The James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) captured a curious sight in a region 3.6 billion light-years away from Earth: A supernova that appears three times, at three different periods during its explosion, in one image. More importantly, this image could help scientists better understand how fast the universe is expanding.
A team of researchers chose to observe the galaxy cluster PLCK G165.7+67.0, also known as G165, for its high star rate formation that also leads to higher supernova rates. One image, which you can see above, captures what looks to be a streak of light with three distinct dots that appear brighter than the rest of it. As Dr. Brenda Frye from the University of Arizona explained, those dots correspond to an exploding white dwarf star. It is also gravitationally lensed — that is, there’s a cluster of galaxies between us and the star that served…
