NASA's Hubble seeks lensed supernova, marks 200,000 orbits

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope completed its 200,000th orbit around Earth on Sept. 19, marking another milestone for an observatory that continues to transform our understanding of the universe. The telescope has traveled more than 5 billion miles (8 billion kilometers) around Earth over its 36-year lifetime and made more than 1.7 million observations. The image from Hubble monitors for the reappearance of a supernova called Athena, which can help astronomers measure the expansion rate of the universe. The image shows galaxy cluster MACS J0417, which acts as a gravitational lens, bending and magnifying light from objects far behind it. Light from a supernova can reach Earth along multiple paths, causing the same stellar explosion to appear more than once, with appearances separated by months or even years depending on the paths the light takes. Supernova Athena, discovered by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope in 2025, is predicted to reappear between now and early March 2027. Measuring the timing of Athena's reappearances can help researchers map the mass of MACS J0417 and refine our understanding of the expansion rate of the universe. Hubble's unique ability to observe and analyze ultraviolet and visible light complements the capabilities of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and the Roman Space Telescope. Demand for Hubble observing time remains high: Each year, astronomers request about seven times as much time as is available. Hubble continues to observe targets across every area of astronomy around the clock. Real-time tracking of those observations is available on NASA's website.

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