James Webb Space Telescope has identified a former red supergiant star that exploded over 40 million years ago, a discovery challenging prior assumptions about supernova progenitors. Astronomers combined archival Hubble images with Webb's data to pinpoint the ancestral star within the remnants of supernova 2025pht in galaxy NGC 1637. The star's extreme redness and surrounding dust cloud, captured by Webb, suggest aging stars are enveloped in obscuring material that dims their light before explosion.

This finding helps explain the long-standing astronomical mystery of missing red supergiants, as their dusty envelopes likely render them invisible prior to detonation. The discovery, made possible by Webb's infrared capabilities, provides crucial evidence that dust significantly influences supernova brightness and progenitor visibility. 40 million years elapsed between the explosion and light reaching Earth on June 29, 2025.