes around the planet, the researchers have confirmed that the explosion is a so-called 'Ic-BL' supernova.
These explosions are known for their powerful 'relativistic' jets, which are plumes of matter shot out close to the speed of light.
Typically, this type of supernova is followed by a gamma-ray burst, the brightest and most powerful class of explosions in the universe.
The explosion originated from a galaxy 500 million light-years away where a volatile 'Wolf-Rayet Star' had entered the final stages of its life. Pictured: The supernova SN 2026gzf host galaxy pre-explosion
However, the SN 2026gzf was extremely unusual in that its initial shockwave wasn't followed by any flash of gamma-rays.
Co-author Dr Brendan O’Connor, astronomer at Carnegie Mellon University, says: 'SN 2026gzf looks remarkably similar to other energetic supernovae that have been previously linked to gamma-ray bursts.
'Yet multi-wavelength follow-up observations using the most sensitive facilities found no evidence for a relativistic jet or an afterglow, which are typically seen in those events.'
Dr O'Connor says that the jet might have been 'choked' by the surface of the star itself or by debris floating in its orbit.
In another strange quirk, the initial X-ray shock breakout was the faintest ever associated with a supernova of this kind – despite the explosion itself not being dim.
Besides watching the explosion itself, researchers were also able to access archival observations of the system before its explosive demise.
The researchers discovered that this stellar explosion, dubbed SN 2026gzf, came from a star 20 times the mass of the Sun that had a particularly 'violent lifestyle'.
This system was something called a 'Wolf–Rayet star' – a rare, massive star that burns through all its hydrogen very early on.
In the build-up to the explosion, this star had undergone several irregular periods of mass loss, shooting out all its hydrogen and oxygen.
Researchers have confirmed that the explosion is a so-called 'Ic-BL' supernova, which are known for their powerful 'relativistic' jets, which are plumes of matter shot out close to the speed of light. Pictured: The supernova explosion on April 3, 2026
This left behind a strange, volatile star that was mainly made of carbon and oxygen.
These findings suggest that the final days of a very large star can be a lot more varied than scientists previously thought.
Going forward, the researchers hope to catch more shock breakouts so that they can start to solve some of the remaining mysteries.
In particular, Dr Rastinejad says she wants to see how the presence of a second massive object, known as a binary, affects a star's lifecycle.
She adds: 'Supernovae and massive stars are laboratories for astrophysicists to study how the laws of physics behave in extreme environments - think high densities, high temperatures, material that is several times the mass of our Sun - that we can’t recreate here on Earth.
'By studying them, we learn more about the laws of our Universe.'