Author Topic: A Rare Quadruple Supernova, Revealed by a Quirk of Einstein  (Read 669 times)

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rangerrebew

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A Rare Quadruple Supernova, Revealed by a Quirk of Einstein
« on: April 21, 2017, 08:52:08 am »
A Rare Quadruple Supernova, Revealed by a Quirk of Einstein


By William Herkewitz
Apr 20, 2017


The star had been in hiding. A galaxy sat halfway between it and us, eclipsing it from the Earth's point of view. But when it went supernova last September, astronomers caught the image of the concealed explosion anyhow, all thanks to a cool trick of physics.

Because of a bizarre effect called gravitational lensing explained by Einstein's theory of general relativity, scientists caught four separate images of the supernova in a single picture. Stranger still, the faraway supernova—it lies more than 4.4 billion light years from home—was naturally magnified by 5,000 percent when the scientists first saw it.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/deep-space/news/a26164/quadruple-supernova/
« Last Edit: April 21, 2017, 08:52:53 am by rangerrebew »

Offline DB

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Re: A Rare Quadruple Supernova, Revealed by a Quirk of Einstein
« Reply #1 on: April 21, 2017, 09:24:45 am »
@rangerrebew I just wanted to say thank you for all the articles you post here. It is appreciated.

Offline thackney

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Re: A Rare Quadruple Supernova, Revealed by a Quirk of Einstein
« Reply #2 on: April 21, 2017, 11:41:06 am »
Why would this be 4 separate images rather than a continuous ring?

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Offline Just_Victor

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Re: A Rare Quadruple Supernova, Revealed by a Quirk of Einstein
« Reply #3 on: April 21, 2017, 12:02:34 pm »
Why would this be 4 separate images rather than a continuous ring?

http://pop.h-cdn.co/assets/17/16/980x490/landscape-1492709812-16geu-illustration.jpg

The gravity of the intervening galaxy isn't uniform.
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geronl

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Re: A Rare Quadruple Supernova, Revealed by a Quirk of Einstein
« Reply #4 on: April 21, 2017, 12:04:40 pm »
Why would this be 4 separate images rather than a continuous ring?



Not sure how it works but if there were a ringed supernova, that'd make them have to rethink all this stuff from the beginning.

I am sure it's got something to do with how the image was taken that it would give them four different looks and magnify it too.

Offline Cripplecreek

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Re: A Rare Quadruple Supernova, Revealed by a Quirk of Einstein
« Reply #5 on: April 21, 2017, 12:05:33 pm »
The gravity of the intervening galaxy isn't uniform.

That makes sense.