Blog#21: Right Now, Erin Holbrook

At this very moment, somewhere in the universe, a supernova explosion is occurring. It's occurring at such a distance that we won't be able to observe it for millions of years. And so for millions of years, that star will be dead with every soul thinking it alive. Meanwhile, we watch other supernovas that occurred thousands, millions, or billions of years ago as though they are happening today. One in particular is very interesting. It is a supernova that is like any other, far away and incredibly bright. Actually, it is much brighter that usual. It is so very bright that many scientists thought of classifying it as a new type of supernova- though it wasn't. It was in fact a dying star like any other, only with a galaxy between us and it. The light of the galaxy didn't get confused with that of the supernova. Something much more interesting is happening there. The mass of the galaxy is such that it has a very strong gravitational pull, which modern science will tell us does not pull in objects but bends space. Light follows the curves in space created by gravity, even though light itself is not effected by gravity. The light emitted from the first supernova is, right now as I type, being bent around the galaxy. The galaxy thus behaves like a ginormous magnifying glass,  a very interesting phenomenon.