Astronomers Capture First Radio Signals from Rare Supernova

New radio observations provide unprecedented look at a star's final years before exploding in a powerful stellar explosion.

Jan. 27, 2026 at 9:31pm

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Astronomers have captured the first radio waves ever detected from a rare class of exploding star, a discovery that has given them an unprecedented look into the final years of a massive star before its death in a powerful stellar explosion called a supernova. The radio waves revealed tell-tale signs of gas the star ejected just years before it blew apart, information that cannot be captured with optical telescopes alone.

Why it matters

This new radio data not only confirms that this kind of pre-explosion mass shedding happens, but also opens a new way to study stellar death across the universe. Until now, researchers depended mostly on optical light to infer such behavior, but radio observations add a powerful new tool to study these rare but crucial supernovae.

The details

Using the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico, the researchers tracked faint radio signals from a Type Ibn supernova explosion over roughly 18 months. They found evidence that the star was likely in a binary system and that interaction with a companion may have driven the dramatic mass loss immediately before the explosion. The new radio data reveals information about the star's final decade that cannot be captured with optical telescopes alone.

  • The researchers tracked radio signals from the supernova explosion over roughly 18 months.
  • The star likely shed a large amount of mass in the final 5 years before the explosion.

The players

Raphael Baer-Way

A third-year Ph.D. student in astronomy at the University of Virginia and lead author of the study.

Maryam Modjaz

A professor of astronomy at the University of Virginia and an expert on massive star death and supernovae.

National Science Foundation's Very Large Array

A radio telescope in New Mexico used to track the faint radio signals from the supernova explosion.

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What they’re saying

“We were able to use radio observations to 'view' the final decade of the star's life before the explosion. It's like a time machine into those last important years, especially the final five when the star was losing mass intensely.”

— Raphael Baer-Way, Third-year Ph.D. student in astronomy

“Raphael's paper has opened a new window to the Universe for studying these rare, but crucial Supernovae, by revealing that we must point our radio telescopes much earlier than previously assumed to capture their fleeting radio signals.”

— Maryam Modjaz, Professor of astronomy

What’s next

The next steps are to extend this work by studying a larger sample of supernovae to see how often these intense mass-loss episodes occur and what they reveal about how stars evolve.

The takeaway

This discovery opens up a new way to study stellar death across the universe, providing a powerful new tool to complement existing optical observations and gain unprecedented insights into the final years of massive stars before they explode as supernovae.