The legendary and famous Hubble Space telescope has recently captured the most amazing heavenly phenomenon of Supernova. The images captured by Hubble are that of the first even predicted Supernova explosion. The Supernova or the explosion of star has been coined the name “Refsdal”. The reappearance of the explosion has been analysed by astronomers in terms of different mass models of a galaxy cluster. The immense gravity is warping the highly intense light produced from Supernova and running towards the earth.
The supernova was first seen in November 2014 behind the galaxy cluster MACS J1149.5+2223 which is a part of Hubble’s Frontier Fields program. Hence he term re-appearance has been used. Four different images of the supernova explosion were taken in a rare arrangement known as an Einstein Cross. According to Hubble,”This pattern was seen around a galaxy within MACS J1149.5+2223. While the light from the cluster has taken about five billion years to reach us, the supernova itself exploded much earlier, nearly 10 billion light years ago. The detection of Refsdal’s reappearance served as a unique opportunity for astronomers to test their models of how mass — especially that of mysterious dark matter — is distributed within this galaxy cluster.”
Check out some amazing facts about the Refsdal supernova:
Object Name: SN Refsdal, SN HFF14Ref, SX
Object Description: Reappearance of Gravitationally Lensed Supernova in Cluster MACS J1149.5+2223
Position (J2000): R.A. 11h 49m 36.02s, Dec. +22° 23′ 48.1″
Distance: 9.3 billion light-years or 2.9 billion parsecs (supernova); 5 billion light-years or 1.5 billion parsecs (cluster)