Credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA

This image shows the host galaxy of the recently detected supernova SN 2026gzf. This supernova was first detected by the Einstein Probe on 21 March 2026. This image of the host galaxy, created by stacking multiple images taken between May 2025 and January 2026, reveals a bright blue source at the location of the supernova, which scientists say likely represents a compact, extreme star-forming region in the host galaxy, combined with pre-explosion activity of the progenitor star before its death. This image was captured with the LSST Camera, mounted on NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science (DOE/SC). View a series of close-up images that show the evolving supernova here. SN 2026gzf occurred within Rubin’s COSMOS Deep Drilling Field. Observations of this field, including this image, were recently made public as part of Rubin’s Early Data Preview 2 (EDP2) — the first data preview based on observations from the LSST Camera. EDP2 combines Rubin’s science validation observations collected between April 2025 and January 2026.

Provider: NOIRLab

Image Source: https://noirlab.edu/public/images/noirlab2619h/

Curator: NSF's NOIRLab, Tucson, AZ, USA

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License