Bright supernova observed using gravitational lensing for the first time

Astronomers report SN 2025wny, a superluminous supernova about 10 billion light-years away, was the first to be spatially resolved after its light was magnified and split by foreground galaxies.

A team of astronomers has reported the first spatially resolved, gravitationally lensed supernova, named SN 2025wny. The explosion occurred roughly 10 billion light-years from Earth, when the Universe was about four billion years old. Two foreground galaxies magnified the supernova’s light by about a factor of 50 and produced multiple spatially separated images. Observations combined several ground-based facilities, and follow-up observations with space telescopes are planned. Key facts: - SN 2025wny is reported as a superluminous Type I supernova located about 10 billion light-years away. - The Zwicky Transient Facility first detected the transient; the Nordic Optical Telescope provided early spectroscopy; the Liverpool Telescope produced four separate images; and Keck Observatory spectra confirmed its distance and classification. - Two foreground galaxies boosted the supernova’s brightness by about a factor of 50 and split its light into spatially separated images, enabling detailed study from the ground. - Measuring time delays between those images offers an independent method to constrain the Hubble Constant, as noted by co-author Ariel Goobar. - Follow-up observations are planned with the Hubble and Webb space telescopes to study the images further, measure delays with greater precision, and refine gravitational-lens models; the discovery is presented as a proof of concept for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Summary: The detection demonstrates that strongly lensed supernovae at large distances can be spatially resolved with current instruments, allowing direct study of distant explosions and providing a pathway to measure cosmological parameters through image time delays. The research team plans further observations with Hubble and Webb to improve time-delay measurements and lens models, and the result is described as supportive of expectations for future transient discoveries by LSST.