Astronomers Discover a Bright Supernova Using Gravitational Lensing for the First Time

An artist’s interpretation of light from a supernova passing through a gravitational lens, reaching Earth at different times. Credit: Oskar Klein Center, University of Stockholm / Samuel Avraham & Joel Johansson.

An international team of astronomers using a combination of ground-based telescopes, including the W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island, has discovered the first-ever spatially resolved, gravitationally lensed superluminous supernova. The object, dubbed SN 2025wny, offers a rare look at a stellar cataclysm from the early Universe and provides a striking confirmation of Einstein’s theory of general relativity.