NASA has released rare footage of an 11 billion-year-old supernova.
The 1-minute-39-second-long video shows three different moments in a far-off supernova explosion.
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A supernova is an explosion that occurs at the end star’s lifecycle.
After an eruption, the star’s luminosity can rise to millions of times normal and cause it to shine brighter that its host galaxy.
Nasa used its Hubble space telescope to capture images of this supernova in the galaxy cluster Abell 370.
The supernova exploded more than 11 billion years ago – when the universe was less than 2 billion years old.
Nasa called the images the first detailed look astronomers have had at a supernova so early in the universe’s history.
“It is quite rare that a supernova can be detected at a very early stage because that stage is really short,”Wenlei Ching, the first author to study the supernova, explained.
“It only lasts for hours to a few days, and it can be easily missed even for a nearby detection. In the same exposure, we are able to see a sequence of the images—like multiple faces of a supernova.”
Scientists could learn more from this research about the formation stars and galaxies during the early universe.
The supernova images also show two additional moments in the supernova’s life.
This was possible because of a phenomenon called gravitational lensesing, first predicted by Albert Einstein.
This is when objects close to distant objects can act as magnifying lenses for distant objects.
Nasa further explained: “The immense gravity of the galaxy cluster Abell 370 acted as a cosmic lens, bending and magnifying the light from the more distant supernova located behind the cluster.”
“The warping also produced multiple images of the explosion over different time periods that all arrived at Earth at the same time and were caught in one Hubble image.”
Also on display in the photos, are the fading supernova’s rapid change of color, which showcase temperature change.
The warmer colors of blue indicate hotter temperatures and the cooler colors red.
“You see different colors in the three different images,” said Patrick Kelly, study leader and an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota’s School of Physics and Astronomy.
“You’ve got the massive star, the core collapses, it produces a shock, it heats up, and then you’re seeing it cool over a week.”
“I think that’s probably one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen!”