![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/an-artist-s-impression-of-the-supernova-exploding.jpg\")
<\/p>\nExtraordinary new images have been released showing the moment a supernova was born in a violent space inferno. <\/p>\n
The breakthrough study managed to capture the “shock breakout” – the point when a massive star dies and a supernova is created – which had previously never been seen due to its fleeting nature.<\/p>\n
SN 2024ggi, a new supernova, erupted on April 10 last year 22 million light years away in the galaxy NGC 3621 – near the Hydra constellation, in relative terms.<\/p>\n
Yi Yang of Tsinghua University in Beijing received an alert revealing the detection of the supernova as he stepped off a flight to San Francisco.<\/p>\n
Acting with haste, he sent an “observing proposal” to the European Southern Observatory (ESO) within hours. <\/p>\n
The ESO, an organisation made of 16 member states which focuses on ground-based astronomy, approved the proposal. <\/p>\n
A day later, the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile was watching the star as it died. <\/p>\n
Dietrich Baade, an astronomer at ESO and co-author of a new study published in the journal Science Advances, said: “The first VLT observations captured the phase during which matter accelerated by the explosion near the centre of the star shot through the star’s surface.<\/p>\n
“For a few hours, the geometry of the star and its explosion were observed together.”<\/p>\n
PICTURED: An artist’s impression of the supernova exploding<\/p>\n
| <\/p>\n
ESO<\/p>\n
The research team used spectropolarimetry, a technique uses analysis of the orientation of light waves to infer the geometry of their course, to see the shape of the explosion as it started.<\/p>\n
This meant that although the dying star appeared as a single point, the polarisation of its light allowed scientists to learn about its shape. <\/p>\n
Before its death, the star had been a red supergiant – around 12 to 15 times the mass of the sun and 500 times its radius. <\/p>\n
This made it a typical candidate to create a core-collapse supernova.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/the-supernova-in-galaxy-ngc-3621.jpg\")
PICTURED: SN 2024ggi, a new supernova, erupted in the galaxy NGC 3621 in the direction of the constellation Hydra<\/p>\n
| <\/p>\n
ESO<\/p>\n
Throughout its lifetime, the star maintained a balance between its gravity and the nuclear explosion at its heart, which powers it. <\/p>\n
However, this balance was then disrupted as the star’s nuclear furnace began to diminish, meaning gravity took over. <\/p>\n
As a result, the core imploded before rebounding and producing a shockwave which rippled through the star’s outer layers.<\/p>\n
The FORS2 instrument on the VLT allowed scientists to watch the scene – and they noted a striking revelation.<\/p>\n
The explosion of the star was “olive-shaped”, meaning it happened faster on one axis than the other, even as the blast expanded and the shape flattened. <\/p>\n
Researchers believe this proved that something within the star continued to keep it “in order” even as it died. <\/p>\n
Mr Yang said: “These findings suggest a common physical mechanism that drives the explosion of many massive stars.”<\/p>\n
Ferdinando Patat, an astronomer with ESO and another co-author of the study, said: “This discovery not only reshapes our understanding of stellar explosions, but also demonstrates what can be achieved when science transcends borders. <\/p>\n
“It’s a powerful reminder that curiosity, collaboration, and swift action can unlock profound insights into the physics shaping out universe.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Extraordinary new images have been released showing the moment a supernova was born in a violent space inferno.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3844],"tags":[70,413,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-567440","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115541956710793893","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}