Universe  ID: 14239

Hubble Captures 3 Faces of Evolving Supernova

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!

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.

For more information, visit https://nasa.gov/hubble.

Music & Sound
“Distant Messages” by Anne Nikitin [PRS] via BBC Production Music [PRS] and Universal Production Music
 

Related


Credits

Paul Morris (KBR Wyle Services, LLC): Lead Producer
Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET Systems, Inc.): Technical Support
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. However, please credit individual items as indicated above.

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14239

Mission:
Hubble

Keywords:
SVS >> Supernova
NASA Science >> Universe