Orpington Astronomical Society

Astronomy => In the Media... => Topic started by: Rick on Nov 28, 2014, 16:32:22

Title: Astronomers Discover First Mulitiple-image Gravitationally-lensed Supernova
Post by: Rick on Nov 28, 2014, 16:32:22
Astronomers Discover First Mulitiple-image Gravitationally-lensed Supernova

How about four supernovae for the price of one? Using the Hubble Space Telescope, Dr. Patrick Kelly of the University of California-Berkeley along with the GLASS (Grism Lens Amplified Survey from Space) and Hubble Frontier Fields teams, discovered a remote supernova lensed into four copies of itself by the powerful gravity of a foreground galaxy cluster. Dubbed SN Refsdal, the object was discovered in the rich galaxy cluster MACS J1149.6+2223 five billion light years from Earth in the constellation Leo. It's the first multiply-lensed supernova every discovered and one of nature's most exotic mirages.

More from Universe Today (http://www.universetoday.com/116574/astronomers-discover-first-mulitiple-image-gravitationally-lensed-supernova/)