Supernova Refsdal and Galaxy Cluster MACS J1149.6+2223

The powerful gravity of a galaxy embedded in a massive cluster of galaxies in this Hubble Space Telescope image is producing multiple images of a single distant supernova far behind it. Both the galaxy and the galaxy cluster are acting like a giant cosmic lens, bending and magnifying light from the supernova behind them, an effect called gravitational lensing.

The image shows the galaxy's location within a hefty cluster of galaxies called MACS J1149.6+2223, located more than 5 billion light-years away. In the enlarged inset view of the galaxy, the arrows point to the multiple copies of the exploding star, dubbed Supernova Refsdal, located 9.3 billion light-years from Earth. The images are arranged around the galaxy in a cross-shaped pattern called an Einstein Cross. The blue streaks wrapping around the galaxy are the stretched images of the supernova's host spiral galaxy, which has been distorted by the warping of space.

The four images were spotted on Nov. 11, 2014. This Hubble image combines data from three months of observations taken in visible light by the Advanced Camera for Surveys and in near-infrared light by the Wide Field Camera 3.

About the colours

These images are composites of separate exposures acquired by the ACS and WFC3 instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample broad wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F606W+F814W Green: F105W+F125W Red: F140W+F160W

About the data

This image is created from data from the following HST proposals: 13459 T. Treu (UCLA) et al. and the GLASS team, 13504 J. Lotz (STScI) et al. and the Frontier Fields team, 13790 S. Rodney (JHU) et al. and the FrontierSN team, and 14041 P. Kelly (UCLA) et al. and the Refsdal team.

The science team includes: P. Kelly (UC Berkeley), S. Rodney (JHU), T. Treu (UCLA), R. Foley (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), G. Brammer (STScI), K. Schmidt (UC Santa Barbara), A. Zitrin (Caltech), A. Sonnenfeld (UCLA), L.-G. Strolger (Western Kentucky University/STScI), O. Graur (New York University/American Museum of Natural History), A. Filippenko (UC Berkeley), S. Jha (Rutgers University), A. Riess (JHU/STScI), M. Bradac (UC Davis), B. Weiner (Steward Observatory/UA), D. Scolnic (University of Chicago), M. Malkan (UCLA), A. von der Linden (Dark Cosmology Centre, Copenhagen/KIPAC, Stanford), M. Trenti (University of Melbourne), J. Hjorth (Dark Cosmology Centre, Copenhagen), R. Gavazzi (Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris), A. Fontana (INAF-OAR), J. Merten (Caltech), C. McCully and T. Jones (UC Santa Barbara), M. Postman (STScI), A. Dressler (Carnegie Observatories), B. Patel (Rutgers University), S. B. Cenko (NASA/GSFC), M. Graham (UC Berkeley), and B. Tucker (UC Berkeley/Australia National University).