Hubble image archive
Lensed Supernova in Abell 370
Through a phenomenon called gravitational lensing, three different moments in a far-off supernova explosion were captured in a single snapshot by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The light from the supernova, which was located behind the galaxy cluster Abell 370, was multiply lense...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2022
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2022-054-01ggt9jb74b5fxx95wgm0285e5
Through a phenomenon called gravitational lensing, three different moments in a far-off supernova explosion were captured in a single snapshot by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The light from the supernova, which was located behind the galaxy cluster Abell 370, was multiply lensed by the cluster's immense gravity. This light took three different paths through the cosmic lens of the massive cluster. The three paths were three different lengths and affected to different degrees by the slowing of time and curvature of space due to the cluster, so when the light arrived at Hubble (on the same day in December 2010), the supernova appeared at three different stages of evolution.
The left panel shows the portion of Abell 370 where the multiple images of the supernova appeared. Panel A, a composite of Hubble observations from 2011 to 2016, shows the locations of the multiply imaged host galaxy after the supernova faded. Panel B, a Hubble picture from December 2010, shows the three images of the host galaxy and the supernova at different phases in its evolution. Panel C, which subtracts the image in Panel B from that in Panel A, shows three different faces of the evolving supernova. Using a similar image subtraction process for multiple filters of data, Panel D shows the different colors of the cooling supernova at three different stages in its evolution.
Credits
Science
NASA, ESA, STScI, Wenlei Chen (UMN), Patrick Kelly (UMN), Hubble Frontier Fields
Image Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Abell 370 |
| Object Description | Galaxy Cluster and Gratationally Lensed Supernova |
| R.A. Position | 02:39:55.29 |
| Dec. Position | -01:33:51.50 |
| Constellation | Cetus |
| Distance | 4 billion light-years |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | These data are from the HST proposals (PI: E. Hu, University of Hawaii), (PI: K. Noll, GSFC), (PI: J.-P. Kneib, Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille), (PI: T. Treu, UCLA), (PI: S. Rodney, JHU), (PI: J. Lotz, STScI), and (R. Kirshner, Harvard University). |
| Instrument | HST>ACS/WFC and HST>WFC3/IR |
| Exposure Dates | September 2009 - February 2015 |
| Filters | ACS/WFC: F435W, F606W, and F814W; WFC3/IR: F105W, F125W, F140W, and F160W |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | Blue: F435W + F606W Green: F814W + F105W Red: F125W + F140W + F160W |
Downloads
- Full Res (For Display), 5210 X 2358, PNG (12.27 MB)
- Full Res (For Print), 5210 X 2358, TIF (15.12 MB)
- 2000 X 905, PNG (2.35 MB)
- Unannotated Full Res (For Display), 5210 X 2358, PNG (12.10 MB)
- Unannotated Full Res (For Print), 5210 X 2358, TIF (14.98 MB)
- Uannoatated, 2000 X 905, PNG (2.25 MB)
- Extended Description, PDF (113.21 KB)
Source
Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
View on NASA.gov