In 2015 the Hubble telescope captured some great images of a supernova called “Supernova Hope.” Recently, those images were taken again, but this time from the James Webb Space Telescope.

When the images were analyzed, astronomers noticed something unusual.

Three dots.

Astronomer Brenda Frye of the University of Arizona, who is one of the lead writers on a recently published paper (still awaiting peer review) said:

“It all started with one question by the team: ‘What are those three dots that weren’t there before? Could that be a supernova?”

The dots showed up in the images that were taken with the telescope’s gravitational lensing, which is a cutting-edge technology for the space telescope.

Frye explained:

“The lens, consisting of a cluster of galaxies that is situated between the supernova and us, bends the supernova’s light into multiple images. This is similar to how a trifold vanity mirror presents three different images of a person sitting in front of it. In the Webb image, this was demonstrated right before our eyes in that the middle image was flipped relative to the other two images, a ‘lensing’ effect predicted by theory.”

The theory is that the three dots were actually three different images of the same supernova. The light from that supernova took three different paths to get to Earth, which is why it showed up this way.

“Since each path had a different length, and light traveled at the same speed, the supernova was imaged in this Webb observation at three different times during its explosion. Trifold supernova images are special: The time delays, supernova distance, and gravitational lensing properties yield a value for the Hubble constant. The supernova was named SN H0pe since it gives astronomers hope to better understand the universe’s changing expansion rate.”

While waiting for the paper to be peer-reviewed, and for other astronomers to weigh in on what may be causing this, the team is hoping to have the James Webb Space Telescope take additional images of the supernova to help gather more data about this interesting phenomenon.

Space never ceases to surprise us.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about a second giant hole has opened up on the sun’s surface. Here’s what it means.