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TRANSIENT SKY

Cosmic flashing lights

Gravitational lensing is becoming increasingly important to the study of distant galaxies and dark matter. Two groups have recently detected transient events emanating from far-away lensed galaxies, apparently due to extreme magnification of individual stars.

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Fig. 1: An image of galaxy cluster Abell S1063.

NASA, ESA, Jennifer Lotz (STScI).

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Correspondence to Rosanne Di Stefano.

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Di Stefano, R. Cosmic flashing lights. Nat Astron 2, 280–281 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0416-1

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