A Supernova Seen Thrice

Day 7 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: a supernova seen thrice. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam viewed the galaxy cluster PLCK G165.7+67.0, also known as G165. In this image, a foreground cluster located 3.6 billion light-years away from Earth is magnifying and bending the light of the distant universe beyond through gravitational lensing. In this view, astronomers discovered the light of a supernova imaged three times, seen as points of light within the prominent red arc below the center of the image. To achieve three images, the light traveled along three different paths. Since each path had a different length, and light traveled at the same speed, the supernova was observed in this Webb image at three different times during its explosion.

See the full advent calendar here, where a new image will be revealed each day until December 25.