Supernova Refsdal and Galaxy Cluster MACS J1149.5+2223

This image composite shows the search for the supernova nicknamed Refsdal using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

The image to the left shows a part of the deep-field observation of the galaxy cluster MACS J1149.5+2223 from the Frontier Fields program. The circle indicates the predicted position of the newest appearance of the supernova. To the lower right, the Einstein Cross event from late 2014 is visible.

The image on the top right shows observations by Hubble from October 30, 2015, taken at the beginning of the observation program to detect the newest appearance of the supernova.

The image on the lower right shows the discovery of the Refsdal supernova on December 11, 2015, as predicted by several different models.

About the colours

The color image is a composite 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 + F814WGreen: F105W + F125WRed: F140W + F160W

About the data

The black and white images were created from data from HST proposal 14199 PI: P. Kelly (UC Berkeley) et al.

The science team includes: P. Kelly (UC Berkeley), S. Rodney (University of South Carolina), G. Brammer (STScI), L. Strolger (STScI/WKU), R. Foley (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), T. Treu (UCLA), A. Zitrin (Caltech), A. Filippenko (UC Berkeley), S. Jha (Rutgers University), A. Riess (JHU/STScI), J. Hjorth (Dark Cosmology Centre, Copenhagen), K. Schmidt (UC Santa Barbara), O. Graur (NYU/AMNH), M. Bradac (UC Davis), B. Weiner (Steward Observatory/UA), A. von der Linden (Dark Cosmology Centre, Copenhagen/KIPAC, Stanford), C. McCully (LCOGT/UC Santa Barbara), A. Molino (IAA-CSIC), J. Selsing (Dark Cosmology Centre, Copenhagen), M. Nonino (IAG/USP), and D. Coe (STScI).

The colour 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; 14041 : P. Kelly (UCLA) et al. and the Refsdal team.