Finding supernovae that exploded in the middle of nowhere

The ELEPHANT pipeline scans incoming supernova alerts in real time to flag events with no detectable host galaxy, working from small image stamps alone. Of 877 flagged candidates between 2023 and 2025, the team confirmed 67 as genuinely hostless by cross-checking multiple catalogues and archival imaging. The pipeline achieves 84% accuracy and is now processing alerts from the Rubin Observatory.