DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

Hubble captures rare photo of evolving supernova in early universe

Nov 14, 2022 by Dunja Djudjic Add Comment

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope brings us a pretty incredible and rare “blast from the past.” In a recent photo, the telescope captured three different moments in a supernova explosion that happened more than 11 billion years ago. In “universe years,” that’s merely childhood, which is certainly incredible. However, Hubble’s snap is special for something else too: shooting a supernova as it happens isn’t exactly an everyday sight.

To take this shot, Hubble relied on a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. For this particular image, the immense gravity of the galaxy cluster Abell 370 acted as a cosmic lens. It warped, bent, and magnified the light from the more distant supernova behind the cluster, and this warping also produced multiple images of the explosion over different time periods. What’s interesting is that they all arrived on Earth at the same time, and you can see all of them in a single Hubble image. “That was possible only because the magnified images took different routes through the cluster due both to differences in the length of the pathways the supernova light followed and to the slowing of time and curvature of space due to gravity,” NASA explains.

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: NASA, ESA, STScI, Wenlei Chen (UMN), Patrick Kelly (UMN), Hubble Frontier Fields

In the image, you can see the fading supernova’s rapid change of color. As NASA explains, this indicates temperature change. While we connect blue to cold and red to warm, it’s quite the opposite in the images. The bluer the color, the hotter the supernova, so the earliest phase captured appears blue. As the supernova gets colder, its light turns redder.

“This is also the first time astronomers were able to measure the size of a dying star in the early universe,” writes NASA. “This was based on the supernova’s brightness and rate of cooling, both of which depend on the size of the progenitor star.”

The top box shows a portion of Abell 370. The box-within-the-box marks the area where the distant supernova was multiply lensed. The bottom image is a magnified version of this area with the light paths marked for the three images of the supernova. The right side of the bottom image shows the distant galaxy in which the supernova exploded. The lines show how the light traveled through the gravitational lens, with some of the light taking longer routes across “valleys” of warped space. The warping produced three images of the explosion over different time periods that all arrived at Hubble simultaneously.
Credits: NASA, ESA, Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

The current age of our universe is 13.8 billion years, and the latest supernova image was shot when it was less than a fifth of its current age. “This is the first detailed look at a supernova so early in the universe’s history, NASA writes in the statement. Of course, it could be of immense help to scientists and enable them to learn more about the formation of stars and galaxies in the early universe. The paper explaining the recently captures supernova has been published in Nature Magazine.

[via Digital Trends]

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

New Hubble timelapse shows a supernova brighter than any star in its galaxy Hubble captures photo of asteroid worth 70,000 times the global economy Hubble captures stunning photo of two galaxies “dancing” Happy 30th birthday, Hubble: NASA adds 30 breathtaking new photos to its Hubble collection

Filed Under: news Tagged With: Hubble, space exploration, space photography, supernova

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.net

About Dunja Djudjic

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

« Sigma’s compact 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN Contemporary lens is now available for Fuji X Mount
Found and restored 1910 glass plates show the positive impact of pets on our lives »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Learn photography

Recent Posts

  • This is why you should stop shooting music videos
  • First look at the Laowa Proteus Flex interchangeable flare optics
  • The Fotodiox RhinoCam Vertex shoots medium format images on L mount cameras
  • San Francisco filmmaker tracks stolen camera gear, police do nothing
  • Nanlite announces powerful AC-powered FC500B and FC300B LED lights

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy