Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, B. Frye (U Arizona), R. Windhorst (ASU) , P. Kamieneski (ASU) Image processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) image of the galaxy cluster PLCK G165.7+67.0, also known as G165. A foreground cluster, located 3.6 billion light-years away from Earth, is magnifying and bending the light of the distant universe beyond. In this image, astronomers discovered the light of an exploding star — more specifically, a Type Ia supernova — imaged three times, seen as points of light within the prominent red arc at the right-center of the image.

To achieve three images, the light traveled along three different paths. Since each path had a different length, and light traveled at the same speed, the supernova was imaged in this Webb observation at three different times during its explosion. The multiply-imaged supernova offers astronomers a unique way to calculate a new value for the Hubble constant — the rate at which the universe is accelerating.

The field of G165 is known for a high rate of star formation of more than 300 solar masses per year, an attribute that correlates with higher supernova rates.

In this image, blue represents light at 0.9, 1.15, and 1.5 microns (F090W + F115W + F150W), green is 2.0 and 2.77 microns (F200W + F277W), and red is 3.56, 4.1, and 4.44 microns (F356W + F410M + F444W).

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://webbtelescope.org/science/early-highlights

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

Image Use Policy: https://www.stsci.edu/copyright