For the first time, astronomers, using the Hubble telescope, captured images of a predicted supernova – a star that exploded some 10 billion years ago.
According to spacestelesope.org, the scientists first saw the supernova (named Refsdal) in November of 2014. Four images of the star – in an arrangement known as an "Einstein Cross" – were spotted in the galaxy cluster MACS J1149.5+2223. Astronomers predicted that they would be able to see evidence of the star exploding a little more than a year later -- exactly on Dec. 11, 2015.
“We used seven different models of the cluster to calculate when and where the supernova was going to appear in the future. It was a huge effort from the community to gather the necessary input data using Hubble, VLT-MUSE, and Keck and to construct the lens models,” said Tommaso Treu, lead author of the modelling comparison paper. “And, remarkably, all seven models predicted approximately the same time frame for when the new image of the exploding star would appear.”
Light from the galaxy cluster is estimated to take 5 billion years to reach Earth. It’s believed the star exploded 10 billion years ago.
Dark and visible matter from exploding stars is distributed unevenly, according to the story. The light creating each of these images took a different path with a different length, the story explained, making the images of the host galaxy of the supernova visible at different times. That allowed astronomers to better study the progress of the explosion and its aftermath.
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