Cosmic Lens Reveals 4 Views of Same Star Explosion (Photo)

[biometrics]

2015 article but I only recent watched a Youtube video about it. Quite amazing seeing gravitational lensing at this physical and time scale.

For the first time, a cosmic magnifying glass has allowed scientists to see the same star explosion four times, possibly offering a revealing glimpse into these explosive stellar deaths and the nature of the accelerating universe.

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have captured four images of a supernova explosion in deep space thanks to a galaxy located between Earth and the massive star explosion. You can see how Hubble saw the supernova in this NASA video. The galaxy cluster warped the fabric of space and time around it — like a bowling ball placed on a bed sheet — allowing scientists to see the supernova in four images.

"It was predicted 50 years ago that a supernova could be gravitationally lensed like this, but it's taken a long time for someone to find an example," lead study author Patrick Kelly, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley told Space.com. "It's fun to have been able to find the first one."

Cosmic Lens Reveals 4 Views of Same Star Explosion (Photo)

Astronomers have for the first time seen warping of the fabric of space and time generate multiple images of an exploding star.

www.space.com