<p>In the study, published in the journal <em>Science</em>, researchers used two instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), MIRI and NIRSpec, to observe the supernova at infrared wavelengths and found evidence of heavy argon and sulphur atoms whose outer electrons had been stripped off (i.e. the atoms had been ionised) close to where the star explosion occurred.</p>
<p>The team modelled various scenarios and found that these atoms could only have been ionised by ultra-violet and X-ray radiation from a hot cooling neutron star or, alternatively, from the winds of relativistic particles accelerated by a rapidly rotating neutron star and interacting with surrounding supernova material (pulsar wind nebula).</p>