NASA Hubble Spots a Supernova Split into Four by a Cosmic Lens for the First Time

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a distant supernova split into four images for the very first time. The multiple images of the exploding star are due to the powerful gravity of a foreground elliptical galaxy embedded in a massive cluster of galaxies.

The gravity from both the elliptical galaxy and the galaxy cluster in the image distorts and magnifies light from the supernova behind them. This effect is called gravitation lensing, and is similar to a glass lens bending light to magnify and distort the image behind it.

In this case, the multiple images of the supernova are arranged around the elliptical galaxy in a cross-shaped pattern. Called an Einstein Cross, the name originally was given to a particular multiply imaged quasar.

"It really threw me for a loop when I spotted the four images surrounding the galaxy-it was a complete surprise," said Patrick Kelly, one of the researchers, in a news release.

When the four images fade away, astronomers believe they will have a rare opportunity to catch a rerun of the supernova. This is because the current four-image pattern is only one part of the lensing display. In fact, the supernova may have appeared as a single image about 20 years ago elsewhere in the cluster field. This means that it's also expected to reappear within the next five years.

This latest finding also has other implications. It may help scientists refined their estimates of the amount and distribution of dark matter in the lensing galaxy and cluster.

"Our model for the dark matter in the cluster gives us the prediction of when the next image will appear because it tells us how long each train track is, which correlates with time," said Steve Rodney, leader of the FrontierSN team.

The findings reveal a bit more about lensing and also may help with future studies when it comes to understanding the nature of dark matter.

The findings are published online.

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