Next Take: Unraveling Dark Secrets With Supernova-Increasingly Spectacular Pictures

Access to the supernova Zwicky: starting from the small field of the Palomar ZTF camera, one of the 64 “quadrants”, each of which contains thousands of stars and galaxies, zoom-in leads us to a detailed examination of what happened with the giants. and the VLT and Keck observatories in Chile and Hawai’i respectively. In the best-resolved Keck images, four identical “copies” of supernova Zwicky can be seen. A number of images result from atmospheric vibrations caused by the foreground galaxy, which is also seen in the middle and about halfway between the center of the supernova explosion and Earth. Credit: J. Johansson

Astronomers and astrophysicists have discovered the most photographed type of Ia supernova, “SN Zwicky,” which offers new insights into the structure of galaxies, gravity, dark matter, and the expansion of the universe.

A team of physicists and astronomers led by researchers from the Oskar Klein Center at Stockholm University has made a remarkable breakthrough in our ability to study how galaxies orbit around the universe by discovering the type Ia supernova lens, called “SN Zwicky”. .” Results are published in Nature Astronomy.

The team, led by Ariel Goobar from the Oskar Klein Center at Stockholm University, discovered an unusual type of Ia supernova, SN Zwicky. Type Ia supernovae play an important role in measuring astronomical distances. It was used to detect the rapid expansion of the universe, which led to the Nobel Prize in physics in 2011. The newly discovered supernova is known for its extraordinary brightness and multiple photons, a rare phenomenon predicted by Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

Under extraordinary conditions, large groups of galaxies act like magnified mirrors. These magnifiers also create multiple paths of light visible at different points in the sky. Credit: Nikki Arendse

A few weeks after detecting the supernova at the Zwicky Transient Facility at Palomar Observatory, the team observed SN Zwicky with transient instruments at the WM Keck Observatory in Maunakea, Hawaiʻi, and the Very Large Telescopes in Chile. The Keck Observatory observations resolved many images, confirming the theory of strong lensing behind the unusual light of the supernova. Four images of SN Zwicky were also viewed by[{” attribute=””>NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.

Large astronomical bodies act as cosmic magnifying glasses

The multiply-imaged lensing effect observed in SN Zwicky is the result of the gravitational field exerted by a foreground galaxy acting as a gravitational lens. Under extraordinary circumstances, large astronomical bodies act as cosmic magnifying glasses. These magnifying glasses also create multiple light paths visible at different positions in the sky. Observing the multiple images not only reveals details about the strongly lensed supernova, it also offers a unique opportunity to explore the properties of the foreground galaxy that causes the deflection of light. This could teach astronomers more about the inner cores of galaxies and dark matter. Lensed supernovae are also very promising tools to refine models describing the expansion of the universe.

Massive objects such as galaxies or clusters of galaxies rotate around them in such a way that they can produce multiple images of the background objects. This is called gravitational force. Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA

New methods for investigating gravitational lenses

As scientists continue to unravel the complexities of the universe, the discovery of the SN Zwicky multi-lens array provides new ways to investigate the phenomenon of gravity and its effects on cosmology. This is an important step in unlocking the secrets of dark matter, dark energy, and the future of our universe. “The massive size of SN Zwicky gives us the opportunity to study distant Type Ia supernova explosions, which we need when we use them to investigate the nature of dark energy,” says Joel Johansson, a postdoctoral fellow at Stockholm University. co-author of this study.

Access to the supernova Zwicky: starting from the small field of the Palomar ZTF camera, one of the 64 “quadrants”, each containing thousands of stars and galaxies, the zoom leads us to a detailed investigation carried out by the big and big ones. the sharp VLT and Keck observatories in Chile and Hawai’i respectively. In the best-resolved Keck images, four identical “copies” of supernova Zwicky can be seen. A number of images result from atmospheric vibrations caused by the foreground galaxy, which is also seen in the middle and about half way between the supernova explosion and the Earth. ” Credit: J. Johansson

Professor Ariel Goobar, principal investigator of the project and director of the Oskar Klein Center at Stockholm University, expressed his interest in these findings: “The discovery of SN Zwicky not only demonstrates the amazing capabilities of modern space instruments but also represents a major step forward in our quest to understand the great forces that it shapes our universe.”

The team at the Oskar Klein Center, Department of Physics, University of Stockholm leading the discovery of SN Zwicky: from left Edvard Mörtsell, Steve Schulze, Joel Johansson, Ana Sagués Carracedo, Ariel Goobar and Nikki Arendse. Credit: The Oskar Klein Center

The team’s findings have been published in Nature Astronomy, in a paper titled “Unveiling a group of high-gravity galaxies with bright SN Zwicky candles”. This publication provides a detailed analysis of SN Zwicky, including images and observations collected from telescopes around the world.

For more on this research, see Supernova Explosions Revealed by “Cosmic Magnifying Glass.”

Reference: “Revealing the abundance of gravitational lens galaxies with larger SN Zwicky candles” by Ariel Goobar, Joel Johansson, Steve Schulze, Nikki Arendse, Ana Sagués Carracedo, Suhail Dhawan, Edvard Mörtsell, Christoffer Fremling, Daniel Jensper, Lin Sollerman , Rémy Joseph, K-Ryan Hinds, William Meynardie, Igor Andreoni, Eric Bellm, Josh Bloom, Thomas E. Collett, Andrew Drake, Matthew Graham, Mansi Kasliwal, Shri R. Kulkarni, Cameron Lemon, Adam A. Miller, James D. Neill, Jakob Nordin, Justin Pierel, Johan Richard, Reed Riddle, Mickael Rigault, Ben Rusholme, Yashvi Sharma, Robert Stein, Gabrielle Stewart, Alice Townsend, Yozsef Vinko, J. Craig Wheeler and Avery Wold, 12 June 2023, Nature Astronomy.
DOI: 10.1038/s41550-023-01981-3

Institutions including the California Institute of Technology – the lead institution for the Bright Transient Survey where SN Zwicky was discovered, University of Cambridge, Liverpool John Moores University, University of Maryland, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,[{” attribute=””>University of Washington, University of California, Berkeley, University of Portsmouth, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Northwestern University, Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin, Space Telescope Science Institute, Université de Lyon, CNRS-IN2P3 in France, University of Texas at Austin, and Konkoly Observatory have also contributed to this groundbreaking research.

Researchers at Stockholm University involved in the work are Edvard Mörtsell, Steve Schulze, Joel Johansson, Ana Sagués Carracedo, Ariel Goobar, Nikki Arendse and Remy Joseph from the Department of Physics and Jesper Sollerman from the Department of Astronomy.