Summary, almost four years ago, astronomers found a supernova, PS1-10afx, that was 30 times brighter than any other of it's class. They didn't see any abnormalities that would account of this huge magnitude difference and were confused. However, this mystery has now been solved. Then Dr Robert Quimby and his team had an idea that proved fruitful. They looked to see if we were seeing this supernova through a gravitational lens. As it turns out, there was an entire galaxy directly in from of the supernova that was bending the light around it and magnifying it. PS1-10afx is just a normal Type 1A supernova.
This is will be useful knowledge for measuring cosmic distances since objects of known brightness like Type 1A supernovae are a good constant against which we can measure other objects in the night sky.
BBC News
Science
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