An international team of astronomers has made an exciting discovery using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). They observed the PLCK galaxy cluster G165.7+67.0 and discovered a new Type I supernova nearby. The discovery was published in a preprint paper on the arXiv server. Supernovae (SNe) are powerful, luminous explosions that provide valuable information about the evolution of stars and galaxies. They can be classified into two main types: Type I (no hydrogen in the spectrum) and Type II (with hydrogen spectral lines). Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) are especially found in binary systems in which one of the stars is a white dwarf. The team of astronomers, led by Brenda L. Frye of the Steward Observatory in Tucson, Arizona, observed the galaxy cluster PLCK G165.7+67.0 (or G165 for short) at a redshift of 0.35 . During these observations, they discovered a supernova named “SN H0pe” with a redshift of 1.78. The supernova was detected using JWST’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam). The unique aspect of this discovery is that SN H0pe was directed to three different locations due to G165’s gravitational lensing. This provides the possibility of determining the Hubble constant by measuring the delay between multiple images of a supernova. Further analysis confirmed that SN H0pe is indeed a Type Ia supernova.

This provides the possibility of determining the Hubble constant by measuring the delay between multiple images of a supernova. Further analysis confirmed that SN H0pe is indeed a Type Ia supernova. The observations also provide insight into the host galaxy Arc 2, which has a stellar mass of about 500 billion solar masses. The results show that Arc 2 completed its star formation phase about a billion years ago and is currently surrounded by star-forming satellite dwarf galaxies. Additionally, JWST observations show that G165 has a mass of approximately 260 trillion solar masses and exhibits the brightest galaxy cluster (BCG) velocity shift relative to the system’s redshift. . The team of astronomers continues to study the properties of SN H0pe and further results will be published in an upcoming research paper.

Source:, arXiv (2023). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2309.07326 Citation: New Type I supernova discovered with JWST (September 21, 2023).