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Uncovering a population of gravitational lens galaxies with magnified standard candle SN Zwicky.
- Goobar, Ariel;
- Johansson, Joel;
- Schulze, Steve;
- Arendse, Nikki;
- Carracedo, Ana;
- Dhawan, Suhail;
- Mörtsell, Edvard;
- Fremling, Christoffer;
- Yan, Lin;
- Perley, Daniel;
- Sollerman, Jesper;
- Joseph, Rémy;
- Hinds, K-Ryan;
- Meynardie, William;
- Andreoni, Igor;
- Bellm, Eric;
- Collett, Thomas;
- Drake, Andrew;
- Graham, Matthew;
- Kasliwal, Mansi;
- Kulkarni, Shri;
- Lemon, Cameron;
- Miller, Adam;
- Neill, James;
- Nordin, Jakob;
- Pierel, Justin;
- Richard, Johan;
- Riddle, Reed;
- Rigault, Mickael;
- Rusholme, Ben;
- Sharma, Yashvi;
- Stein, Robert;
- Stewart, Gabrielle;
- Townsend, Alice;
- Vinko, Jozsef;
- Wheeler, J;
- Wold, Avery;
- Bloom, Joshua
- et al.
Published Web Location
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-01981-3Abstract
Detecting gravitationally lensed supernovae is among the biggest challenges in astronomy. It involves a combination of two very rare phenomena: catching the transient signal of a stellar explosion in a distant galaxy and observing it through a nearly perfectly aligned foreground galaxy that deflects light towards the observer. Here we describe how high-cadence optical observations with the Zwicky Transient Facility, with its unparalleled large field of view, led to the detection of a multiply imaged type Ia supernova, SN Zwicky, also known as SN 2022qmx. Magnified nearly 25-fold, the system was found thanks to the standard candle nature of type Ia supernovae. High-spatial-resolution imaging with the Keck telescope resolved four images of the supernova with very small angular separation, corresponding to an Einstein radius of only θE = 0.167″ and almost identical arrival times. The small θE and faintness of the lensing galaxy are very unusual, highlighting the importance of supernovae to fully characterize the properties of galaxy-scale gravitational lenses, including the impact of galaxy substructures.
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