In 2037, the "Requiem" reappeared
Thanks to the magnifying glass effect of a giant galaxy cluster, we were able to see this supernova.
Illustration: In the 2016 photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, three points of light from the same supernova can be seen, but they are not visible in the 2019 photos. (Image source: Space Telescope Institute/Steve M. A. Rodney/Gabriel Brammer)
Astronomers predict that a distant supernova once photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope will return to Earthlings in 2037.
The supernova, code-named Requiem, originated from an explosion of a star 10 billion light-years away. Because of a phenomenon known as "gravitational lensing," the famous Hubble Space Telescope captured images of it three times in 2016.
The "gravitational lensing" effect generally occurs around very large objects, and due to the huge mass of the object that bends and disperses the light, the image of the object behind it is magnified or distorted. For the supernova "Requiem", the giant galaxy cluster code-named MACS J0138.0-2155 is its "magnifying glass", and the light emitted by the star burst is divided into three beams through this galaxy cluster, forming three snapshots.
Scientists used computers to model the cluster, which is about 4 billion light-years from Earth, and by analyzing the distribution of material inside the cluster, they made predictions that the supernova "Requiem" would reproduce the starry sky — though humans would not be able to see it with the naked eye.
A team of European and American scientists said in their report that the final appearance of the "requiem" will occur twenty years after its first three appearances, because the light carrying the final image must pass through the central region of the galaxy cluster, where dark matter is concentrated, the densest part of the galaxy cluster.
Steve Rodney, an astronomer at the University of South Carolina who led the study, noted in the study that "it will be the light that reaches Earth at the latest, just as a train has to go deep into a valley and then climb out, it is the slowest of these rays." ”
By chance in 2019, the first three appearances of the supernova "Requiem" were discovered. At the time, the images had been dormant in Hubble's archived images for three years.
Gabe Bram, an astronomer at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, was working on a project called "Requiem Project", which was accidentally discovered while searching for a distant unknown galaxy, which became the name of the supernova.
Initially, he saw only a small point of light on the 2016 image, thinking it was a galaxy hidden far behind a large galaxy cluster seen through gravitational lensing.
"After taking a closer look at the 2016 image data, I found that there were actually three enlarged objects, two of which were red and one purple." As a co-author of the study, Bram wrote in the report.
In the 2016 photo, these three points of light of varying brightness are arranged in an arc around the core of the galaxy group. When Bram then looked at the more recent photos, he was surprised to find that they had disappeared.
"I immediately realized that they weren't actually distant galaxies, but came from a fleeting light source. It's like a light bulb snapping off, so we can't find a trace of it in the 2019 photos. ”
The explosion of a supernova will only last for a dozen seconds. The intense flash of light emitted during the outbreak quickly dims and disappears within a year.
After a more nuanced look at the photos, the scientists also saw dusty marks around the three bright spots, which they thought were likely to be the magnified snapshots of the galaxy where the supernova was located at that moment.
Gabri Bram and astronomer John Richard of the University of Lyon in France conducted an in-depth analysis of this. To figure out how the gravitational pull of a group of galaxies bends and deforms light, they plotted the distribution of dark matter inside the group based on the data from these three observations. Based on this, they calculated that in addition to an appearance in 2037, the supernova "Requiem" may appear in 2042. However, this final flash should be very faint, even if barely visible, it is not worth studying.
Astronomers look forward to 2037 and hope to gather more information about the galaxy group and how mysterious dark matter is distributed in the galaxy group. Dark matter is generally considered to be the main component of cosmic matter, which contributes most of the gravitational source of the universe and contributes to the expansion of the universe.
"Of the many supernovae photographed so far, only three of them can be accurately predicted when their rays will arrive on Earth, and 'Requiem' is the third of them. "It's farther away than the first two, so it takes extra long for its rays to reach Earth." ”
For nearly two decades, it has not been difficult to witness supernova explosions with the help of gravitational lensing. In the future, there will be more and more powerful mega-field telescopes, such as Chile's Vera Bergeron. C. Rubin Observatory, such as NASA's Nancy Grace Norman Space Telescope. With the launch of these telescopes, our observations will become much easier.
BY: Tereza Pultarova
FY: Renee
If there is any infringement of the relevant content, please contact the author to delete it after the work is published
Please also obtain authorization to reprint, and pay attention to maintaining completeness and indicating source