A Korean research team has discovered stellar material preserved in its original state within the remnants of an exploded supernova. This marks the first-ever detection of unaltered matter ejected from a star prior to its explosion.

The team, led by Professors Bon-Chul Koo and Sung-Chul Yoon of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Seoul National University, along with Senior Researcher Dr. Heeyoung Oh and Postdoctoral Researcher Dr. Yong-Hyun Lee of the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI), and Postdoctoral Researcher Dr. Hyun-Jeong Kim of Kyung Hee University, reported their findings in the June issue of Nature Astronomy, where the paper was featured on the cover.

This research was supported by the Mid-Career Researcher Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea, funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT.