Spotted: First quadruple star image produced by gravity

Seeing quadruple? For the first time, astronomers have seen an image of a single supernova split into four by a gravitational lens. The splintered stellar explosion may help calibrate distances across the universe.

Gravitational lenses are the result of massive celestial objects, like stars, galaxies or even dark matter, bending light as it passes near them. Sometimes gravitational lenses produce multiple images of a single object behind them. The effect is similar to looking at a candle through the base of a wine glass.

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