Rare supernova from 10 billion years ago may reveal the secret of dark energy

Astronomers may have found an exciting new clue about dark energy—the mysterious force driving the universe’s accelerating expansion. They discovered an extraordinarily bright supernova from more than 10 billion years ago whose light was bent and magnified by a foreground galaxy, creating multiple images through gravitational lensing. Because the light from each image traveled slightly different paths, it arrived at Earth at different times, letting scientists effectively watch different moments of the same cosmic explosion simultaneously.