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Four supernova images in an Einstein cross

Four supernova images in an Einstein cross


Date: 04 March 2015
Satellite: Hubble Space Telescope
Depicts: MACS J1149+2223
Copyright: See below

This image shows four different images of the same supernova whose light has been distorted and magnified by the huge 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.

Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Rodney (John Hopkins University, USA) and the FrontierSN team; T. Treu (University of California Los Angeles, USA), P. Kelly (University of California Berkeley, USA) and the GLASS team; J. Lotz (STScI) and the Frontier Fields team; M. Postman (STScI) and the CLASH team; and Z. Levay (STScI)

Last Update: 1 September 2019
28-Mar-2024 14:52 UT

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https://sci.esa.int/s/A1eR2qA

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