High-school junior Julian Shapiro from The Dalton School in New York City has done something truly remarkable. Today, he’s on the lookout for supernova remnants, scanning the cosmos with radio telescopes. Shapiro’s education and experience lie in journalism, and at George Washington University, astrophysics. He is now on a path toward a master’s in science communication at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he serendipitously discovered a light echo. This could be one of the largest celestial phenomena ever detected, according to scientists. Its estimated diameter is between 150,000 and 250,000 light-years wide!
Shapiro’s report served as the foundation for his presentation at the 2025 American Physical Society (APS) Global Physics Summit. He explained just how far reaching and important the find was, dazzling the audience’s imagination. He employed spectroscopic measurements from the Southern African Large Telescope to detect elevated levels of oxygen. He was able to pick up ionized sulfur in the area of the light echo. These features are thought to be a sign of shocked material, which could give more information about incredible events happening in the universe.
A Surprising Discovery
Julian Shapiro’s path to this pioneering discovery started when he analyzed data from the DECaPS2 survey. His first job had been to look for signatures of supernova remnants, but what he discovered was something completely different.
"It was a real surprise to stumble upon this," Shapiro remarked.
Filling a huge expanse of the sky with brilliant blue, the light echo presents an incredible opportunity for a thorough and detailed investigation never before possible. Shapiro's estimates suggest that its diameter is approximately 1.5 to two times the width of the entire Milky Way galaxy.
Understanding Galactic Phenomena
The young astronomer’s project has taken the astronomical community and amateur astronomers by storm. From that data, Shapiro identified extraordinarily high levels of oxygen and ionized sulfur. These signatures of agitated matter may be signs of jets being produced by a nearby supermassive black hole.
"There are these outer regions of gas being ionized by a supermassive black hole, which results in this echo," Shapiro explained.
His discoveries have the potential to make major contributions towards broadening our present understanding of the active lives of galaxies, a field still in relative infancy.
"But I hope this object, in particular, helps expand the knowledge of galaxy activities that we don't have too great of an understanding of," he added.
Future Explorations
Scientists have been looking for signs of volcanic activity. Shapiro is excited to learn more about the composition of the light echo with further measurements. His careful process for analyzing new cosmic data has made him the darling of the scientific community.
"This object covers a large area in the sky, which makes it a bit easier to get in-depth images of," said Shapiro.
Sasha Plavin, an astrophysicist who was well-acquainted with Shapiro’s previous work, hailed his commitment and critical eye.
"I really like how carefully [Shapiro] looked into these images," Plavin noted.
