NASA'S James Webb found active star birth in a galaxy still scarred by a 2023 stellar explosion

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope captured NGC 2283, a barred spiral galaxy about 45 million light-years away in Canis Major, as part of a program studying 55 nearby star-forming galaxies. The image revealed dense knots of gas actively turning into new stars, just over two years after a Type II supernova, SN 2023axu, was discovered in the same galaxy in January 2023 — the explosive death of a star at least eight times the Sun's mass. Researchers noted the two events represent a complete cycle: star formation builds new stars from gas, while supernovae return material back into space. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Leroy; N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb)