We just saw the exact moment a star exploded for the first time ever. Astronomers have achieved a rare feat: imaging the exact moment a massive star detonated—and the explosion was anything but spherical. SN 2024ggi, a supernova located 22 million light-years away in the spiral galaxy NGC 3621, was detected a mere 26 hours after ignition. This extraordinarily early discovery allowed researchers to train the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile on the event while it was s