In the early universe: see a supernova three times in the Hubble image

The Hubble Space Telescope captured a supernova three times in an image that occurred 11 billion years ago. As light from a particularly early starburst is bent in its way by a giant gravitational lens, Hubble recorded the event simultaneously on days one, two and eight. Patrick Kelly of the University of Minnesota says the single record shows a repeat of a supernova. He and his team have now made the extraordinary discovery. You can see, for example, the rapid cooling after the explosion.

An unusual view of the early universe

as such Explained by the European Space Agency ESAThe image is the first such detailed image of such an early supernova. When the star exploded, the universe was less than a fifth of its current age. It is especially difficult to observe events and celestial bodies in this era because light has traveled enormous distances on its way to us. But lucky coincidences can help researchers, especially gravitational lenses. In this case, a huge group of galaxies has reflected light from the supernova all the way so that it reaches us several times a few days away.

Among the three individual images taken a few days apart, it is possible to determine, among other things, how bright the explosion was and how quickly it cooled, writes the ESA (it gets redder in the image here). Using this data, I was able to determine that a red giant star with a radius of about 500 times the size of our Sun exploded here. The Hubble Telescope managed to capture the image in December 2010, but only now a supernova has been discovered on it. The research team that succeeded in doing so now wants to look for other examples and, above all, hopes to find more distant supernovae with the new James Webb Space Telescope. you work Presented in Nature magazine.

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