Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




STELLAR CHEMISTRY
An explosive quartet
by Staff Writers
Paris (ESA) Mar 06, 2015


This image shows the huge galaxy cluster MACS J1149+2223, whose light took over 5 billion years to reach us. Image courtesy NASA, ESA, S. Rodney (John Hopkins University, USA) and the FrontierSN team; T. Treu (University of California Los Angeles, USA), P. Kelly (University of California Berkeley, USA) and the GLASS team; J. Lotz (STScI) and the Frontier Fields team; M. Postman (STScI) and the CLASH team; and Z. Levay (STScI). For a larger version of this image please go here.

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have, for the first time, spotted four images of a distant exploding star. The images are arranged in a cross-shaped pattern by the powerful gravity of a foreground galaxy embedded in a massive cluster of galaxies. The supernova discovery paper will appear on 6 March 2015 in a special issue of Science celebrating the centenary of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity.

Whilst looking closely at a massive elliptical galaxy and its associated galaxy cluster MACS J1149+2223 - whose light took over 5 billion years to reach us - astronomers have spotted a strange and rare sight. The huge mass of the galaxy and the cluster is bending the light from a much more distant supernova behind them and creating four separate images of it.

The light has been magnified and distorted due to gravitational lensing and as a result the images are arranged around the elliptical galaxy in a formation known as an Einstein cross.

Although astronomers have discovered dozens of multiply imaged galaxies and quasars, they have never before seen multiple images of a stellar explosion.

"It really threw me for a loop when I spotted the four images surrounding the galaxy - it was a complete surprise," said Patrick Kelly of the University of California Berkeley, USA, a member of the Grism Lens Amplified Survey from Space (GLASS) collaboration and lead author on the supernova discovery paper.

He discovered the supernova during a routine search of the GLASS team's data, finding what the GLASS group and the Frontier Fields Supernova team have been searching for since 2013. The teams are now working together to analyse the images of the supernova, whose light took over 9 billion years to reach us.

"The supernova appears about 20 times brighter than its natural brightness," explains the paper's co-author Jens Hjorth from the Dark Cosmology Centre, Denmark. "This is due to the combined effects of two overlapping lenses.

The massive galaxy cluster focuses the supernova light along at least three separate paths, and then when one of those light paths happens to be precisely aligned with a single elliptical galaxy within the cluster, a secondary lensing effect occurs." The dark matter associated with the elliptical galaxy bends and refocuses the light into four more paths, generating the rare Einstein cross pattern the team observed.

This unique observation will help astronomers refine their estimates of the amount and distribution of dark matter in the lensing galaxy and cluster. There is more dark matter in the Universe than visible matter, but it is extremely elusive and is only known to exist via its gravitational effects on the visible Universe, so the lensing effects of a galaxy or galaxy cluster are a big clue to the amount of dark matter it contains.

When the four supernova images fade away as the explosion dies down, astronomers will have a rare chance to catch a rerun of the explosion. The supernova images do not arrive at the Earth at the same time because, for each image produced, the light takes a different route. Each route has a different layout of matter - both dark and visible - along its path. this causes bends in the road, and so for some routes the light takes longer to reach us than for others.

Astronomers can use their model of how much dark matter is in the cluster, and where it is, to predict when the next image will appear as well as using the time delays they observe to make the mass models even more accurate.

"The four supernova images captured by Hubble appeared within a few days or weeks of each other and we found them after they had appeared," explains Steve Rodney of Johns Hopkins University, USA, leader of the Frontier Fields Supernova team.

"But we think the supernova may have appeared in a single image some 20 years ago elsewhere in the cluster field, and, even more excitingly, it is expected to reappear once more in the next one to five years - and at that time we hope to catch it in action."

The supernova has been nicknamed Refsdal in honor of Norwegian astronomer Sjur Refsdal, who, in 1964, first proposed using time-delayed images from a lensed supernova to study the expansion of the Universe. "Astronomers have been looking to find one ever since," said Tommaso Treu of the University of California Los Angeles, USA, the GLASS project's principal investigator. "And now the long wait is over!"


Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only


.


Related Links
ESA/Hubble Information Centre
Stellar Chemistry, The Universe And All Within It






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle




Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News





STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Astronomers Find Dust in the Early Universe
Copenhagen, Denmark (SPX) Mar 03, 2015
Dust plays an extremely important role in the universe - both in the formation of planets and new stars. But dust was not there from the beginning and the earliest galaxies had no dust, only gas. Now an international team of astronomers, led by researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute, has discovered a dust-filled galaxy from the very early universe. The discovery demonstrates that galax ... read more


STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Core work: Iron vapor gives clues to formation of Earth and moon

Application of laser microprobe technology to Apollo samples refines lunar impact history

NASA releases video of the far side of the Moon

US Issuing Licenses for Mineral Mining on Moon

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Single Site on Mars Advanced for 2016 NASA Lander

Testing to Diagnose Power Event in Mars Rover

New Flight Software to Fix Memory Issues is Onboard Rover

Curiosity confirms methane in Mars' atmosphere

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Old-economy sectors are now tech, too: US study

Cheap yen, fading Fukushima fears lure Japan tourists

Dubai to build 'Museum of the Future'

Diamantino Sforza - Gentleman Farmer of Prince George's County

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
China's moon rover Yutu functioning but stationary

China at technical preparation stage for Mars, asteroid exploration

Argentina welcomes first Chinese satellite tracking station outside China

More Astronauts for China

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
NASA Hopes to Continue Cooperation on ISS Until 2024

US astronauts speed through spacewalk at orbiting lab

Watching Alloys Change from Liquid to Solid Could Lead to Better Metals

Russia to use International Space Station till 2024

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Arianespace certified to ISO 50001 at Guiana Space Center

SpaceX launches two communications satellites

Soyuz-2.1a Rocket Takes Military Satellite to Designated Orbit

Russia's Vostochny Cosmodrome Construction Reaches Home Stretch

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Exorings on the Horizon

Planet 'Reared' by Four Parent Stars

Planets Can Alter Each Other's Climates over Eons

The mystery of cosmic oceans and dunes

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
NASA uses CubeSat bus to to test re-enter drag device

US Military Satellite Explodes, Sending Chunks of Debris Into Orbit

UK Space Agency's second CubeSat mission is taking shape

ESA experts assess risk from exploded satellite




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.