When astronomers first spotted the supernova PS1-10afx in 2010, they were stunned by its brilliant, red glow. An otherwise unremarkable star, 10afx detonated nine billion years ago. But because its glow is so bright, astronomers estimated that it once shone brighter than 100 billion suns. In 2013, Harvard scientists concluded that 10afx must be a new, remarkably bright class of supernova.

Unless, of course, distant galaxies are playing tricks on our eyes.

A new study published in the journal Science argues that 10afx is, in fact, an utterly average supernova. But this supernova is conveniently positioned in front of a giant, cosmic lens that makes it appear up to 30 times brighter.

"Between us and the supernova, there is a massive object—a galaxy that bends space-time and acts as a giant magnifying glass," Robert Quimby, an astronomer at the University of Tokyo and coauthor on the study, said in a press conference.

Quimby's giant magnifying glass is a gravitational lens, a result of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. Gravitational lensing occurs in space when an object with a large gravitational pull, like a galaxy, bends incoming light and refocuses it elsewhere. This can cause the image to scatter or, in some cases, appear brighter.

"It's rather like an extra telescope," said Marcus Werner, a physicist at the University of Tokyo and coauthor on the study. "This magnification allows us to see objects that would be too faint to see otherwise."

In the case of 10afx, Quimby and his team suspected that the supernova's bright red light had bent around a nearby galaxy before its sufficiently magnified rays could reach Earth. That brilliant, reddish glow, then, would have been just an artifact of an intervening galaxy. "We found that, aside from its brightness, [10afx] actually appeared very similar to a normal supernova, but one seen through a gravitational lens." Quimby said.

Gravitational lensing is a rare phenomenon: such cosmic magnification relies on precise alignment between the galaxy and the supernova. "For strong lensing to occur, one typically needs a massive galaxy in the foreground at an optimal distance between us and the background source," said Anupreeta More, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Tokyo, and coauthor on the study.

Light spectrum analyses confirmed the presence of a galaxy just in front of the supernova, at an appropriate distance for gravitational lensing to occur. The scientists concluded that 10afx had likely been magnified. "The only way I know of to have a supernova look like a supernova but be 30 times too bright is through gravitational lensing," Quimby said.

Further analyses, however, are required to prove conclusively that a gravitational lens is magnifying 10afx. "There will still be some debate about it," says Brad Tucker, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley. "It does seem that there is an object in front of the supernova, but we need more spectra data in the infrared." Infrared readings would offer more data points for outside scientists to analyze.

In the meantime, the potentil discovery of a gravitational lens capable of magnifying a supernova is enough to excite the scientific community. "The cool thing about it is you have a star that just blew up, and its actually being magnified," Tucker says. "All of this was originally predicted by Einstein back in 1915. What's really impressive is that we're actually seeing it now."

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