NGC 1637 (Hubble WFC3 and Webb NIRCam images)

The main image at left shows a combined Webb and Hubble view of spiral galaxy NGC 1637, with the region of interest in the top right. The remaining three panels show a detailed view of a red supergiant star before and after it exploded. The star is not visible in the Hubble image before the explosion, but appears in the Webb image. The July 2025 view from Hubble shows the glowing aftermath of the explosion.

[Image description: An image labeled “SN 2025pht in NGC 1637, Hubble WFC3 2024 + Webb NIRCam 2024”. The majority of the image shows a face-on spiral galaxy speckled with myriad blue and red stars. The yellowish core of the galaxy forms a fuzzy oval tilted to the upper right. About halfway from the core to the edge of the image at about 4 o’clock, a small region is outlined with a white box. A shaded, nearly transparent white triangle extends to a pullout at upper right labeled “before explosion”, with short lines forming a crosshair that points to a red star at the center. Below this are three more square images, all with crosshairs at the same location. 1) Hubble August 2024, with nothing visible in the crosshairs, 2) Webb October 2024, with a red star in the crosshairs, 3) Hubble July 2025, with a blue supernova in the crosshairs.]