A supernova can be seen in four separate images--an optical illusion resulting from the intervening galaxy’s gravitational forces bending and projecting the light rays behind it into a dispersed pattern.

A supernova, a massive explosion of a star, has been recorded for the first time in multiples of four due to gravitational forces. 

In a study led by the University of California, Berkeley, in collaboration with institutions around the word, astronomers were able to identify four images of the same supernova forming what is known as an Einstein cross. 

The images are an optical illusion resulting from an effect called gravitational lensing, where in this case the light from the supernova in the background has been distorted aroun