Astronomy Colloquium

Although discussed in the literature for many decades, gravitational lensing of supernovae has only recently become observationally feasible. Massive galaxy clusters used as nature's own telescopes provide the amplifying power that allows us to find fainter and more distant supernovae, beyond reach of unaided man-made facilities.

We have also started to find multiply imaged strongly lensed supernovae, potentially a useful technique to provide accurate measurements of the expansion rate of the universe. Strongly lensed supernovae probe smaller angular scales than most other strongly lensed systems known to date, while still detectable without the need for high spatial-resolution imaging. Wide-field time domain surveys like ZTF and LSST, as well as the next generation of space instruments, make the prospects very exciting.