A Northwestern University-led team of astronomers has captured the most detailed glimpse yet of a doomed star before it exploded. Using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the international team identified a supernova's source star, or progenitor, at mid-infrared wavelengths for the first time. These observations—combined with archival images from the Hubble Space Telescope—revealed the explosion came from a massive red supergiant star, cloaked in an unexpected shroud of dust.