Astrophysics. Multiple images of a highly magnified supernova formed by an early-type cluster galaxy lens

Patrick L Kelly; Steven A Rodney; Tommaso Treu; Ryan J Foley; Gabriel Brammer; Kasper B Schmidt; Adi Zitrin; Alessandro Sonnenfeld; Louis-Gregory Strolger; Or Graur; Alexei V Filippenko; Saurabh W Jha; Adam G Riess; Marusa Bradac; Benjamin J Weiner; Daniel Scolnic; Matthew A Malkan; Anja von der Linden; Michele Trenti; Jens Hjorth; Raphael Gavazzi; Adriano Fontana; Julian C Merten; Curtis McCully; Tucker Jones; Marc Postman; Alan Dressler; Brandon Patel; S Bradley Cenko; Melissa L Graham; Bradley E Tucker

doi:10.1126/science.aaa3350

Astrophysics. Multiple images of a highly magnified supernova formed by an early-type cluster galaxy lens

Science. 2015 Mar 6;347(6226):1123-6. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa3350.

Authors

Patrick L Kelly¹, Steven A Rodney², Tommaso Treu³, Ryan J Foley⁴, Gabriel Brammer⁵, Kasper B Schmidt, Adi Zitrin, Alessandro Sonnenfeld³, Louis-Gregory Strolger⁶, Or Graur⁷, Alexei V Filippenko⁸, Saurabh W Jha⁹, Adam G Riess¹⁰, Marusa Bradac¹¹, Benjamin J Weiner¹², Daniel Scolnic¹³, Matthew A Malkan³, Anja von der Linden¹⁴, Michele Trenti¹⁵, Jens Hjorth¹⁶, Raphael Gavazzi¹⁷, Adriano Fontana¹⁸, Julian C Merten, Curtis McCully¹⁹, Tucker Jones, Marc Postman⁵, Alan Dressler²⁰, Brandon Patel⁹, S Bradley Cenko²¹, Melissa L Graham⁸, Bradley E Tucker²²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411, USA. pkelly@astro.berkeley.edu.
² Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
⁴ University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1002 West Green Street, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
⁵ Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
⁶ Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA. Western Kentucky University, 1906 College Heights Boulevard, Bowling Green, KY 42101, USA.
⁷ Center for Cosmological and Particle Physics, New York University, 4 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA. Department of Astrophysics, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West and 79th Street, New York, NY 10024, USA.
⁸ Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411, USA.
⁹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA. Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
¹¹ Department of Physics, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
¹² Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
¹³ Department of Physics, University of Chicago, 5720 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, 5720 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
¹⁴ Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, 2100 Copenhagen, Demark. Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University, 452 Lomita Mall, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
¹⁵ School of Physics, University of Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia.
¹⁶ Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, 2100 Copenhagen, Demark.
¹⁷ Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, 98 bis Boulevard Arago, F-75014 Paris, France.
¹⁸ INAF-OAR, Via Frascati 33, 00040 Monte Porzio, Rome, Italy.
¹⁹ Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, 6740 Cortona Drive Suite 102, Goleta, CA 93117, USA.
²⁰ Carnegie Observatories, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101, USA.
²¹ Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, MC 661, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA. Joint Space-Science Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
²² Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411, USA. The Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University, Mount Stromlo Observatory, via Cotter Road, Weston Creek, Australian Capital Territory 2611, Australia.

PMID: 25745167
DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa3350

Abstract

In 1964, Refsdal hypothesized that a supernova whose light traversed multiple paths around a strong gravitational lens could be used to measure the rate of cosmic expansion. We report the discovery of such a system. In Hubble Space Telescope imaging, we have found four images of a single supernova forming an Einstein cross configuration around a redshift z = 0.54 elliptical galaxy in the MACS J1149.6+2223 cluster. The cluster's gravitational potential also creates multiple images of the z = 1.49 spiral supernova host galaxy, and a future appearance of the supernova elsewhere in the cluster field is expected. The magnifications and staggered arrivals of the supernova images probe the cosmic expansion rate, as well as the distribution of matter in the galaxy and cluster lenses.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.