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.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Paul Morris: Lead Producer

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