Sn 2026fov ngc7292

The uniqueness of this supernova lies in the fact that astronomers were able to identify its progenitor in archival images from the Hubble Space Telescope.

· What was found: At the location of SN 2026fov, a red supergiant was detected in a Hubble image from November 10, 2022.

· Why this is rare: Imaging a star before it explodes is extremely difficult — such images occur only once in a decade. For comparison, the famous SN 1987A was discovered in 1987, but its progenitor (a blue supergiant) was identified only because the star was photographed before the explosion by pure chance. In effect, we have something to compare the explosion result to. For SN 2026fov, we have a portrait of the “killer” star before it destroyed itself.