Tag Archive for 'SN Refsdal'

The enlarged inset view reveals four images of SN Refsdal, spotted in 2014, arranged around a giant elliptical galaxy within the cluster. The light from the supernova passes so closely to the galaxy’s dense core that several light paths are redirected and focused toward Earth. The result is that astronomers see four images that form an Einstein Cross. The blue streaks wrapping around the galaxy are the stretched images of SN Refsdal’s parent spiral galaxy, which has been distorted by the warping of space. Computer models of the cluster predict that another image of the stellar blast will appear within 5 years. The red circle marks the possible location of the next supernova image. Astronomers may have missed an earlier appearance of the supernova in 1995, as marked by the blue circle. These multiple appearances of the exploding star are due to the various paths its light is taking through the maze of clumpy dark matter in the galactic grouping. Each image takes a different route through the cluster and arrives at a different time, due, in part, to differences in the length of the pathways the light follows to reach Earth. Image credit: NASA / ESA / S. Rodney, JHU / FrontierSN team / T. Treu, UCLA / P. Kelly, UC Berkeley / GLASS team / J. Lotz, STScI / Frontier Fields team / M. Postman, STScI / CLASH team / Z. Levay, STScI.

Light from Supernova Refsdal Helps Astronomers Measure Universe’s Expansion Rate

May 17, 2023 by News Staff

The gravitationally lensed Supernova (SN) Refsdal was discovered by University of Minnesota astronomer Patrick Kelly in 2014 in the field of MACS J1149.6+2223,...

This image shows four different images of SN Refsdal whose light has been distorted and magnified by the massive galaxy cluster MACS J1149+2223 in front of it. The huge mass of the cluster and one of the galaxies within it is bending the light from a supernova behind them and creating four separate images of the supernova. The light has been magnified and distorted due to gravitational lensing and as a result the images are arranged around the elliptical galaxy in a formation known as an Einstein cross. Image credit: NASA / ESA / S. Rodney, JHU / FrontierSN team / T. Treu, UCLA / P. Kelly, UC Berkeley / GLASS team / J. Lotz, STScI / Frontier Fields team / M. Postman, STScI / CLASH team / Z. Levay, STScI.

SN Refsdal: Hubble Spots Four Magnified Images of Same Supernova

Mar 6, 2015 by News Staff

Due to the gravitational lensing technique, a team of astronomers led by Dr Patrick Kelly from the University of California, Berkeley, has observed four...