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In 1964, Refsdal hypothesized that a supernova whose light traversed multiple paths around a strong gravitational lens could be used to measure the rate of cosmic expansion. We report the discovery of such a system. In Hubble Space Telescope imaging, we have found four images of a single supernova forming an Einstein cross configuration around a redshift z = 0.54 elliptical galaxy in the MACS J1149.6+2223 cluster. The cluster's gravitational potential also creates multiple images of the z = 1.49 spiral supernova host galaxy, and a future appearance of the supernova elsewhere in the cluster field is expected. The magnifications and staggered arrivals of the supernova images probe the cosmic expansion rate, as well as the distribution of matter in the galaxy and cluster lenses.

Gravitationally magnified images of a faint galaxy from only 500 million years after the Big Bang suggest that galaxies of that age may be the dominant source of the radiation responsible for the re-ionization of the intergalactic medium. A young galaxy captured by a cosmic lens Young galaxies at a cosmic age of less than 500 million years remain largely unexplored because they are at or beyond the sensitivity limits of current large telescopes. This paper reports the use of strong gravitational lensing from a massive cluster of galaxies to observe a galaxy from the early Universe, at a redshift of z ≈ 9.6, equivalent to a cosmic age of approximately 490 million years. The authors suggest that because faint galaxies seem to be abundant at such a young cosmic age they are probably the dominant source for the early re-ionization of the intergalactic medium. Re-ionization of the intergalactic medium occurred in the early Universe at redshift z  ≈ 6–11, following the formation of the first generation of stars 1 . Those young galaxies (where the bulk of stars formed) at a cosmic age of less than about 500 million years ( z  ≲ 10) remain largely unexplored because they are at or beyond the sensitivity limits of existing large telescopes. Understanding the properties of these galaxies is critical to identifying the source of the radiation that re-ionized the intergalactic medium. Gravitational lensing by galaxy clusters allows the detection of high-redshift galaxies fainter than what otherwise could be found in the deepest images of the sky 2 . Here we report multiband observations of the cluster MACS J1149+2223 that have revealed (with high probability) a gravitationally magnified galaxy from the early Universe, at a redshift of z = 9.6 ± 0.2 (that is, a cosmic age of 490 ± 15 million years, or 3.6 per cent of the age of the Universe). We estimate that it formed less than 200 million years after the Big Bang (at the 95 per cent confidence level), implying a formation redshift of ≲14. Given the small sky area that our observations cover, faint galaxies seem to be abundant at such a young cosmic age, suggesting that they may be the dominant source for the early re-ionization of the intergalactic medium.

According to the standard cold dark matter (CDM) cosmology, the structure of dark halos including those of galaxy clusters reflects their mass accretion history. Older clusters tend to be more concentrated than younger clusters. Their structure, represented by the characteristic radius r s and mass M s of the Navarro–Frenk–White (NFW) density profile, is related to their formation time. In this study, we showed that r s , M s , and the X-ray temperature of the intracluster medium (ICM), T X , form a thin plane in the space of ( log r s , log M s , log T X ) . This tight correlation indicates that the ICM temperature is also determined by the formation time of individual clusters. Numerical simulations showed that clusters move along the fundamental plane as they evolve. The plane and the cluster evolution within the plane could be explained by a similarity solution of structure formation of the universe. The angle of the plane shows that clusters have not achieved “virial equilibrium” in the sense that mass/size growth and pressure at the boundaries cannot be ignored. The distribution of clusters on the plane was related to the intrinsic scatter in the halo concentration–mass relation, which originated from the variety of cluster ages. The well-known mass–temperature relation of clusters ( M Δ ∝ T X 3 / 2 ) can be explained by the fundamental plane and the mass dependence of the halo concentration without the assumption of virial equilibrium. The fundamental plane could also be used for calibration of cluster masses.

The most massive galaxies and the richest clusters are believed to have emerged from regions with the largest enhancements of mass density 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 relative to the surrounding space. Distant radio galaxies may pinpoint the locations of the ancestors of rich clusters, because they are massive systems associated with ‘overdensities’ of galaxies that are bright in the Lyman-α line of hydrogen 5 , 6 , 7 . A powerful technique for detecting high-redshift galaxies is to search for the characteristic ‘Lyman break’ feature in the galaxy colour, at wavelengths just shortwards of Lyα, which is due to absorption of radiation from the galaxy by the intervening intergalactic medium. Here we report multicolour imaging of the most distant candidate 7 , 8 , 9 protocluster, TN J1338–1942 at a redshift z ≈ 4.1. We find a large number of objects with the characteristic colours of galaxies at that redshift, and we show that this excess is concentrated around the targeted dominant radio galaxy. Our data therefore indicate that TN J1338–1942 is indeed the most distant cluster progenitor of a rich local cluster, and that galaxy clusters began forming when the Universe was only ten per cent of its present age.

