Supernova from the Universe’s Childhood
A massive galaxy cluster acts as a giant lens. Its gravity warps the fabric of space, and the light of distant objects, bending around this curvature, is amplified and split into multiple images.
Dust Remembers Stellar Explosions
A massive star's explosion is bright but brief. The flash itself lasts weeks, but the dust it heats around it glows in infrared for years. It's like a camera flash illuminating a room, then hot dust particles lingering in the air — only on a cosmic scale.
A Two-Hour Flare
In the early hours of March 4, 2020, the TESS telescope, normally on the hunt for planets around other stars, spotted something odd in a far-off galaxy. The light from an object called AT 2020afjz flared and faded in just a couple of hours, quicker than it takes a cup of coffee to cool.
Flash in a Lens: Supernova on the Galaxy's Edge
In the dense galaxy cluster Abell 2744, where gravity bends light like a lens, the James Webb Space Telescope spotted a new point of light. It appeared in images from 2023 and then began to change brightness. It was a supernova, the explosion of a dying star, but not just any kind: a Type IIP.