Measuring cosmic distances is challenging, and astronomers rely on several methods and tools – collectively known as cosmic distance ladders – to do so.
A particularly important tool is Type Ia supernovaethat occur in binary star systems in which a star (a white dwarf) consumes matter from a companion (often a red giant) until it reaches the Chandrasekhar limit and collapses under its own mass.
As these stars shed their outer layers in a violent explosion, they temporarily outshine anything in the background.
In a recent study, an international research team led by Ariel Goobar from Oskar Klein Center at Stockholm University discovered an unusual type Ia supernova, SN Zwicky (SN 2022qmx).
In an unusual twist, the team observed a “Einstein ring“, an unusual phenomenon predicted by Einstein’s theory general relativity where the presence of a gravitational lens in the foreground amplifies the light of a distant object.
This was a major accomplishment for the team as it involved observing two very rare astronomical events that happened to coincide.
The team consisted of several researchers from Oskar Klein CenterThe Kavli Institute of CosmologyThe Cahill Center for AstrophysicsThe Infrared processing and analysis center (IPAC), the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), the Center for interdisciplinary exploration and research in astrophysics (CIERA), the Center de Research Astrophysique de LyonNASA Goddard, the Scientific Institute for Space Telescopes (STScI) and several universities.
Her research paper describing her findings was recently published in natural astronomy.
The first detection was made with Zwicky Transient Facility at the Palomar Observatory in California. This facility is named in honor of Fritz Zwicky, the astronomer who first suggested the existence of Dark matter in the 1930s.
A few weeks later, the team observed it using adaptive optics (AO) on WM Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaii and the Very large telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. Based on the observed brightness, Goobar and his colleagues hypothesized that they were observing strong lensing.
These follow-up observations and images were obtained from the Hubble Space Telescope confirmed this theory and showed that the multi-image lensing came from a galaxy in the foreground, magnifying the supernova by 25 times!
This serendipitous discovery offers astronomers numerous opportunities, including the opportunity to study SN Zwicky in more detail and further explore the mysteries of gravitational lensing. As Goobar explained at a university in Stockholm press release:
“The discovery of SN Zwicky not only demonstrates the remarkable capabilities of modern astronomical instruments, but also represents a significant step forward in our quest to understand the fundamental forces shaping our universe.”
However, the implications of this go beyond these two phenomena. The study of Type Ia supernovae led astronomers to realize that the cosmos is expanding at an accelerating rate.
This discovery earned the discovery team the award 2011 Nobel Prize in Physicsthat between Saul Perlmutter (The Supernova Cosmology Project) and jointly by Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Reiss (The High-z Supernova Search Team).
Therefore, observations by SN Zwicky could help astronomers solve the mystery of what is driving this accelerated expansion.
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“The extreme magnification of SN Zwicky gives us an unprecedented opportunity to study the properties of distant Type Ia supernova explosions, which we need when using them to study the nature of supernova explosions.” dark energysaid Joel Johansson, a postdoctoral researcher at Stockholm University and co-author of the study.
In addition, it could also help astronomers lift the veil Dark matter and inform theories about how the universe will end (e.g. big crunch, big rip, heat death, etc.).
This article was originally published by universe today. read this original article.
