About halfway here, this light passed by the massive elliptical galaxy, splitting into four separate magnified images. The supernova appears to lie in a spiral galaxy whose light has been traveling for some 9.4 billion years to reach us. Additional images appear elsewhere, due to the cluster's gravitaty. A Serendipitous Find The gravity of the massive elliptical galaxy at the center of the cluster splits the supernova's light into four images. Patrick Kelly (University of California, Berkeley) and colleagues report in the March 6 th Science Hubble Space Telescope observations of a supernova gravitationally lensed by a foreground elliptical galaxy in a massive galaxy cluster. Now, decades after RefsdalвЂ™s predictions, astronomers have finally struck gold. But in 1964, Sjur Refsdal (Hamburg Observatory, Germany) suggested a background supernova explosion could create a temporary cross, given the right line-up with a foreground galaxy. Until now, such crosses have always involved background quasars, whose brilliant beacons of light are powered by supermassive black holes. Line up two objects just right, one in front of the other, and EinsteinвЂ™s general theory of relativity serves up a treat: an Einstein cross, where the gravity from a foreground mass splits light from a background object into four separate images. The most famous example of an Einstein's Cross, this image shows the quadruple image of the quasar Q2237+0305.

For the first time, astronomers are watching as a supernovaвЂ™s light bends around a massive galaxy on its way to Earth.

Supernova quasar