It is very unmanageable to know when star will explode , but Refsdal ’s supernova is a fragile exception . Scientistshad predictedit would explode in the first few month of 2016 – but it has in reality exploded in the retiring week . Fortunately , Hubble was quick tosnap a shotof the event in action .
It takes millions of year for an old asterisk to get to the point of no return and the burst lasts for a few weeks at best . So following the forecasting , Hubble had been periodically peer at the wandflower cluster hop to see the supernova , and it at long last spotted it last calendar week . The image above was take by Hubble on December 11 .
Refsdal ’s supernova is about 10 billion loose - twelvemonth off , meaning we are looking at a snap back in meter . It has only direct 10 billion years for the Christ Within to reach us , though , thanks to a lensing event .
The galaxy that host the Refsdal ’s supernova was gravitationally lensed ( magnified ) by a orotund galaxy in the foreground . The lensing cluster created the imprint of multiple images of the same extragalactic nebula . As the photons trace different paths , their ignitor does n’t reach us at the same sentence , which allows for time - delayed observance .
Refsdal ’s supernova has been find by astronomers five times already , thanks to other lensing upshot that show different snapshots in time .
" While studying the supernova , we realise that the galaxy in which it exploded is already fuck to be a galaxy that is being lensed by the clustering , " explicate Steve Rodney from the University of South Carolina and joint author of the field , in astatement . " The supernova ’s host galaxy seem to us in at least three distinct images due to the warping mickle of the wandflower bunch . "
This epitome composite shows the search for the supernova , with the greyscale observation in October and the discovery from last workweek . NASA / ESA / HST
Supernovae are one of the most outstanding events in the universe . When a adept at least eight times more monolithic than the Sun reach the end of its life , it collapses under its own exercising weight . The free declension compresses material until the pressure at the core is enough to generate the fusion of lowering elements and the energy created blows the star apart .
The sleuthing of the supernova allows astronomers to understand how sullen subject is distributed in the galaxy clustering , as well as meliorate our understanding of the enlargement of the universe . More detail about the latest observations can be found in thescience paperfrom the Hubble team .
