Numerous fuzzy blobs and glowing shapes scattered across this image — taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope — make up RXC J0949.8+1707, a massive galaxy cluster located approximately 4 billion light-years away.
This Hubble image shows the giant galaxy cluster RXC J0949.8+1707. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / RELICS.
Located to the upper right of the frame sits an especially beautiful and interesting member of RXC J0949.8+1707 — a barred spiral galaxy, seen face-on.
In the past decade, astronomers peering at this galaxy have discovered not one but three examples of a cosmic phenomenon known as a supernova.
The newest supernova candidate is called RLC15Ant and nicknamed SN Antikythera, and can be seen just below the center of the host galaxy.
This shone brightly in visible and infrared light over a number of years before fading slightly.
The two other supernovae — RLC11Ele (nicknamed SN Eleanor) and RLC11Ale (SN Alexander) — were present in Hubble data collected in 2011 but are not visible in this image.
The three supernovae in the same barred spiral galaxy in RXC J0949.8+1707. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / RELICS.
If future observations of the galaxy show SN Antikythera to have disappeared then we can most likely label it a supernova, as with its two older — and now absent from the images — siblings.
The image of RXC J0949.8+1707 was taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide-Field Camera 3 (WFC3) as part of an extensive observing program called Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey (RELICS).
RELICS imaged 41 giant galaxy clusters over the course of 390 Hubble orbits, aiming to find the brightest distant galaxies.
Studying these galaxies in more detail with both current telescopes and the forthcoming NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will hopefully tell us more about our cosmic origins.
