Three Faces of Supernova Explosion over 11 Billion Years Ago | Hubble

Three Faces of Supernova Explosion over 11 Billion Years Ago | Hubble

Through a “trick” of light-bending gravity, the Hubble Space Telescope captured three different moments in the explosion of a very far-off supernova—all in one snapshot! The progenitor star exploded more than 11 billion years ago, when the Universe was less than a fifth of its current age of 13.8 billion years.

Einstein first predicted this phenomenon, called gravitational lensing, in his theory of general relativity. In this case, the immense gravity of the galaxy cluster Abell 370 acted as a cosmic lens, bending and magnifying the light from the more distant supernova located behind the cluster. 

The warping also produced multiple images of the explosion over different time periods that all arrived at Hubble simultaneously. They show the unfolding supernova over the course of a week.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center 

Paul Morris: Lead Producer 

Duration: 2 minutes

Release Date: November 9, 2022

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