In this study, we show that the characteristic radius rs, mass Ms, and the X-ray temperature, TX, of galaxy clusters form a thin plane in the space of (log rs, log Ms, log TX). This tight correlation indicates that the cluster structure including the temperature is affected by the formation time of individual clusters. Numerical simulations show that clusters move along the fundamental plane as they evolve. The plane and the cluster evolution within the plane can be explained by a similarity solution of structure formation. The angle of the plane shows that clusters have not achieved “virial equilibrium”. The details of this study are written in Fujita et al. (2018a,b).

We summarize the past four decades of astrophysics and exoplanet direct imaging mission concept studies, technology developments, and scientific progress that have led to the initiation of the Habitable Worlds Observatory project by NASA.

We present new observations of the cosmic ultraviolet background (CUVB) at high Galactic latitudes (\\(|b| > 40^{\\circ}\\)), made using the Alice UV spectrograph on board the New Horizons spacecraft. These observations were taken at about 57 AU from the Sun, outside much of the foreground emission affecting previous missions, and allowed a new determination of the spectrum of the CUVB between 912 -- 1100~\\AA\\ and 1400 -- 1800~\\AA. We found a linear correlation between the CUVB and the Planck E(B~-~V) with offsets at zero-reddening of \\(221 \\pm 11\\) photon units at 1000~\\AA\\ and \\(264 \\pm 24\\) \\photu\\ at 1500~\\AA\\ (\\(4.4 \\pm 0.2\\) nW m\\(^{-2}\\) sr\\(^{-1}\\) at 1000~\\AA\\ and \\(5.3 \\pm 0.5\\) nW m\\(^{-2}\\) sr\\(^{-1}\\) at 1500~\\AA). The former is the first firm detection of the offset in the range 912 -- 1100 \\AA\\ while the latter result confirms previous results from \\galex, showing that there is little emission from the Solar System from 1400 -- 1800 \\AA. About half of the offset may be explained by known sources (the integrated light of unresolved galaxies, unresolved stars, emission from ionized gas, and two-photon emission from warm hydrogen in the halo) with the source of the remaining emission as yet unidentified. There is no detectable emission below the Lyman limit with an upper limit of \\(3.2 \\pm 3.0\\) photon units.

In 1964, Refsdal hypothesized that a supernova whose light traversed multiple paths around a strong gravitational lens could be used to measure the rate of cosmic expansion. We report the discovery of such a system. In Hubble Space Telescope imaging, we have found four images of a single supernova forming an Einstein cross configuration around a redshift z = 0.54 elliptical galaxy in the MACS J1149.6+2223 cluster. The cluster's gravitational potential also creates multiple images of the z = 1.49 spiral supernova host galaxy, and a future appearance of the supernova elsewhere in the cluster field is expected. The magnifications and staggered arrivals of the supernova images probe the cosmic expansion rate, as well as the distribution of matter in the galaxy and cluster lenses.

Counting the number and brightness of ionizing radiation sources out to a redshift of z ~ 1.2 will revolutionize our understanding of how the ionizing background is created and sustained by the embedded growth of meta-galactic structures. The sheer number of sparsely separated targets required to efficiently construct redshift binned luminosity functions is industrial in scale, driving the need for low spectral resolution multi-object spectroscopy (MOS) with a short wavelength cut-off ~ 1000 Å, a sensitivity in the far-UV to better than 30 abmag, and an instantaneous field-of-view ~ (2')\\(^2\\). A MOS on Habitable Worlds Observatory is the only instrument that could conceivably carry out such an ambitious observing program. This program will quantify how much of the ionizing radiation produced by galaxies is attenuated by intervening neutral H, He and dust, and how much escapes to maintain the universe in a mostly ionized state.

The gravitationally lensed Supernova Refsdal appeared in multiple images, produced through gravitational lensing by a massive foreground galaxy cluster. After the supernova appeared in 2014, lens models of the galaxy cluster predicted an additional image of the supernova would appear in 2015, which was subsequently observed. We use the time delays between the images to perform a blinded measurement of the expansion rate of the Universe, quantified by the Hubble constant (H0). Using eight cluster lens models, we infer H0 = 64.8 +4.4-4.3 km / s / Mpc, where Mpc is the megaparsec. Using the two models most consistent with the observations, we find H0 = 66.6 +4.1-3.3 km / s / Mpc. The observations are best reproduced by models that assign dark-matter halos to individual galaxies and the overall cluster.